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    Beneath the Mountain: A Novel
    Beneath the Mountain: A Novel
    Beneath the Mountain: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    Beneath the Mountain: A Novel

    Written by Luca D'Andrea

    Narrated by Charles Constant

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In Luca D’Andrea’s atmospheric and brilliant thriller, set in a small mountain community in the majestic Italian Dolomites, an outsider must uncover the truth about a triple murder that has gone unsolved for thirty years.

    New York City native Jeremiah Salinger is one half of a hot-shot documentary-making team. He and his partner, Mike, made a reality show about roadies that skyrocketed them to fame. But now Salinger’s left that all behind, to move with his wife, Annelise, and young daughter, Clara, to the remote part of Italy where Annelise grew up—the Alto Adige.

    Nestled in the Dolomites, this breathtaking, rural region that was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire remains more Austro than Italian. Locals speak a strange, ancient dialect—Ladino—and root for Germany (against Italy) in the world cup. Annelise’s small town—Siebenhoch—is close-knit to say the least and does not take kindly to out-of-towners. When Salinger decides to make a documentary about the mountain rescue group, the mission goes horribly awry, leaving him the only survivor. He blames himself, and so—it seems—does everyone else in Siebenhoch. Spiraling into a deep depression, he begins having terrible, recurrent nightmares. Only his little girl Clara can put a smile on his face.

    But when he takes Clara to the Bletterbach Gorge—a canyon rich in fossil remains—he accidentally overhears a conversation that gives his life renewed focus. In 1985, three students were murdered there, their bodies savaged, limbs severed and strewn by a killer who was never found. Although Salinger knows this is a tightlipped community, one where he is definitely persona non grata, he becomes obsessed with solving this mystery and is convinced it is all that can keep him sane. And as Salinger unearths the long kept secrets of this small town, one by one, the terrifying truth is eventually revealed about the horrifying crime that marked an entire village.

    Completely engrossing and deeply atmospheric, Beneath The Mountain is a thriller par excellence.

    “Can be compared (with no fear of hyperbole) to Stephen King and Jo Nesbø.”—La Repubblica

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 2, 2018
    ISBN9780062790781
    Author

    Luca D'Andrea

    Luca D’Andrea lives with his family in Bolzano, Italy, where he was born in 1979. Sanctuary is his second thriller. His first, Beneath the Mountain, was published in thirty countries.

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    Reviews for Beneath the Mountain

