Herbert G. de Lisser (1878–1944)

This review is of the Mint Editions paperback edition.

The Devil's Mountain is a so-so mystery, with a side of romance thrown in. There are some entertaining supporting characters, and several lovely descriptions of the Jamaican countryside. I might have liked the book more, but I wasn't able to fully immerse myself in it because of the scores of typos in the book.

Every chapter of this book has errors in it. There are misspelled words, missing words, repeated words, misused words ("everyone" instead of "every one"), missing punctuation, misspelled names, transposed words, and occasionally entire sentences mangled so badly that they are incomprehensible. The copy I received is not marked as a review copy, and the Kindle sample contains the same errors as my print edition; I found scans online of the periodical the book was originally published in and none of these errors appear there, so they are new to this edition.

The publisher boasts that each of their books is "freshly typeset [and] clean and easy to read," but they must not employ proofreaders because there is no way a human being would read a sentence like "Major Fellspar do the bar, and Lawsistent with his dignity thar he should be personally identified with this search for stolen jewels" (first sentence of Chapter VIII) and think that it should be printed and sold for $14.99.

I applaud Mint Editions for republishing obscure works, but I cannot recommend their books due to the many errors they contain.

The Devil's Mountain can be read for free, sans typos, online at the Digital Library of the Caribbean in Planter's Punch Vol.1, No 3.… (más)

On the one hand, this book is very well written. It is easy to read yet the descriptions, particularly of Jamaica and the natural scenery, are extremely vivid. Additionally, this book is based upon true events which makes it quite interesting and you aren't likely to find many novels that discuss voodoo rituals or the Jamaican slave revolt as in-depth as this novel does. The subject matter is fascinating and the fact that Annie Palmer was a real woman only makes this story more compelling. On the flip side, there is a quite a bit of racism in this book, particularly near the end when the story started feeling like "Birth of a Nation" which I could've done without... but this was written in the 1920s, so I guess it's a given. Also on the negative side, the characters are quite one-dimensional and I would've liked to see more of Takoo, by far the most complex character in the novel. All in all, I would recommend this book because it deals with a time period and a culture that are rarely depicted in film or literature; however, I would caution that this book is very much a product of its time.… (más)