The Valley

Praise for The Valley

“The Valley” is a puzzling mystery, a relentless action chronicle, a riddling brain-teaser—and a book that’s hard to put down.”
— The Wall Street Journal

“John Renehan’s The Valley is both a gripping, tightly-wound mystery as well as a sharply observed look at the complex internal politics of the U.S. Army, the deterioration of men tasked with too vague a mission and too little support, and what happens when they trifle with the intricate power structures deep in the mountains of Afghanistan.”
—Phil Klay, New York Times bestselling author of Redeployment

“The Valley is an acid-rock infused thriller, a police procedural camouflaged in a mind job.”
—The Los Angeles Review of Books

“A military thriller packed with action and mystery…a must-read if you want a glimpse of the turmoil Americans faced in Afghanistan or if you just want a page-flipping good yarn.”
—Kirkus

“”The Valley” is a riveting, gut-wrenching tale destined to take its place alongside Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” and Philip Caputo’s “A Rumor of War” as modern warfare classics that paint their word pictures in emotion as much as blood.”
—Providence Journal

“The author served in Iraq but sets his debut novel in deepest and highest Afghanistan, in a premise that prompts comparisons to Joseph Conrad and Francis Ford Coppola. But his story, told with suspense and substance, stands alone.”
—Army Times/Marine Corps Times

“Renehan has a fine eye for the etiquette of the Army, as delicate and complex as the rural aristocracy depicted in Jane Austen’s novels.”
— ForeignPolicy.com

“John Renehan’s The Valley is an absorbing novel of war that refuses to give easy answers or wallow in sentimental hero-worship. His characters talk the way real soldiers do, and he perfectly captures both the intensity of deployment and the blurred morality that can develop in remote outposts, under fire, far from home and family. The Valley belongs among the great novels of America’s 21st century wars.”
—Kayla Williams, author of Love My Rifle More Than You

“For readers who absolutely need a payoff, there’s a big reveal at the end that wraps up almost all of the mystery’s loose ends. But The Valley is really about how our vague mission in Afghanistan affects the men charged with carrying it out. That’s what will stay with you once you’ve forgotten the details of the crimes solved in the novel.”
—Military.com 

“The Valley is rich with detail, compelling and complex.” 
 —Columbus Dispatch