Fallen Mountains

Fallen Mountains by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Amberjack Publishing: 3/5/19
eBook review copy; 256 pages
ISBN-13: 9781948705189

Fallen Mountains by Kimi Cunningham Grant is a very highly recommended novel of mystery and suspense.

Sheriff John "Red" Redifer is the only law enforcement official in the small town of Fallen Mountains, Pennsylvania. He is planning to turn in his letter of resignation the next day, but when Transom Shultz is reported to be missing, he knows that there may be many more complications beyond the obvious. Small towns are full of secrets that are always waiting to be exposed and Fallen Mountains has its share of them.

Sheriff Red is haunted by a case and cover-up from seventeen years ago and involved Transom. "Possum" was a victim at the hands of Transom at that time and may have sought revenge. Or could Chase, whose family land Transom bought to help Chase financially after his grandfather died, have taken matters into his own hand due to Transom's underhanded selling of timber and mineral rights. Or is Laney involved, the long-time friend of both Chase and Transom, who has her own reasons for not trusting Transom.

The characters are all finely drawn and portrayed as realistic, flawed people. They all have connections to each other and share a history. Loyalty comes into play for all the characters. Do you keep the secrets of the past or let them out, causing untold hurt and personal devastation? Some of these secrets could destroy individuals and others could devastate many people. The small town setting plays a huge role in the novel, because everyone knows everyone else and their background and history in the community.

This is a very well-written character driven atmospheric novel where the denouement is not obvious because of the tangled history of all the characters and the many secrets they are all harboring. The even pace of the revelations about the characters in the presentation allows the suspense to build incrementally and will keep you glued to the pages. The narrative covers the present investigation and incidents from the past. The final ending is intense and haunting.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Amberjack Publishing.