I wasn't expecting much from this story, and I still ended up disappointed. I have read seven of Crouch's books now, and this is by far the worst. It was painfully obvious that this was written earlier in his career. The characters were underdeveloped and one-sided. The pacing was consistently fast, but every obstacle felt too artificially manufactured.

Why did they need to climb that mountain? It is illogical that they would even be physically capable of doing such a thing. Then, when the man threw the backpack full of all their supplies off the side of that mountain, why was that necessary? It couldn't fit in the crevice—seriously?

The explanations of these dire situations were flimsy at best. Additionally, the reveals and ending explanations were simply silly. This sounds mean, but I would never recommend a book like this one.