THE HAUNTED MOUNTAIN: A Story of Suspense

by Mollie Hunter ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 1972

Another of Mollie Hunter's meticulously crafted fairy tales, in which the threads of folklore, the Highland atmosphere, and the fictional characters and events are seamlessly integrated. It tells of a young man named MacAllister and his defiance of the sidhe, a sort of fairy people, by plowing and planting the Goodman's Croft, that part of a farm traditionally reserved for the feared and spiteful creatures. MacAllister evades and outwits the sidhe in one contest after another, but after he's won his Peigi-Ann and their son Fergus has reached his fifth birthday, MacAllister is finally ""taken"" and set to seven years of labor to precede his execution. It is on Halloween of the seventh year that Fergus, now strong and stubborn like his father, confronts the magic of the sidhe and the menace of their sentry, a blind giant of stone called An Ferla Mor (the Great Gray Man), to rescue his father from underground captivity. Colm (or An Cu Mor), MacAllister's now aged dog, gives his life in the final intense struggle, and it is Peigi-Ann's decision to bury Colm in the Goodman's Croft and plant the patch with healing herbs and flowers that conclusively breaks the power of the sidhe. As usual the tension is unforced, the heroic exploits humanized, the telling cadenced and restrained.

Pub Date: April 26, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION