Philip Kerr: Esau

‘Thank God,’ she breathed.

Jack picked himself off the floor and brushed some of the snow from his head and shoulders.

‘Jesus, that was close,’ he said. ‘I waited until I could see you before I detonated. Only I kind of underestimated the speed of it.’

‘You almost got us killed.’

‘Look who’s talking,’ he said.

But she was already leaning out of the door, surveying his handiwork. The whole of the ice corridor and the Rognon were now buried under thousands of tons of snow and ice. Certain that the route they had found to the yetis and their hidden forest habitat was gone forever, she nodded with satisfaction and took Jack’s outstretched hand.

The helicopter soared over a sea of rock — the Himalayas looking like enormous waves in a petrified ocean. They all hoped the mountains might still hold on to their most precious and least abominable secret.

In writing this book, I have drawn on the work of many explorers and scientists, and I feel that I must acknowledge a debt to some specific authors and books. But before I list these, I must also thank Sandy Dimcan, Dr. Nicholas Scott, Dr. David Raeder, Dr. Sara Vrnicombe, Douglas Kennedy, Narendra Thapa Magar, Peter Godwin, Jonathan Burnham, Caroline Michel, Rosemary Davidson, Robert Bookman, Caradoc King, Nick Marston, Linda Shaughnessy, Paula Wagner, Marian Wood, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Michael Lynton.

I owe a debt to the work of the following scientists, explorers and writers:

Bezruchka, Stephen. Trekking in Nepal

Boardman, Peter. The Shining Mountain

Bonington, Chris. The Next Horizon: Everest South West Face; Annapurna South Face

Bruce, C. G. The Assault on Mount Everest 1922

Burrows, W., & R. Windrem. Critical Mass

Combe, G. A. A Tibetan on Tibet

Diamond, Jared. The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee

Dupuy, Trevor. Future Wars

Foley, Robert. Humans Before Humanity

Fossey, Dian. Gorillas in the Mist

Fowler, Murray. Restraint and Handling of Wild and Domestic Animals

Fraser, J. B. Journal of a Tour Through Part of the Snowvy Range of the Himalayan Mountains

Gribbin, John, & Jeremy Cherfas. The Monkey Puzzle

Crumley, M. There Are Giants on the Earth

Hahn, Emily. Look Who’s Talking

Hooker, J. D. Himalayan Journals

Izzard, Ralph. The Abominable Snowman Adventure

Kurten, Bjorn. Our Earliest Ancestors

Johanson, Donald, & James Shreeve. Lucy’s Child (with Lenora Johanson and Blake Edgar); Ancestors

Leakey, Richard. The Making of Mankind; Origins Reconsidered (with Roger Lewin)

Lewin, Roger. Bones of Contention

Matthiessen, Peter. The Snow Leopard

Milton, Richard. The Facts of Life

Murray, W. H. The Story of Everest

Napier, J. Bigfoot

Rockhill, W. W. Land of the Llamas

Roper, Steve. Camp 4

Sagan, Carl. Nuclear War and Climatic Catastrophe

Shipton, Eric. Blank on the Map

Spindler, Konrad. The Man in the Ice

Tasker, Joe. Savage Arena

Tattersal, Ian. The Fossil Trail

Tchernine, O. Snowman and Company

Tschernezky, Vladimir. On the Nature of the Abominable Snowman

Waddell, L. A. Among the Himalayas