New Elie Wiesel novel centers on Adirondack muder

What is it about killing people in the Adirondacks?  Elie Wiesel’s new novel, the Sonderberg Case, pivots around a backcountry murder set here in the North Country.

This from the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s review:

There’s a compelling mystery at the heart of Elie Wiesel’s new novel, “The Sonderberg Case.” A graduate student named Werner Sonderberg sets out on a hiking holiday in the Adirondacks with an elderly man who claims to be his uncle. Before the weeklong vacation ends, though, the student returns to Manhattan alone. When questioned, he will say only that he hopes he never sees his uncle again.

Several days later, a hiker finds the uncle’s body below a cliff. Soon, Sonderberg is arrested and charged with murder.

Elie Wiesel, of course, is the famed Holocaust survivor, who was sent with his family to Auschwitz.

I haven’t been able to find any information about why Wiesel chose the Adirondacks as the setting for part of his work.  If anyone has any good literary gossip, dish below.