Even with the cover photo of a mountian, this is a departure for Krakauer. It is ostensibly about a murder perpetrated by some whacked-out Mormon fundamentalists. These are not your garden-variety loopy Mormons. These are a splinter group of deeply paranoid and dangerous people called the Mormon Fundamentalists who could be called the American Taliban except they're in Canada and Mexico as well. The book ranges all through Mormon and American history to show the evolution (or de-evolution) of Mormonism and this faction which has become a one of the more dangerous cults around.
