THIS WRETCHED VALLEY

Megan Tusing pulls listeners into a nail-biting tale of horror inspired by the harrowing Dyatlov Pass incident in the Soviet Ural Mountains in 1959. Dylan and her geologist friend, Clay, are eager to be the first to climb the mountain. Seven months after their hike, three bodies are discovered in horrific states of decay, but Dylan's is missing. Tusing's patient narration heightens the tension right from the get-go with the ominous opening: "What baffled them was the skeleton . . . " From there, the story alternates between discomfiting and downright dreadful. This is an uncomfortable but hard-to-hit-pause story of survival and horror in which hikers discover something hungry in the woods. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2024]