Books such as the one David Brill has written are reminders that national park landscapes can be as deadly as they are beautiful.

And the Volume 1 notation on the cover of Into the Mist: Tales of Death and Disaster, Mishaps and Mideeds, Misfortune and Mayhem in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a sign that he's compiling more stories from this park in the heart of the Appalachians. If anyone is apprehensive of entering one of the nation's big park landscapes that rolls and tumbles, sprawls and stretches, climbs and dips, and is roamed by wild animals that might consider you as a meal, this is not the book to give them.

Within the covers of Into the Mist are tales of murder, death due to hypothermia brought on by a massive snowstorm, drownings, deadly lightning strikes and, yes, fatal bear maulings.

Thumb through to the appendix and you'll quickly learn that auto accidents are the primary cause of death in Great Smoky, with 132 fatalities recorded from 1931-2013, a period when there were 468 deaths counted in the park. The second deadliest incidents in the park during that period involved aircraft, which were responsible for 73 deaths.

Bear attacks? Just one death was linked to a bruin, and that occurred not too long ago. In May 2000 Glenda Bradley went for a hike and fell victim to a black bear sow and cub that had shown aggressive behavior to other park visiors in the days leading up to her attack.

Books such as Mr. Brill's are highly popular, as evidenced by the many titles that focus on death in the National Park System: Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite, Death in Glacier National Park: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in the Crown of the Continent, Death in Zion National Park: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in Utah's Grand Circle, and so on.

We are a macabre society, curious about death in unusual settings and places otherwise viewed as safe and tranquil. Throw in an animal and interest grows, as Night of the Grizzlies attests.

Such books should not be viewed, though, as warning signs telling you to avoid a park. Rather, they should serve as primers, of a sort, of the landscapes you're about to enter.

Lessons to take away from Mr. Brill's book range from not hiking alone in bear country to checking the weather forecast before you head out on that backpacking trip of a lifetime and being sure to drive more defensively than you normally should, as people who head to national parks on vacation sometimes forget to keep their usual cautiousness about them.

If you've liked any of the other books cited above, you'll like this one.