‘Mortal Fall,’ by Christine CarboReview by Roger CottinghamThis is Montana writer Christine Carbo’s second mystery set in and around Glacier National Park.
In her initial offering, “The Wild Inside,” a dead man has been found chained to a tree and partially consumed by a grizzly bear. A strange and unusual way of dying.
For “Mortal Fall,” her second book, someone has fallen off the cliffs to their death along Going-to-the-Sun Road – a not too unusual summer occurrence in Glacier. What makes this a puzzle worth piecing together is the fact that the dead body belongs to an experienced and fairly well-known outdoorsman, “Wolfie” Sedgewick, a controversial wolverine researcher.
How and why Wolfie came to fall to his death is the big question you’ll be reading to find the answers about. But it’s not the whole juicy center of this mystery.
Carbo throws in a second dead body near the first, a connection with the brother of the investigating National Park police officer, some deeply buried secrets in said police officers past, and mysterious and sinister connection with a wilderness camp that works to straighten out problem teens. This all may sound a bit convoluted, but Carbo does a great job of keep the pages turning with just enough tension to make you feel that everything pieces together perfectly.
Christine Carbo is a mystery writer to watch. If her first two books are any indication, there is another terrific western mystery writer, besides CJ Box, that everyone will want to be reading.
Roger Cottingham is the Community Relations Manager at Maria’s Bookshop.
