A singularly compelling debut novel, about a desert where people go to escape their past, and a truck driver who finds himself at risk when he falls in love with a mysterious woman. Ben Jones lives a quiet, hardscrabble life, working as a trucker on Route 117, a little-travelled road in a remote region of the Utah desert which serves as a haven for fugitives and others looking to hide from the world. For many of the desert's inhabitants, Ben's visits are their only contact with the outside world, and the only landmark worth noting is a once-famous roadside diner that hasn't opened in years. Ben's routine is turned upside down when he stumbles across a beautiful woman named Claire playing a cello in an abandoned housing development. He can tell that she's fleeing something in her past--a dark secret that pushed her to the end of the earth--but despite his better judgment he is inexorably drawn to her. As Ben and Claire fall in love, specters from her...

The Earl of Burford hosts another slightly batty, thoroughly baffling house party....George Henry Alwyn Saunders, 12th in his line, has taken a fancy to films. He's nearly killed with delight when a movie mogul wants Alderly, the Burfords' 17th century country estate, for the set of a new Rex Ransom epic. The bronzed, handsome star has long thrilled the loopy lord with dazzling deeds on the silver screen.Less than thrilled is the Countess, who's suddenly playing hostess to a Hollywood crowd and a growing guest list that includes a long-lost cousin and a shady second spouse, two suitors for the Burford's willful daughter Lady Geraldine, an eccentric screenwriter protesting the pirating of his work, a sultry, sparky femme fatale, a professional blackmailer.... Oh yes, roles from James L. Anderson's first zany whodunit, The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy, are reprised by Merryweather, ther imperturbable family butler, and the perspicacious Ins. Wilkins of the Westshire constabulary. And what does a mutilated mink coat have to do with anything?.... Nothing can top the merrily murderous 1930s house party for a puzzler!

'But Lavinia, I don't want people staying here'" said the Earl. 'After the last two house parties, we agreed no more.''This is quite different. These people are family, not spies and jewel thieves and blackmailers and film stars. And when one occupies an historic house such as Alderley, one cannot shut its doors, because of a few unfortunate incidents.'Lord Burford's misgivings were understandable. After all, the "unfortunate incidents" had been murders. But these people were travelling a long way for the funeral of an elderly relative. There was nowhere else for them to stay, so the Earl really had to offer them accommodation at Alderley, the Burfords' Carolean mansion. Things started to go wrong when one of guests claimed she had knowledge that would ruin the others' reputations. But nobody took that seriously.Until, that is, she was found murdered...Lord Burford had never been so relieved as when Chief Inspector Wilkins arrived. Again!

Winter has come to Route 117, a remote road through the high desert of Utah trafficked only by eccentrics, fugitives, and those looking to escape the world. Local truck driver Ben Jones, still in mourning over a heartbreaking loss, is just trying to get through another season of treacherous roads and sudden snowfall without an accident. But then he finds a mute Hispanic child who has been abandoned at a seedy truck stop along his route, far from civilization and bearing a note that simply reads "Please Ben. Watch my son. His name is Juan" And then at the bottom, a few more hastily scribbled words. "Bad Trouble. Tell no one.". Despite deep misgivings, and without any hint of who this child is or the grave danger he's facing, Ben takes the child with him in his truck and sets out into an environment that is as dangerous as it is beautiful and silent. From that moment forward, nothing will ever be the same. Not for Ben. Not for the child. And not for anyone...