Book Review: Terror Mountain by Gerry Griffiths

When Marcus Pike inherits his grandfather’s farm and moves his family out to the country, he has no idea there’s an unholy terror running rampant about the mountainous farming community. Sheriff Avery Anderson has seen the heinous carnage and the mutilated bodies. He’s also seen the giant footprints left in the snow—Bigfoot tracks.

Meanwhile, Cole Wagner, and his wife, Kate, are prospecting their gold claim farther up the valley, unaware of the impending dangers lurking in the woods as an early winter storm sets in. Soon the snowy countryside will run red with blood on TERROR MOUNTAIN. 

My Review: 
When his grandfather dies in a strange accident, Marcus is left his rural property in the will. He decides to move his reluctant wife Libby and young daughter Kaylee to start a new life there, despite the place being somewhat run down. Throwing himself into this new life leads to him repairing and building the property and being gifted chickens by a neighbour friend of his grandfather, the widow of his friend who died in a strange incident with him in the woods near the property. Now Kaylee is talking about the monster she has met that lives in the area near the house though Marcus does not believe her story.

Something is continually attacking the sheep of Lou and Arlene and is starting to show an interest in the humans in the house. Sheriff Avery helps Lou track the beast and they are startled to find Sasquatch tracks in the woods, and Avery fears that this might be what killed his friends. He decides to try and warn everyone in town about the danger but is reluctant to admit what the creature is, and few he confides in don't believe him. A sceptical hunter goes to check his traps and is about to come face to face with the beast. Local people are also going to come under threat as they encounter the monster.

Cole and Kate have a prospecting claim on the land just outside of town and have just noticed that claim jumpers are stealing from them. Cole decides to tackle the men, not realising that they are very much armed and dangerous and will not be giving up the stolen gold. One of the men has unpleasant designs on Kate and is determined to take the opportunity to attack her but none of them know that something is watching them all from the woods.A criminal moonshiner with a badly treated dog is also going to discover that bad things are about to happen on his property.

I enjoyed this book much more than the Cryptid series by the author and there is a subtle link to those books. However this is a stand-alone book and you don't need any knowledge of theat series to read this one. It's more that readers of Cryptid Country will recognise the monster. What I liked about this book is the great twist in the story, which made this a very satisfying read. There were plenty of attacks and tense moments in the book as there should be in a good creature feature book. There is also an attempt to let the reader get to know the personality and quirks of the main characters that we follow. 

On the subject of animal cruelty, we are told about the abused dog but we don't really see the incidents of abuse...SPOILER...and the cruel owner gets what is coming to him in more ways than one, which was also great-and the dog does not die!

Read December 2019
4 stars.