This Wretched Valley

Imagine a valley: uncharted, unclaimed, and completely forgotten by civilization. For newly minted professional rock climber Dylan, the valley represents everything she’s worked for: a launching point to take her career farther than she would have dreamed. For Clay, the jutting rock face standing sentinel over the undisturbed woods has all he needs to complete his Ph.D. research. With Sylvia recording the data and Dylan’s boyfriend, Luke, serving as her belay on the ground, their team has everything it needs to complete the project and walk away with their futures secured.

But seven months later three of their corpses are found horrifyingly mutilated and in varying states of decomposition, with no clues as to how or why they met their grisly ends.

With less than a week of actual action taking place, Kiefer manages to pack an impressive amount of background and lore into a fantastically disturbing thrill ride through the desolate madness only top-tier survival horror can conjure up. Vividly descriptive and psychologically unsettling, Kiefer is perfect for fans of shock horror like Maeve Fly and Clown in a Cornfield.