Born of Gilded Mountain by Amanda Dykes

Born of Gilded Mountains by Amanda Dykes
Stand-alone Novel
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers, June 18, 2024

REVIEW BY JOAN HALL

Born of Gilded Mountains is a story of friendship, love, faith, betrayal, healing, and forgiveness with secrets and a mystery interwoven. The book opens with a boyhood pact made in 1894 by the light of a blood moon.

From there, it switches to 1948 when Mercy Windsor (aka Marybeth Spatts) travels via train (The Galloping Goose) to the small mountain town of Mercy Peak, Colorado. Mercy, once Hollywood’s Golden Girl is “escaping” her life to settle in the small mountain town. She buys an old estate that once belonged to an eccentric member of a once-prominent Mercy Peak family.

Right away, we know something bad happened to Mercy in California. There are bandages on her hands, she only has a small number of clothes—ones she obtained from the wardrobe of the movie studio where she was once employed—and very little money. Even though she wants to hide away (and hide her identity) she soon learns the citizens of Mercy Peak are friendly and caring.

In Mercy Peak, the fingerprints of God himself are impressed upon the mountains.

Amanda Dyes, Born of Guilded Mountains

Mercy had always desired to visit Mercy Peak, the home of her childhood pen-pal, Ruby (Rusty) Bright. Her moving to the area is bittersweet since Rusty is no longer around. Still, determined to rebuild her life, she settles into the old mansion and gets a job in a local grocery store and soon begins to unravel a mystery.

Mercy discovers that Rusty is still very much alive and together the two of them begin to unravel a series of riddles and clues that could lead to a decade old mystery of a missing Galloping Goose Railcar, and a hidden treasure.

There is a cast of characters—each with a story of his or her own. Like Casey Campbell who lost his only brother.

“How do you make it through? I don’t know that we ever do. Through sounds like there’s an end to the loss, and I can tell you right now I’m never going to forget Cal or stop missing him. I’ll never be who I was before he was gone. So, in a way, his absence will always be a part of me. That piece won’t come back. I’ll never be . . . complete, so to speak. But . . . I can be whole. Even while missing him. The day I stop missing him, please bash me over the head with a skillet or something.”

Amanda Dykes, Born of Guilded Mountains

References to Christianity are subtle but undoubtedly readers can see the God’s grace manifested throughout.

At first, I was a bit confused by the author’s writing style. The book contains portions of letters that Mercy and Rusty wrote to one another, a screenplay, notes of a Hollywood reporter’s interview with Mercy, and bits of newspaper headlines about Mercy’s disappearance. Trust me, there is a reason the author used various formats to tell the story.

I read this book slowly, but it kept me riveted, and is quite possibly my favorite read of 2024. I give Born of Gilded Mountains a well-deserved five fish.

I purchased the Kindle version of Born of Guilded Mountains through Amazon.