Black Mountain

January 31, 2000
In 1991, before Standiford launched his popular and acclaimed John Deal thriller series (Presidential Deal, etc.), he published Spill, an undistinguished novel about environmental disaster in Yellowstone. Now he's written another non-Deal novel. It, too, is set in Wyoming, in the Absaroka wilderness, and, though it boasts vigorous writing with lots of action, it, like Spill, lacks the pungent edge of the Deal stories. Standiford's new hero is Richard Corrigan, a NYC transit cop who takes down a homeless man apparently threatening New York governor Fielding Dawson. In reward, Dawson invites Corrigan to join him and 15 others, including a film crew and pretty USA Magazine reporter Dara Wylie, on a highly publicized foray into the Absaroka. In Wyoming, meanwhile, a pair of hired killers, one man, one woman, are--for reasons revealed only at novel's end--plotting to wipe out the Dawson expedition. They begin by blowing up the plane that deposits the party deep in the mountains. As expedition members struggle by foot back to civilization, they die a few at a time--two are caught in an avalanche, several tumble into a gorge when a bridge collapses. Each mishap seems accidental, but soon Corrigan and the other survivors suspect they're being stalked. More are murdered during a blizzard, leading to a final confrontation between the killers and Corrigan, and to a poorly contrived twist ending. Standiford makes terrific use of his spectacular setting, and his characters carry some depth despite their familiarity, but the plotline is so linear--now one death, now another--that it approaches tedium, despite tense sequences. This is a respectable thriller, but for Standiford fans it's only a so-so deal.

Mystery and adventure fans will love this latest effort from one of the masters of the genre. It's the tale of a popular New York governor's macho expedition into the Wyoming wilderness to show the country he's man enough to be president. Narrator Richard Ferrone is masterful. He has the perfect, hard-boiled, slightly grizzled voice that is standard issue for this story, but he adds great characters and a wonderful dramatic sense. Ferrone avoids predictable traps by using subtle vocal inflections to keep us off guard, and he also keeps us guessing about who is behind the mayhem. Listen especially to his descriptions of the great Wyoming scenery. He makes it sound breathtaking. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine