Murder on Denali: From Tragedy to Triumph

Murder on Denali is about a young woman who grew up in a loving but sheltered home in Upstate New York. The youngest of three children and the only daughter, shy and timid Christy McDowell nevertheless carried lofty dreams of climbing the big mountains of the world. When Christy was six years old her Gram moved in with the family and helped Christy overcome her fear of people. Through flashbacks, Christy's youth unfolds, helping to introduce each family member, as well as two close friends, and their roles in the story. Her Dad is a Forest Ranger serving in the Adirondacks, her mother is an acclaimed artist in Upstate New York, older brother Johnny serves in the Navy SEALs and other brother, Peter, is a history teacher in Queensbury, New York. Best friends are Lexie Cranston Appleton and Jennifer Jacobson, the former from the time Christy was twelve years old, and Jen for the past three years in Anchorage, Alaska. When Christy was twenty-one, her Grandmother passed away. Bored and restless with her life, Christy decides to go to Anchorage, Alaska where she works odd jobs, meets new friends and yearns for the mountains of the Interior. Eventually she becomes an Assistant Guide on Denali, causing her to make her spring/summer home in the small community of Talkeetna, a hamlet quite similar to her beloved home in Keene Valley. The thrust of the story takes place when the now twenty-six year old Christy returns to Keene Valley, broken and withdrawn because of a murder that took place at the 14,300' medical encampment on Denali. Continual nightmares revealing precious little intimate that Christy carries knowledge of that event. But nothing relieves her of the mounting anxiety associated with sleep deprivation so Christy leaves Alaska to go back to her family who rally around her, building a firewall of protection so she can heal. Shortly upon her return to New York, peculiar events cause her father to seek help from his older son; Johnny agrees to take leave time from duty and comes home for a short spell, but then things go south fast. Christy, her friends and family become targeted by acts of aggression from someone seemingly in two places at once. The story continues as truths from the past and present collide ~ a history that ends up having nothing to do with Christy at all but with her brother, Johnny, and other men who served together on a reconnaissance mission in Kazakhastan seven years earlier. "Murder on Denali" runs the gamut of human emotions, beginning with tragedy and ending with triumph, leaving the reader with the satisfaction that justice can still prevail.