STARTLING TOMES

DEAD MOUNTAIN: THE UNTOLD TRUE STORY OF THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT.   Donnie Eichar. Chronicle; 2013. I first found out about the true-life Dyatlov Pass incident when I saw a fictional movie called   Devil's Pass , which came up with an utterly far-fetched explanation for the mysterious deaths of nine young Russian hikers in the Ural Mountains in 1959. What made their deaths so strange was that they apparently rushed out of the safety of their tent   with no shoes on  and insufficiently dressed as if in a panic. They were found a mile away in various places. While most died of hypothermia, there were also other violent injuries. For decades, Russians have speculated on what made these experienced hikers run out of their tent, with an avalanche being the most likely explanation. But author Eichar, talking to relatives of the deceased, as well as experts in various fields both in the U.S. and Russia -- and retracing the steps of the victims via snowmobile --  debun...

DOC SAVAGE: SKULL ISLAND . Will Murray. Altus Press; 2013. In a brand-new Doc Savage adventure,   King Kong   has already attacked New York and fallen from the Empire State building when the novel begins. The 1930's pulp magazine hero tells his comrades about how he met Kong some years before in 1920, when he accompanied his stern father on a search of the Indian Ocean for Doc's grandfather, sailor Stormalong Savage. Grandpappy has been marooned on Skull Mountain Island and been the pet of the big ape-like creature for many years. In addition to staying out of the way of Kong and dodging all manner of hungry dinosaurs, Doc and his family members have to deal with murderous attacks by a band of head-hunting dyaks with poisonous blowguns.   Skull Island   has some exciting and intriguing moments, but it's not as memorable as the classic Doc-Savage-meets-Dinosaurs novel   The Land of Terror . The attempts to sort of humanize a completely unreal character, Doc, are ...