Accolades:

Idaho Book of the Year Award
PNBA Bestseller
Boise State University First Year Read
Spokesman Review Book Club
Western Writers of America Spur Award finalist

Reviews

Chronicling the worst hard rock mining disaster in modern U.S. history — the Sunshine Mine Fire in Kellogg, Idaho — Gregg Olsen’s The Deep Dark is winning raves from reviewers and readers. Booklist dubbed it a "poignant book" saying Olsen "brings his considerable narrative skills to bear in this true — adventure tale." Publishers Weekly compared The Deep Dark to The Perfect Storm. Kirkus says the book "puts the human faces of dozens of miners, their kinfolk, on a grave mining disaster." Look for The Deep Dark wherever books are sold.

NPR AUDIO DOWNLOAD
The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine tells the story of a deadly fire in Idaho's Sunshine Mine in May 1972. Scott Simon talks with author Gregg Olsen.

SEATTLE TIMES
The Deep Dark explores human toll of Idaho's worst disaster On May 2, 1972, fire broke out in Kellogg, Idaho's, Sunshine Mine. The cause and location, among the maze of shafts and tunnels more than a mile deep and long, were unknown. But since Sunshine was a "hardrock" silver mine blasted from stone, not flammable coal, no one paid much attention to the smoke. A lot of things caused smoke occasionally, and besides, everyone thought, nothing could burn down there. Shoring timbers might be suspect if they had not been soaked with water that helped cool the air.
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COUER D’ALENE PRESS
The Deep Dark a riveting account of disaster. "Hearses were in short supply in Kellogg, Idaho, in May 1972. A pickup hauled a dead miner to a hillside cemetery slashed with freshly turned earth. Another arrived in a station wagon." Thus begins The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine, a riveting, page-turning and gut-wrenching account of the May 2, 1972, Sunshine Mine Disaster by New York Times best-seller Gregg Olsen (Abandoned Prayers, Starvation Heights, Cruel Deception, Bitter Almonds).
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DESERET NEWS (SALT LAKE CITY)
Idahoans still scarred by mining disaster. Book offers account of '72 Sunshine Mine fire that killed 91 SPOKANE, Wash. -- When fire broke out in Idaho's Sunshine Mine in 1972, there was little panic. Miners knew there wasn't much to burn a mile down a wet mine. But deadly carbon monoxide killed 91 men in one of the nation's worst mining accidents.
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BELLINGHAM HERALD (WASH)
Survivors discuss Sunshine Mine fire. Journalist and investigative reporter Gregg Olsen tells the harrowing story of the tragic fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, in May 1972, through interviews with survivors, family members and administrators.
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PENINSULA GATEWAY (GIG HARBOR, WASH)
Book finds redemption in everyday people. Early on I decided that I didn’t want to do book reviews for the Gateway. Being a relatively small town, I felt it unnecessary to criticize local talent for their hard work – reserve such things for a big city where the chances of facing an angry writer in the supermarket checkout line are slim. But then I received Olalla-based author Gregg Olsen’s latest book, The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America’s Richest Silver Mine.
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SALEM STATESMAN JOURNAL
On May 2, 1972, the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, caught fire. Of the 174 silver miners who had reported for work that day, fewer than half made it out. This is the story of the mine, the town, the tragedy and its aftermath. It is also the story of a supervisor who wouldn't give up, and the eventual miraculous rescue of two miners. It is written with easy grace, and the people and events come alive on these pages, so much so that the book builds genuine suspense. Readers will sweat it out with the trapped, grieve with the families of the victims and feel the weight of the earth. Ultimately, readers will be amazed and disturbed at what happened afterward. In other words, this is an exciting, vital, memorable book.

NEW WEST
The Deep Dark: 'A Compelling Nail-biter' Olsen is a ferociously talented writer who has come across a tragedy equal to his abilities. For the Perfect Storm aficionados of avalanches and earthquakes, of good people caught in bad situations, it would be hard to bury yourself in a better book.
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COUER D’ALENE PRESS
Before The Deep Dark was published, author Gregg Olsen went down into the heart of the Galena silver mine. It was the closest he could get to knowing what it was like working in the now-defunct Sunshine Mine where 91 miners perished in its silver belly on May 2, 1972.
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