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Title: Monteith's Mountains by Skip Brooks ISBN: 0-9713045-4-8 Publisher: High Country Publishers Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Not for the Weak of Heart
Comment: A superbly written yet chilling account bringing the history of the Appalachian mountains and the demented psychosis of a serial killer under one cover.

Skip Brook's writing style is unique, refreshing and very creative... the storyline however is an acquired taste which would probably be enjoyed most by fans of murder/mystery novels and books covering the gruesome acts of serial murderers like Ted Bundy.

Rating: 3
Summary: Great fun. . . .
Comment: A good read for a dark and stormy night (with a nod to Bulwer-Lytton there), or any time you might want a book evocative of one.

Rating: 4
Summary: An Intriguing Read
Comment: Skip Brooks's "Monteith's Mountains: Death Stalks the Southern Appalachians" covers a lot of ground; its range deals with a crucial time in Appalachian history, the development of the logging industry, and multiple individual stories -- stories of self-exploration and self-discovery.

Against the sublime backdrop of the rolling Great Smoky Mountains, themselves a powerful presence throughout the novel, Brooks artfully crafts his tale, seamlessly interweaving history with narrative and bringing to life an era long gone. Long before the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian mountains were a place where beauty and terror coexisted. The laws of humankind did not apply. It is into this surreal world that Brooks introduces the character of Walker Tom Monteith, a serial killer who hears the voice of Jesus.

Born to Black John Walker, a fiery preacher who had multiple wives and founded his own colony with his extensive family, Walker Tom Monteith was one of his many children. At a young age, Walker Tom experiences a "communion" with Jesus; blessed with what he interprets as a divine connection, Walker Tom proceeds to carry out his bloody path in life. He is a being without conscience, lurking in the darkness and luring his guileless victims towards their demise by preying on their weak human natures.

The other characters in the novel also play integral roles. Two primary characters are Taylor Henry and David Brant. Taylor, a small woman with tremendous business sense and a quest to fulfill her destiny in the Great Smokies, is a major player in the narrative structure. Her love for Brant, a half-Indian on his own spiritual quest -- and fleeing the wrath of Walker Tom after witnessing the latter commit murder -- gives a fairy tale quality to the story. And, as with many fairy tales, the narrative comes full circle in the end. Brant, representing the emerging world that created the Great Smoky Mountains we know and treasure today, is pitted against Walker Tom, a violent symbol of the era when no rules could exist within the mountain world and an individual lived by their own morals and convictions. The novel's ending juxtaposes the two sides to the personality of the Appalachians and leaves the reader with an appreciation of their solemn magnificence as well as the dangers hidden beneath the foliage.

Guaranteed to intrigue, Monteith's Mountains is an interesting sojourn through the Appalachians of a century ago and into the lives of the people who braved to make a life amidst their savage beauty.