    3.5/5

    101 ratings18 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A fabulous thriller from Start to Finish. Have added this fantastic book to my Read Again List and look forward to the next book from this remarkable Author.
    • 5/5
      This is a twisty thriller set in a small alpine village. Just when you think you’ve got it all worked out, there’s another twist. The setting is a character in itself, sinister and dangerous. The writing is engaging and praise is also due to the translator. There were times when I’d wonder where the story was going and if we’d ever get there, but looking back, it’s clear that all of the events were necessary for the finale.
    • 5/5
      D'Andrea's Beneath the Mountain may not be for every reader of suspense, but I thought it was absolutely breathtaking.Full of atmosphere and mystery, as well as believable characters who pull the story along just as much as the plot, this is a masterfully crafted novel of literary suspense. It's not the typical suspense novel, it's true--much of the tension comes and goes, and it's undeniably tied to the struggling protagonist, but D'Andrea does such a gorgeous job of building the novel's peaks and allowing the characters to breathe their own lives, I found the book impossible to put down.For readers who want character-driven suspense and mystery, that characters as much about subtleties of character as it does high-octane drama (though it's got that to spare also), I'd absolutely recommend this book. It kept me guessing, and it's made me a fan of the author for life.Absolutely recommended.
    • 3/5
      A good if not wholly convincing effort at a convoluted crime story with not go much twists as unfortunate red herrings. I’ve not been convinced by it but found it easy & relatively fun to read. The main protagonists I didn’t really find that sympathetic & I found some of the premise especially with regards to geological throwback s to be unconvincing. Overall a holiday read but nothing more.
    • 4/5
      A New York born screenwriter of reality TV comes to the Tyrol to live with his wife and daughter. When disaster takes the lives of the rescue crew he's filming - partly due to his pushing his way into filming a rescue - he becomes obsessed with the mountain, and with a gruesome multiple murder that remains unsolved for some 20 years. D'Andrea's mystery/thriller is a great offering from a first-time novelist that brings this relatively unknown region and people to life with captivating story-telling that kept me up on night to finish it!
    • 3/5
      I received a copy of Beneath the Mountain by Luca D’Andrea from The LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Beneath the Mountain is a thriller translated to English from Italian. The main character was a documentary film maker who moved with his wife and daughter to the wife’s hometown in Northern Italy. I found it very difficult to read even though thrillers and mysteries are my favorite genre. I do appreciate being given the opportunity to read a new author.
    • 4/5
      4 starsThis is a somewhat unusual book. It opens with an American tv documentary producer, Salinger, following an alpine rescue crew in the Italian Dolomite Alps and nearly getting killed by taking risks. Then we follow him as he recovers from the psychological trauma and he decides he has to occupy his time by investigating some unsolved murders in 1985, over 30 years ago. He is dealing with nightmares and flashbacks to his time in the ice crevasse with a sound in his brain that he calls "The Beast."He gradually pieces together what happened that day, but it is not until the end that the real killer is revealed. There are a few red herrings and sometimes the story bogged down in his self pity. He almost destroys his marriage and almost becomes an alcoholic in the process. However, I did like the story and the ending which had a paranormal twist.One quote, Salinger on documentary publicist: "I'll give him this: Total Asshole knew his job. He created a storm that, unfortunately, broke on my nose.Literally."I thank LibraryThing, Harper, and Luca D'Andrea for sending me this book.
    • 3/5
      Much of Luca D’Andrea’s thriller, BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN, does not ring true. The main flaws seem to be characters whose motivations are not very believable and an outcome that seems to arise from out of nowhere. Translated novels can be problematic, but these issues seem intrinsic. Jeremiah Salinger, a documentary film whiz, escapes a multiple fatality accident caused by an avalanche, but strangely concludes that the deaths were entirely his fault. The unusual way he choses to cope with his case of PTSD is to avoid taking prescribed medications and instead becoming obsessed with solving a cold case where three locals were brutally hacked to death while mountain hiking during a storm. Salinger is the only character who is well developed in the novel. The first person narrative style depicts him as excessively self-involved, rather erratic and moderately unlikable. His wife, Annalise, decides inexplicably that the perfect solution to his problem would be a marital separation. Clara, his young daughter, seems to be his only solace. However, D’Andrea depicts her as almost too cute to be real. Her game of counting the letters in words and making her father guess the words is overused and quickly becomes annoying. Most of Salinger’s investigation involves off-the-record conversations with members of the Siebenhoch community. Most of these seem forced, unrealistic, and inconclusive. D’Andrea overuses this device making for a slow and uneven plot narrative. One cannot reveal much about the plot’s outcome without spoiling the reading experience. Yet suffice it to say, the reveal has little buildup and occurs in a scene that seems both contrived and surreal.Despite the lack of a motive, Salinger uncovers plenty of potential suspects during his investigation. The principal one is a deranged paleontologist