Beneath the Mountain

D’Andrea’s superb debut thriller mines the darkness that hides beneath the surface of Siebenhoch, a beautiful, remote Italian village. New Yorker Jeremiah Salinger, a documentary filmmaker, nearly loses his mind after he’s the only one to survive a disastrous shoot in the Dolomite mountains involving the region’s rescue group. With the support of his Italian wife, his five-year-old daughter, and his father-in-law, Salinger comes back from the brink. Meanwhile, he becomes obsessed with the never-solved murder and dismemberment of three students in the Bletterbach Gorge in 1985. His interest in the case comes to the attention of the local head of the forest rangers, who warns him not to dig up the past. Undeterred, Salinger unearths some sinister secrets, but revealing the truth could cost him his family and his life. D’Andrea makes excellent use of his unusual setting, its idiosyncratic denizens, and the troubled Salinger’s outsider status. A genuinely unexpected denouement hits like a freight train, perfectly bringing together all the pieces of a macabre, utterly riveting puzzle. Agent: Piergiorgio Nicolazzini, Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency. (Jan.)