In this 4th book in the 'Nora Kelly' series, archaeologist Nora Kelly repatriates Indian remains and works with FBI Agent Corrie Swanson to solve an old mystery.
The book works fine as a standalone.
*****
Fifteen years ago, in 2008, nine young hikers - seven men and two women - didn't return from a winter expedition in the snow-covered Manzano mountains of New Mexico.
When search parties were sent out, the rescuers found the mountaineers' tent - containing their backpacks, outerwear, equipment, and other belongings - with no one inside. Oddly, the back of the tent had been sliced open from the inside, like an escape hatch.
A search of the area turned up the dispersed bodies of six hikers, four men and two women, who'd (apparently) fled the tent barefoot or in socks, wearing very little clothing.
The unfortunate adventurers suffered terribly: some were burned, some were missing body parts, some had broken bones, and they'd all been exposed to mild radiation. It appears the hikers fled the tent in a panic, and no one could explain why. Theories included space aliens; bigfoot; bears; foreigners; and so on. To add to the intrigue, three of the mountaineers weren't found at all, and their fate remained a mystery. Until now.....
In the present, two rowdy frat boys are careening through the New Mexico mountains in a blizzard; they crash their vehicle and hole up in a cave.
The boys get drunk and high, and when they lie down to go to sleep, the woozy guys find they're lying on top of two sets of human remains.
To investigate the cave and the remains, the FBI sends a new(ish) agent called Corinne Swanson (Corrie)......
......who's being mentored by Special Agent Clay Sharp.
The cave is near the home of an Indian tribe called the Pueblo of Isleta, which leads Corrie to wonder about the bones in the cave.
In fact, Corrie "could see right away, from the deep mahogany color of the bones, that they were old - almost certainly prehistoric." Suspecting the bones are Native American, Corrie calls her friend, Santa Fe archaeologist Nora Kelly, to examine the skeletons.
Nora determines the bones are indeed the remains of Pueblo Indians, and by law, the skeletons belong to the tribe. Nora makes it her business to repatriate the remains, against the express orders of the obnoxious, publicity-hungry local sheriff, and this causes all manner of trouble.
Meanwhile, a whole other mystery emerges. In the back of the cave, beyond the Indian bones, Nora found the bodies of two of the male hikers who disappeared in 2008. One young man seems to have viciously stabbed his companion, then killed himself. This leads to the re-opening of the 2008 case, with Corrie as lead investigator, guided by her mentor.
Of course one hiker is still missing, the one who had the diary and camera, and Corrie makes it her number one priority to find him.
In the meantime, the families of the nine dead hikers have a support group, and they've convinced themselves there's been a cover up. The group demonstrates and agitates to be told 'the truth', and in fact they're not entirely wrong.
It seems 'higher ups' are trying to quash Corrie's current investigation, perhaps because Kirtland Air Force Base - which is the largest storage facility for nuclear weapons in the world - occupies the entire northern part of the Manzano mountains.
In any case, Corrie ignores the order to stop investigating, and she and Nora proceed on their own.
This leads to an exciting, action-packed climax, and to the truth about what really happened. I found the novel engaging, though one important plot point is too unrealistic in my view. Still, this is fiction, and I'll acknowledge author's license.
In the afterword, the authors explain that this story was inspired by a REAL LIFE occurrence called the Dyatlov Pass Incident, in which nine Soviet hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains in early February 1959. The Soviet occurrence was very like the plot of this book, and though professional and amateur sleuths investigated the Dyatlov case ad infinitum - and had many theories - the tragedy has never been satisfactorily elucidated. An American documentary filmmaker, Donnie Eichar, wrote a book about the Dyatlov Pass Incident, called Dead Mountain.
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
Rating: 3.5 stars
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