"The Everest Mystery" by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb

I don't remember when I first heard the story of George Leigh Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, who disappeared while heading for the summit of Mount Everest in June 1924 -- but the story, and Everest generally, have fascinated me for years.  I read and enjoyed "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer when it was first published in 1997 (he may have been the one to introduce me to Mallory and Irvine).  And I still find myself thinking about "Into the Silence" by Wade Davis, which I read and reviewed here in 2013. 

Mallory has long been the better-known half of the duo, amplified by the discovery of his frozen corpse on the slopes of Everest in 1999.  Then, just two years ago, in 2024, a boot containing a foot and a sock -- labelled with Irvine's name -- was discovered.  

Now Irvine's great-niece and biographer, Julie Summers, has teamed up with Everest historian Jochen Hemmleb to turn the spotlight on the great-uncle she never knew and analyze all the existing evidence as to what might have happened to him and his climbing companion in a new book: "The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest." (I learned about it when I read a review in the New York Times in September.) 

The first part of the book recounts Irvine's growing-up years and pre-Everest accomplishments, as well as the early days of the 1924 Everest expedition, in alternating chapters that draw on his diaries and letters home -- many of which languished for decades in a trunk in the attic of his family's home. He was just 22, and did not have as much climbing experience as some of the other members of the group, but he was an excellent athlete, who rowed crew at Everton College, Oxford, and took part in an Arctic sledging expedition in Norway, in 1923. Moreover, his engineering background and his ability to fix all kinds of mechanical issues made him an invaluable member of the team, particularly when it came to monitoring and  repairing their newfangled oxygen tanks. 

The middle section deals with the group's repeated attempts to climb the mountain, culminating in Mallory & Irvine's final and ultimately fatal journey.  The last few chapters recount what happened next, including subsequent Everest expeditions, the artefacts they discovered from the 1924 climb, and other evidence, over time, that points to several theories of what might have happened to Mallory & Irvine and whether they might have reached the summit before they died.  

The earlier chapters were a bit slow-moving. Later, the questions of who found what, when and exactly where on the mountain, how the various accounts differed, and all the alternate routes Mallory and Irvine might have taken during their climb, had me somewhat dazed.  (Experienced climbers might react differently!) Some photos or maps/charts, plotting out the various sightings, etc., might have been helpful. There are some photos and charts in the book, but not alongside the text, and they were rather small (at least they were in my e-reader). It might have been easier to flip back and forth in a paper book.  

I most enjoyed this book when it gave us glimpses into who Irvine was as a person and the lingering impact his disappearance has had on multiple generations of his family. I was moved to tears at several points, reading about what happened after Mallory and Irvine disappeared into the mists of Everest, and the Irvine family's ongoing grief.  For example, Sandy's father learned of his son's death through a telegram from the Everest committee. He'd been expecting a telegram, but one bearing good news.  Until the end of his life, he believed his son had reached the top of the mountain before he died. Another example:  in 1930, a sherpa from the 1924 expedition handed a cloth-wrapped package to the British member of another Himalayan mountain expedition, and asked that it be delivered to Sandy's sister Evelyn (the author's grandmother). It contained 31 Himalayan garnets. Evelyn never opened the package;  her son Peter (the author's father) found it after Evelyn's death in 1978, and -- 21 years later -- gave it to the author to unwrap.   

An interesting addition to my Everest library. :) 

3.5 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph. (Goodreads now allows quarter & half-star ratings!) .  

This was Book #32 read to date in 2026 (and Book #3 finished in October), bringing me to 80% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am currently on track to meet my goal! You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."