Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Review of the Mountains Bow Down

The Mountains Bow Down is a book in the Raleigh Harmon mystery novels by Sibella Giorello. Raleigh Harmon thought she was going to get a break from her hectic life as an FBI agent. A cruise to Alaska with her mother, aunt who believes in the power of rocks, and a woman who claims to be a clairvoyant. Okay, a little stress there, but the cruise should be relatively enjoyable, right?

Wrong!

A passenger goes missing, and soon a whole murder investigation ensues, and Raleigh kisses her vacation away. She must solve the case before the cruise ships gets to its destination- and a killer is let loose. The killer is somewhere on the ship, but who is it?
Oh, and then there's the family drama. Raleigh's mother still doesn't know Raleigh is an FBI agent, and Raleigh questions her own resolve to keep the truth from her mother in order to protect her. Things get ugly with Claire the clairvoyant, Raleigh begins to question her decision to marry her fiance, and her old nemesis and fellow FBI agent, Jack Stephanson, comes aboard to help her with the case. Could it get any crazier?

I absolutely love mysteries. To be honest, its not often I find a truly intriguing one. Usually I solve the mystery halfway through and skip to the end. Not so with The Mountains Bow Down. I was kept guessing all through the story, and I absolutely love the depth. Everything's not black and white, and Raleigh still has to deal with family issues while solving the case. I truly felt like this story could really happen. Even though the story is part of a series, I had absolutely no trouble understanding the story. The author does a good job of giving a background without actually telling you in long paragraphs about the character's history. The author's writing style is captivating and totally keeps the reader turning the pages. Raleigh is a tough FBI woman who still has her own insecurities and issues, and I absolutely love the depth the author gave to the character.

However, I did find some questionable content. While on the case, Raleigh briefly has a conversation with a autopsy expert about guys accidentally killing themselves for a not-appropriate thrill. Also, one of the suspects is a dealer of not-appropriate media. It made me thing, "Is this really necessary? Yes, I know the bad guys usually do bad things, but it didn't add much to the plot. I had to skip the gross parts, and that was somewhat saddening, because, apart from the other stuff this book was actually really good.

All in all, I rate this book three out of five stars.

Specifics (from amazon.com)
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (March 1, 2011)

About the author:
Sibella Giorello grew up in Alaska and majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College. After riding a motorcycle across the country, she worked as a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. She now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons. Find out more about Sibella and her other books at her website. www.sibellagiorello.com

Extras:

About The Mountains Bow Down CRUISE Giveaway:
Sibella’s celebrating the release of The Mountains Bow Down by giving away a Cruise prize pack worth over $500.00!

One Grand Prize winner will receive:
  • A $500 gift certificate toward the cruise of their choice from Vacations To Go.
  • The entire set of the Raleigh Harmon series.


Then tell your friends. And enter soon - the giveaway ends on 4/1! The winner will be announced at Sibella’s Raleigh Harmon Book Club Party on FB April 5th, 2011! Don’t miss the fun – prizes, books and gab!

About the Facebook Party: Join Sibella and fans of the Raleigh Harmon series on April 5th at 5:00 pm PST (6 MST, 7 CST & 8 EST) for a Facebook Book Club Party. Sibella will be giving away some fun prizes, testing your trivia skills and hosting a book chat about the Raleigh Harmon books. Please RSVP  and if you have questions you'd like to chat about - leave them on the Event page.
  


Note: Thanks to the Litfuse and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

Blessings,

3 comments:

Shelley said...

Great book review Prism! Sounds like a really interesting book! :)

Diane said...

I reviewed this book also and enjoyed it. Have a great week! :O)

Stacy at The Novel Life said...

fantastic review! and it was a great book!

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