Franklin Black sat in the carriage observing the burnt out remains of the church; and since its destruction, no effort had been made to rebuild or even to tear it downperhaps to keep it as a reminder of what had happened. Later he announced his intention to make a journey to a forbidden place called the Valley of Death, which had claimed the lives of many, who had ventured there, in order to find the Grovers pastor, Jacob Parker, who was also considered the cause of the church fire; he disappeared shortly after the blaze, in which many local people were killed. In his search, he discovered a very strange, to put in very mildlya world turned upside down into one of madness and brutality. To paraphrase the words of Joseph Conrad, it is one that has negated the familiar and embraced the strange. Black is captured and detained by an autocrat, who simply goes by the name of the old man of the Valley. Black discovers that the old man has created an idolatrous religion that the Valleys natives have been forced to embrace; its practices include decapitation of intruders and eating their fleshwhich is described in bloody detail.

Clarence is also the author of "Mama Squad" (available through BeachHouse Books), "Wheezer's World," and "The World's Oldest Recruit." (His books are also available in Kindel-versions on Amazon). Two of his books, "World's to Come" and "A World That Used to Be" were published by Just Fiction. He recently published "Stand Up."