178 – Jenny Kiefer & A Solid Foothold in Horror

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The first new book coverage of 2024 – and it starts us off on suitably horrific footing.

Jenny Kiefer’s debut novel, This Wretched Valley, has been getting a huge amount of early buzz in horror circles. It’s the story of four unlucky adventurers, who head into the Kentucky woods and meet all manner of nasty sh*t. 

It’s a tightly wound tale of misadventure, that takes at least some inspiration from the Dyatlov Pass mystery. And if you don’t know what that is… boy have you got a wiki hole to disappear down.

Jenny and I talk about writing and selling a brutal debut, arthouse horror influences, the terror of climbing and research serendipity… plus, what she thinks happened to those poor Russian hikers over 60 years ago.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Ruins (2006), by Scott Smith
• The Laws of the Skies (2019), by Grégoire Courtois
• Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013), by Donnie Eichar
• The Marigold (2023), by Andre F. Sullivan

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