with some strange notions about ancient creatures still existing in the nearby caves. A wealthy developer who wants to build a visitors center on unstable land also seems suspicious. It is needless to point out, that just about everyone in Siebenhoch knows everyone else and a lot of dirt is dished out to the outsider during all of those clandestine conversations. Even the men who attempted to rescue the three victims during a hellacious storm are fair game. Two have died (one a suicide and the other an alcoholic), another is the local forest ranger, and the forth is Werner, Salinger’s doting father-in-law. D’Andrea also amps up the terror by suggesting that an actual monster may indeed exist in the caves and could have been responsible for the brutal mutilation murders.The novel’s strength is its setting and the dark mood that evokes. D’Andrea gives the reader a good sense of an unfamiliar region that is quite beautiful and interesting but isolated. He sets the action in the small Italian village of Siebenhoch in the Alto Adige region of the Dolomites. The inhabitants would like to see more tourism but seem to really want to keep their secrets. The nearby Bletterbach gorge actually exists and is known to attract tourists interested in geological history and fossils. Foul weather, dark canyons, and mysterious caves abound in the novel. D’Andrea exploits all of this with skill and obvious familiarity.
    • 4/5
       (Beneath) the Mountain is a masterful thriller set amongst the Dolomites of Northern Italy. The horror is small town, personal, and prehistoric/primordial with ample geology in play (yeah, in a thriller). Almost compulsive, the mystery was front and center yet also not really the important part. Really enjoyed it!
    • 2/5
      Oh, delightful: another book in which the woman, who really ought to be central to the plot, is instead a Sexy Lamp for the male hero to worry over and patronize. It's a halfway decent thriller until the core plot revelation, at which point it became exhausting.
    • 4/5
      I couldn't put this book down! It was so full of suspense and drama and mystery and beautiful descriptions that I didn't want to stop reading for even a second. I loved the mystery, I loved the main character, who was so real and human that I would definitely have believed it if this was based on a true story. The Bletterbach killings could be in the news tomorrow and I, too, would become obsessed with solving the mystery. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good, well-written mystery.
    • 3/5
      “Beneath The Mountain” by Luca D’Andrea is an atmospheric and at times disturbing novel. Set in a remote German speaking town in northern Italy where the mountains themselves become a eerie character and the towns people are alternately folks and murderous. The story tells of an American Documentary filmmaker married to a woman from the area and his investigation of a decades old unsolved triple murder. The book starts with a accident he endures while filming his latest piece in the surrounding mountains, and then his obsession with the unsolved case as he recuperates there with his family an father in law. D’Andrea is from the area in question and imbues his novel with wonderful descriptions of the area and the people that live there. The claustrophobia of the ice mountains and the town itself were fantastic. The characters so well written that you were generally concerned about what was happening to them. But the final act where he reveals the solution of the unsolved case left a little to be desired, the culprit seemed wrong and a sub plot vaguely written that involved prehistoric animals haunting the mountains seemed unnecessary. I still would recommend the book, as he is a wonderful writer.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It reminds me of the writing of Dan Simmons. A very good thriller, although the story is a little far fetched and long winded at times, it still grabs you from beginning to end.
    • 4/5
      his book was interesting. It started off a bit slow for me, but then picked up as the book went on. The mystery kept me hooked until the end. I had a hard time believing that no one figured out before Salinger what happened or even bothered to look a bit further into it. However, the descriptions of the mountain and small town made it sound like a beautiful, cold place I would love to visit. Highly recommend for fans of slow burn mysteries.
    • 5/5
      This review was done as an Early Reviewer.This is a story of a man obsessed, the descendant of immigrants who emigrated to Brooklyn, NY, eventually winding up back in Europe when he weds an Italian beauty and returns to her hometown in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The tale unwinds in the mountainous region bordering Austria. Jeremiah Salinger is curious by nature, in fact, he appears to be driven by a relentless need to know. Unfortunately, this drive has severe consequences for him, his wife, daughter, in fact, for almost everyone with whom he has contact in his daily life in Siebenhoch. Stories of fearsome caverns, tales of long-dead witches, disappearing communities, and dead miners intrigue him and he is compelled to investigate. It is never clear if he searches because he hopes to gain materials for a story, or if he is simply incapable of resisting his compulsion to turn over rocks to find answers to his questions, regardless of what might result. Salinger gets whiff of an unsolved 30-year old murder case and becomes entwined in a matter many would rather have forgotten. The facts and circumstances are skillfully teased out by the author, Luca D'Andrea, bit by bit. Salinger continues to peel away the layers upon layers, often oblivious to his own welfare, and usually concerned about others, but mostly after the fact. This story will draw you in and keep you there. It has more twists and turns than the mountain switchbacks in the Dolomites and succeeds fully in revealing time and place, with well-drawn characters and settings. Well worth the read, Luca D'Andrea has done a masterful job with his first thriller!
