Named one of Library Journal's Best Books of 2017

"Exceptional first novel."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Will grip suspense aficionados from the first page."--Library Journal, starred review

"A skillfully written, gripping thriller."--Booklist

"Action-packed with breakneck pacing."--Foreword Reviews


When a day trip out of Las Vegas with his wife takes a turn for the worse, Jack is sure he has the ability to get them home. But he has driven into something far beyond reason.

Rescue comes in the form of a desert hermit, but hope fades as the couple comes to realize that the nomad has no intention of letting them leave. A chance encounter with a kidnapped runaway and her crazed abductor leads them all farther into the wilderness--and closer to the cold brutality that isolation brings.

At the edge of his sanity, Jack begins to learn that playing by another's rules may be the only way to survive.

In a voice that is as hypnotizing as a desert mirage, debut novelist Samuel Parker entices you down a treacherous road, where the forces of good and evil are as crushing as the Mojave heat.


"A taut and twisted race into the human heart; an absorbing meditation on surviving the wilderness around us, as well as the wilderness within."--Josh James Riebock, bestselling author of Heroes and Monsters

"Parker brings a unique voice to fiction that is at once engaging and unsettling. An exceptional read worthy of big-screen adaptation."--Booker T. Mattison, filmmaker, author, professor


Samuel Parker was born in the Michigan boondocks but was raised on a never-ending road trip through the US. Besides writing, he is a process junkie and the ex-guitarist for several metal bands you've never heard of. He lives in West Michigan with his wife and twin sons.