Obsession about a mysterious past event turns into an unexpected horror. I enjoy and appreciate the writing style of Jeremy Bates, like his descriptive narrative, his casual voice, and I have read most of his novels, but this story leaps ahead of the others in the Scariest Places series due to the intense historical background that was cleverly added as a thread against the current day's story plot.
 
The true historical event that happened in the Russian mountains back in 1959 that was named the Dyatlov Pass Incident, was well researched and smoothly intertwined that tale (which Bates totally expanded creatively) with the main story of the protagonist's search for answers. It was more than a search though, the protagonist was obsessed with the original mystery, compelled to do the trip.
 
More important, the old mystery was intriguing by itself, then add the current story of an obsessive man trying to come to grips with demons by throwing his all into a crazy expedition, dragging his BFF along, meeting up with unlikely climbing mates, who of course all have a reason for being there as well, and it makes for a stew of explosive scenes. There were moments I felt sorry for his dearest friend who faithfully followed Whitey and hoped things hadn't turned out the way they did for him, but .... it is a horror story.I could not have predicted the action scenes with the racing for your life kind of momentum, literally the story took me by surprise. As original and unseemly the characters who banded together were, the last few scenes were even more unexpected.
 
There were extra horrors added to the story when the main character and friends stumbled across additional mysterious and deadly places, while on their way to the final peak/pass.
 
I enjoyed reading this story very much and highly recommend this novel. ( )

An American true-crime writer has traveled across the world to follow the footsteps of the nine Russian hikers who slashed open their tent in the middle of the night to flee into a blizzard in subpolar temperatures. They all died, some of them violent deaths, but nobody knows exactly what happened.

I found this book to be as strong as the first book, The Suicide Forest, in Bates' World's Scariest Places. The Dyatlov Pass Incident happened in 1959 and of course I had to Google to find out what went on and what's true compared to what Bates has come up with himself. The author has created a great story. What's been covered up? What's really out there? The remote location, the weather, what could go wrong.. it's scary because you just never know. A few parts in this book I found the author went overboard in regards to some situations the American author, Corey, found himself in. It seemed unnecessary and took away from the flow of the story but overall this was really good and definitely interesting.

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I liked the first four books, but this is so ridiculous. There is real photos from the Russian mountain mystery, and at first it's not so bad. But when Corey goes on the exploration, it goes off the rails. Now if you like B monster movies, go for it. But there is a scene that reminds me of Jurassic Park 2. The baby dino is bleeding all over the place, and the idiot specialists put it in the trailer! ( )

Delighted in Suicide Forest (the first book in this series) not only because of its interesting conceit -- a story set in a real frightening and uncanny place -- but because it was well written and paced. Since I have a special fascination with the Dyatlov Incident, I vaulted to the fifth book in the series and came away disillusioned. First, the story is a hodge-podge of pieces that don't quite fit and are forced together. The fictionalized backstory of the ill-fated 1959 expedition is the best of the book. The rest? Unappealing characters mired in a series of convenient but preposterous plot twists. Particular annoyances? A main but expendable character who speaks a patois that's not native to the writer. And a flask of booze that's never empty. ever. ( )