    • 5/5
      When a debut thriller appears that sold to thirty countries within a month, became a bestseller in the author’s home country of Italy and in Germany, and was greeted with breathless praise like “can be compared (with no fear of hyperbole) to Stephen King and Jo Nesbø,” you know you’re in for quite a ride.D’Andrea delivers. The Mountain is set in the northern Italian province of South Tyrol, in the village of Siebenhoch, whose Italian residents speak German. Siebenhoch is near the end of the eight-kilometer Bletterbach gorge in the jagged Dolomite mountains. Hikers are warned they enter the steep terrain “at their own risk,” because of rockfalls, mudslides, freezing water, and flash floods. The geological characteristics and history of the gorge are essential to D’Andrea’s story, anchoring it to a reality that could not have existed anywhere else.Thirty years before the novel begins, three experienced hikers—Kurt, Evi, and Marcus—trekked deep into the gorge and were set upon first by an unusually powerful storm, then by one or more unknown assailants who hacked their bodies into pieces. By the time a four-man rescue team arrived, any forensic evidence was washed away or lost in the mud. The deaths of these three young people reverberated through the community, affecting, disastrously, not only the men who found them but also their families. One time or another suspicion has fallen on a disappeared paleontologist with some bizarre theories that Evi thoroughly discredited, on a wealthy developer who built a visitor center on land her analyses had shown was unstable, on various members of the insular community, even on the rescuers themselves.Now, American television and filmwriter Jeremiah Salinger, his wife Annelise, and their five-year-old daughter Clara have relocated to Siebenhoch. The fresh location inspires a new television series about the work of Dolomite Mountain Rescue. As its name implies, the rescue service comes to the aid of stranded tourists, injured hikers, and others in distress among the precipitous peaks. Jeremiah is party to a disastrous helicopter crash that kills four rescuers and a tourist, but his physical injuries are nothing compared to a serious case of PTSD, compounded by guilt and fear, that impairs his judgment. The booze doesn’t help. To distract himself, he starts investigating the 1985 Bletterbach murders, a deeper, more dangerous rabbit hole than the one he’s already in.D’Andrea frequently introduces new information through the device of a community member offering to tell Jeremiah a story, which is a powerful enticement for the reader as well. Especially engaging is Jeremiah’s relationship with daughter Clara. Their word game—she loves to spell—is a theme throughout, which becomes ironic when, despite his obvious devotion to her, he puts his off-the-books investigation before even her.
    • 5/5
      "That’s how it always is. In the ice, first you hear the voice of the Beast, then you die."What was beneath the mountain and what really happened in Italy to the three young people murdered on April 28, 1985? Jeremiah Salinger was determined to find out. He was a writer from New Jersey who partnered with his friend Mike to make documentaries for the new series, Road Crew. After the success of their first documentary, they needed to find another masterpiece and his wife, Annelise’s native German village, Siebenhoch, in Italy, was the ticket. Little did he know that the documentary on the Dolomite Mountain Rescue would stir up an unsolved murder that he was determined to solve.See my complete review at The Eclectic Review
    • 5/5
      BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN by Luca D'Andrea is a magnificent piece of suspense writing. Set in the Dolomites, that portion of the Alps that stretch through northern Italy, not only does this book offer an exotic location that I can't remember reading about before, but a high quality thriller wrapped around a mystery. Jeremiah Salinger is the writer half of the hottest documentary film team currently in the public's eye. With their show about the life of rock band roadies, he and his partner Mike have made enough money to allow Salinger to leave New York and settle in the small town in the Dolomites where his wife, Annelise, is from. There, along with their daughter, the precocious 5 year old Clara, he hopes to have a quiet life. But when Mike calls telling Salinger their contract calls for more documentaries, he has an idea. Why not profile the Mountain Rescue Team his father in law, Werner, started thirty years before. Great idea they agree, but due to complications, Salinger has to fill in for Mike who normally is behind the camera. During the filming a horrible accident occurs, destroying the rescue team, leaving Salinger the only survivor. And we haven't even gotten to the mystery yet. There was a triple murder on the mountain years before, a killing that has haunted the four members of the rescue team that found the mutilated bodies. It is an event that shades everything that has happened in the region since. And it is something that Salinger feels compelled to solve because finding the truth may help him destroy the mountain demons that plague his sleep and haunts his days. This is a rich psychological novel, deep in the horrors that linger from failed rescue attempts, but written in such a manner that the darkness slowly envelopes you, forcing you onward in the convoluted rationals and the ultimate truth. Fast paced and alluring from the first page, you may be stunned to find the first hints of the real story hidden almost a third of the way into the book. Up to then you will learn about the history and nature of a seldom viewed corner of the world that is both beautiful and deadly all by itself. This is a powerhouse first novel and I hope it id just the start of a long series of thrillers from this gifted writer.