First published 2025
Two dangerous men camp in the woods, plotting their next move. They have orders to hunt something valuable, but their employer told them only this: you'll know it when you see it. An elderly woman with dementia wanders into the night and finds their campfire, drawn by its light through the trees. The men continue to their destination, a burned church cellar in empty countryside. What they discover there changes everything. The job they accepted now feels like a path to destruction. But defying their orders means crossing a line they cannot uncross. Meanwhile, other broken souls flee through the same landscape, each running from their own demons. Their paths converge as they search for one final shot at salvation. Smith strips this story down to its bare elements, following desperate people who have made terrible choices as they race toward a reckoning none of them can avoid.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, crime, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, haunting, intense, morally-complex, redemptive
Tropes: converging-paths, found-family, moral-dilemma, reckoning
Setting: woods, church-cellar, countryside
240 pages · Paperback · No Exit Press
Content warnings: death, mental-illness, violence