The Highest Mountain - Death and Life in the Adirondacks by David J. Pitkin

On September 11, 2001, the United States entered into a new social, political, emotional, and perhaps, more spiritually-challenging world. We have gotten used to changing levels of terrorism alerts, and government has seized more and more discretionary power to investigate citizens’ lives while habeas corpus has been buried. Yet, to date, no more major terrorist activity has taken place. Is it possible that there are domestic terrorists lurking in America? Might there be an active network of disaffected Americans?

Movies and television epics are more and more filled with assassinations and plausible terrorist plots. Some plots involve the assassination of the current President. But why would any terrorist go after a former President, even though his name is Bush?

Additionally, is it credible that today’s law-enforcement officers are all Jack Bauers? Is Fox Network’s “24” truly down-to-earth? Or is the job of protecting Americans often a task filled with flaws and poor guesses as these officers attempt to remain human behind the badge? Can a law enforcement officer be truly spiritual though the job may require killing “bad guys?” What happens when a NY State Bureau of Criminal Investigation officer is shot dead in the first chapter, then revived? The sub-title reflects this issue in first noting “death,” and then “life.” What kind of life ensues after an individual has gone into the supposed “beyond?” Can the protagonist ever do his/her job in an aggressive manner again, once re-vivified? And who, truly, are the “bad guys” in life, inside and outside the law enforcement field?

Flawed hero, Sr. Inv. Dennis Girard, struggles to understand his terrifying dreams by seeking Jungian therapy before he returns to work. He also faces psychic episodes, as the author has done throughout the past half century. Pitkin, a professional psychic, drew on his investigations of true experiences faced by many individuals who clinically died and then were resuscitated. This book, written against a backdrop of the 2008 Presidential Election, looks like “cops ‘n robbers” at the outset, but becomes a spiritual epic before it concludes.

Review by Northwoods Bookshop
Meet New York State Police Senior Investigator Dennis Girard. He's a self-described loser. A divorced, nicotine addicted boozer and dangerously close to burn out on his job. Just when he (and we the readers) thinks he can sink no farther he breaks yet another cardinal rule of the State Police and manages to get himself killed. Now the story gets interesting as our unlikely hero comes back to life with a serious mission to complete and unwanted help from the "other side beyond the light" to accomplish it. We ride shotgun with Girard as he travels the Adirondacks on his quest. Along the way we meet Native Americans, Adirondack natives and born killers as well as terrorists with long memories and serious intentions. We travel from Chestertown to Port Henry, Plattsburgh and Montreal and from the Akwesasne Indian Reservation to Potsdam, North Creek and Ticonderoga. The mission is to stop a diabolical plot with serious consequences. As you take the speedboat ride of your life towards the finale perhaps it will have you asking the same question as me of Author Pitkin, "When and what will Dennis Girard be doing next?". This is a great read for all mystery lovers and especially for the Adirondack dreamer in all of us. (c) Review by Jack Armstrong, Proprietor, Northwoods Bookshop