Lullaby Road

September 1, 2017

Anderson's glowingly reviewed The Never-Open Desert Diner was issued by a small press in 2015 and picked up by Crown in 2016. In this follow-up, Ben Jones, a truck driver plying Utah's highways, gets himself deeply in trouble when he decides to help a silent Hispanic child he finds abandoned at an out-of-the-way gas station one wintry day.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 16, 2017
In Anderson’s atmospheric but implausible sequel to 2015’s The Never-Open Desert Diner, veteran trucker Ben Jones learns at the Stop ’n’ Gone Truck Stop outside Price, Utah, that Pedro, a tire man he knows slightly, has left his apparently traumatized son, Juan, who looks to be five or six, and the boy’s fiercely protective dog in Ben’s care. Ben feels he has no choice but to take Juan and the dog with him. Things quickly go from bad to worse: a speeding semi almost obliterates him and his precious cargo; his nomadic preacher friend, John, who hauls a life-size crucifixion cross up and down the highway, is left critically injured by a hit-and-run that may not have been an accident; and someone draws a gun on him for what will prove the first of several times during the next couple of days. Ben’s efforts to protect the child and the dog plunge him into increasing peril, but even after a harrowing climax the reader may well feel as though the journey has been, in the trucker’s words, “back and forth between no place and nowhere.” Arresting desert vistas and distinctive characters leave a lasting impression. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management.

November 15, 2017
"We are the trouble we seek," says Ben Jones, the half-Jewish, half-Native American trucker who narrates this book. That seems especially true of the lost souls traversing the bleak landscape of this harrowing, dryly antic novel.If it's possible for a stretch of state highway to be a heartbreak house with asphalt and white lines, then Utah's Route 117, as depicted in this moody, antic thriller, certainly qualifies. Among the more heartbroken of its transient regulars is Ben, who, as this novel begins, is still working his way through the savagely jolting and deadly events chronicled in Anderson's debut, The Never-Open Desert Diner (2016). With another harsh winter creeping up on the high desert, Ben is even deeper into his routine of delivering necessities to those living along the highway--but he can't fill his gas tank without trouble finding him. In this case, it's a child and an "indeterminate mix of husky and German shepherd" abandoned at a truck stop with a note begging him to take care of what's eventually identified as a little girl. Ben doesn't get very far in the swirling snow and high winds with his new passengers before another tractor-trailer truck nearly runs him off the highway. And that's only the beginning of Ben's bad week, during which he's enmeshed in the messy lives of friends like Ginny, the red-and-purple-haired Walmart clerk and college student who implores him to add her infant to his passenger list, and John, the itinerant preacher whose ritual of carrying a large wooden cross along the highway isn't stopped by inclement weather--until a hit-and-run driver slams him to death's door. In addition to these and other myriad perils, there's a trigger-happy convenience-store clerk, a mysterious circus truck, and, lurking in the distance, the surly, enigmatic Walt, who owns and occupies the vacant diner that haunts Ben's crowded memories.At times, Anderson seems to take on more than he can chew, but the narrator's dolefully observant and engagingly self-deprecating voice holds together this cluttered tale.

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November 1, 2017
Following The Never-Open Desert Diner (2016), Ben Jones is back behind the wheel of his rig on Route 117, a desolate road in the Utah desert. It's winter, and the road is icy and fraught with many perils, including a fellow trucker on the run from the Highway Patrol in a red cab-over, last seen barreling past an inspection station at an estimated 100 mph. Jones has taken on two passengers: a mute young Hispanic child and a large white dog he finds abandoned in the freezing cold at a seedy truck stop. There are more evil doings at the diner and up and down the highway. Many of the eccentric and ornery characters from the first book make another appearance, and Ben puts himself in harm's way when bad things start happening to them. Anderson's lyrical prose brings a forgotten corner of the world to life, and the authentic narrative does the same for Jones. Recommended for fans of William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor and Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2017

In this follow-up to The Never-Open Desert Diner, Anderson takes readers on another trip down Utah's Route 117 and revisits many of the characters who depend on truck driver Ben Jones not only for supplies but also for solace. Ben faces challenges: the weather, reckless drivers, dark memories of sadness and loss, and an unknown, unidentifiable evil presence that invades the desert solitude. There is also the mystery of the young Hispanic child abandoned at a truck stop whom Ben has been asked to protect. Unraveling that story and attempting to find the child's father takes Ben, as well as the community of solitary souls along Route 117, into a violent world of unspeakable horrors. The action is nonstop, and the plot twists are heart-pounding. Anderson's vivid prose gives a sense of the vastness that is the desert he so brilliantly describes--it is an amazing use of language to create mood and feeling. VERDICT Fans of Anderson's first installment of this series will devour this book and long for another visit with the residents along Route 117. [See Prepub Alert, 8/2/17.]--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community College, Mt. Carmel

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.