Romantic Suspense Annotation: The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Author:

     

Charles Martin

Title:     The Mountain Between Us

Genre:      Romantic Suspense

Publication Date:     June 1, 2010

Number of Pages:     329

Geographical Setting:     Utah (Salt Lake City and Uintas Mountains), Florida (Jacksonville), Georgia (Atlanta)

Time period:     Early 2000s

Series:     Standalone Novel

Plot Summary:     Ben Payne (sports and pediatric surgeon and amateur mountain climber) and Ashley Knox (journalist and taekwondo black belt) meet at the Salt Lake City airport as a snowstorm approaches.  He needs to get home to Jacksonville to perform surgery and she needs to get home to Atlanta for her wedding.  When their flight is canceled, Ben decides to take a charter flight to Denver in hopes of getting a red-eye flight home from there, and he invites Ashley to join him.  After their pilot dies of a heart attack during the flight, they crash in the breathtakingly beautiful High Uintas Wilderness, with no sign of civilization in sight.  With serious injuries, no map, and little hope of being rescued, Ashley and Ben - accompanied by the pilot’s dog, “Tank” - must try to climb down the mountain and find help.  Will they survive this ordeal?  And what will they learn about each other - and themselves - along the way?

Subject Headings:     Survival, Airplane Crash Survival, Wilderness Survival, Surgeons, and Christian Fiction (Evergreen Indiana)

Appeal:

Pacing Fast, beginning with prologue describing a tense scene followed by several chapters detailing the steps that lead to that point in the story.  The bulk of the novel covers a period of two weeks.  The last two chapters cover a period of two days approximately three months afterward.

Characterization  The story is told through the point of view of one of the protagonists (the male “hero” of the story, unlike most Romantic Suspense which are told from the “heroine’s” perspective) (Saricks, 2009).  The author tells this story through Ben’s narration of the current events interspersed with chapters of Ben using a tape recorder to record his experience and reminisce about his past, with the hope of sharing these recordings with his wife after returning home. Both protagonists are sympathetic.

Storyline  Ashley frequently accuses Ben of withholding personal information from her, but otherwise seems to trust him implicitly after the crash.  Their chemistry is charming, but their potential attraction to each other seems problematic, as they both state that they’re in committed relationships at home.  The reader must struggle with whether to hope they end up romantically involved.

Tone/Mood  The protagonists are in constant danger throughout the bulk of the novel, and their health deteriorates with each day stranded in snow and freezing temperatures with little or no food or medical supplies.  This creates a nearly constant sense of unease.

Style/Language  Despite the potentially budding romance between the protagonists and occasional descriptions of nudity (usually - but not always - told from a medical or neutral perspective), the author uses no explicit descriptions of sex acts.  The author uses no profanity apart from the rare “damn.”  This is considered by many to be a Christian novel, because of the narrator’s occasional prayers for assistance, references to Heaven, and praise of God.  The author’s descriptions of the vistas of the High Uintas Wilderness are lush and vivid.

Frame/Setting Contemporary setting with no paranormal influence.  Current events take place on a snowy mountain range during the winter season.  Temperatures are usually between 0°-32° Fahrenheit, with occasional nostalgic scenes on Florida beaches.  The suspense and romance in this novel are embedded in the protagonists’ fight for survival.

Three Terms That Describe This Book:  Survival, Chaste Romance, Sweeping Vistas

Readers Might Also Enjoy:

Fiction

●       Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Survival at Sea, First Person Narrative, Spiritual Themes)

●       The Seat Beside Me by Nancy Moser (Christian Fiction, Plane Crash, Thought-Provoking)

●       The Salt Garden by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma (Christian Fiction, Shipwreck)

Nonfiction

●       Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (Survival, Sweeping Vistas, Personal Growth)

●       Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey, edited by Lillian Schlissel (Survival, First-Person Account, Western U.S.)

●       When I Fell from the Sky: The True Story of One Woman’s Miraculous Survival by Juliane Koepcke (Plane Crash, Survival, Memoir)

References

Evergreen Indiana. (n.d.). The mountain between us / Charles Martin. Retrieved from Evergreen Indiana: http://evergreen.lib.in.us/eg/opac/record/15891270?locg=1

Saricks, J. G. (2009). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: American Library Association.