The Mountains Bow Down

The Mountains Bow Down, by Sibella Giorello is part of a series about Raleigh Harmon, an FBI Special Agent. This book has Raleigh on a cruise ship in Alaska with her mom and her aunt, for the purpose of taking a break from her work and her personal life at home in Virginia. But, right away, the wife of a movie star (who is on the ship to shoot a movie) is found dead and Raleigh refuses to believe it is suicide. She sets out to prove the woman was murdered, and much to her dismay, the assistance sent to her is in the form of another agent, Jack Stephanson. The two are forced to work together to find the killer before the ship docks and a murderer goes free. Complicating matters is the fact that Raleigh’s mom, who has a fragile mental state, doesn’t know that her daughter is an FBI agent. There is also the matter of Raleigh’s fiancé, back in Virginia, who doesn’t appreciate that Raleigh is away, that she is too busy to contact him, or that she has been drawn into working on a case with a certain other FBI agent.

Whereas this book is part of a series, it does fine as a stand-alone novel, as well. This mystery had me baffled most of the way through, which was refreshing. But, at the same time, I will admit that it was not a real page-turner for me. It seemed to start out quickly, but then progressed kind of slowly, before being resolved rather suddenly at the end. I did appreciate that it was not a predictable plot, and I also liked that there was not a resolution to the romance side of the story. It seems likely that this part of Raleigh’s life was left unresolved for the purpose of continuation in future novels. I recently read this book as part of Thomas Nelson’s Book Sneeze Blogger program (http://booksneeze.com/) and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an intriguing mystery with a little romance thrown in.