Synopses & Reviews
This real-life The X-Files and Close Encounters of the Third Kind tells the true story of a computer programmer who tracks paranormal events along a 3,000-mile stretch through the heart of America and is drawn deeper and deeper into a vast conspiracy.
Like "Agent Mulder" of The X-Files, computer programmer and sheriff’s deputy Zukowski is obsessed with tracking down UFO reports in Colorado. He would take the family with him on weekend trips to look for evidence of aliens. But this innocent hobby takes on a sinister urgency when Zukowski learns of mutilated livestock, and sees the bodies of dead horses and cattle—whose exsanguination is inexplicable by any known human or animal means.
Along an expanse of land stretching across the southern borders of Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, Zukowski discovers multiple bizarre incidences of mutilations, and suddenly realizes that they cluster around the 37th Parallel or "UFO Highway." So begins an extraordinary and fascinating journey from El Paso and Rush, Colorado, to a mysterious space studies company and MUFON, from Roswell and Area 51 to the Pentagon and beyond; to underground secret military caverns and Indian sacred sites; beneath strange, unexplained lights in the sky and into corporations that obstruct and try to take over investigations. Inspiring and terrifying, this true story will keep you up at night, staring at the sky, and wondering if we really are alone...and what could happen next.
Review
"Fascinating... Chuck Zukowski takes up UFO investigations as a hobby, but it slowly turns into something more....Mezrich approaches the material seriously, preserving the human element but taking care to present the facts. Zukowski’s realization that many sightings and events line up along the 37th parallel is the culmination of years of investigations, and after thrilling stories of lights in the sky, screams in the night, and mysterious dark helicopters, readers will be more than ready for the exciting revelation." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A book to make X-Files fans twitch in excitement, Mezrich connects dots we didn’t even know existed.…A nicely dramatic narrative...Something’s clearly happening out there in the high meadows and along desert highways...Fans of Art Bell and company will find all the affirmation they need." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Ben Mezrich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. He has published fifteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted into the Academy Award–winning film The Social Network, and Bringing Down the House, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies in twelve languages and was the basis for the hit movie 21, and most recently the national bestseller Once Upon a Time in Russia. He lives in Boston.
Ben Mezrich on PowellsBooks.Blog
Twenty years ago, I had just published my first novel — a book called
Threshold that none of you have ever heard of because it sold about 12 copies, most to people with my last name — and I’d just opened the
New York Times to see my very first review. A full page, I might add — and there, under the headline, the very first line...
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