The truth is a cave in the Black Mountains : a tale of travel and darkness with pictures of all kinds / written by Neil Gaiman ; with illustrations by Eddie Campbell.

Neil Gaiman is a very prolific writer and this is a tale of murder and revenge with dark, gloomy images, suitable for the ominous season of Halloween. It is a graphic novel, which is like a "comic book" for adults. With only 73 pages, it's a quick read. I rarely read graphic novels and found it interesting in this type of novel to not only read the author's vision of the story in words, but also to see the images he (with his collaborator) is visualizing when creating the book. It's not often that we get to know what the author is "seeing." The violence in the book fortunately is not "graphic," but shown in a very minimal way.

This is another book where I did myself the disservice of reading too quickly. I found it at the library and sat down to read, thinking that I could polish it off right then and there. But the illustrations and dialogue really have to be lingered over to get the full experience and flavor of the author's intent. I took it home and read it again, taking longer the second time.

The novel is set on the Isle of Skye in Jacobite times. The Black Mountains are the Black Cuillins in Skye, which is known as the Winged Isle, and sometimes the Misty Isle.

This is the book's summary from the library record: You ask me if I can forgive myself? I can forgive myself . . . And so begins The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains, a haunting story of family, the otherworld, and a search for hidden treasure. This gorgeous full-color illustrated book version was born of a unique collaboration between New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman and renowned artist Eddie Campbell, who brought to vivid life the characters and landscape of Gaiman's award-winning story. In this volume, the talents and vision of two great creative geniuses come together in a glorious explosion of color and shadow, memory and regret, vengeance and, ultimately, love. . . . for many things. For where I left him. For what I did.