Thomas Reid is a literary star, his bestselling novel The Factory Grave, a golden ticket out of his blue-collar past. But the life he built withing a remote mountain fortress, the perfect family, the critical acclaim....it all feels like a fraud. He is haunted by a suffocating "survivor's guilt", a feeling that drives him back to the Utah wilderness for a reunion with Rudy, the best friend he left behind.  

He went for penance. He went to prove he hadn't changed.

In the cold, gray light of the mountains, a single rifle CRACK shatters the silence. Thomas is faced with a choice: his new life, or the truth.

He chooses the new life.

He buries his secret under a blanket of pine needles, crafts the perfect lie for the sheriff , and walks away, a good actor in the role of a grieving friend. For two years, the lie holds. He is safe.  

But some graves don't stay closed. And in the remote, quiet dark of his fortress, Thomas is about to learn that the man he buried... isn't the one who is coming back for him.