Lives Intersect on Dangerous Roadway to Truth About Two Deaths, 20 Years Apart

Award-winning author Paul L. Hall's latest novel, "Places the Dead Call Home," is an unconventional mystery about Josh Kincaid, the unwitting link between two tragic fatalities, and the perilous journey that brings him to this realization.

Troy, MI (PRWEB) May 28, 2007 -- The caves and cliffs of Mesa Verde National Park are situated near the Four Corners Region of the American Southwest and hold memories of the long gone Anasazi Native Americans.The area is a fitting locale for award-winning author Paul L. Hall's story about deaths from the past forcefully intersecting with contemporary lives, "Places the Dead Call Home" (ISBN 0595410715, iUniverse, 2006). "Places the Dead Call Home" has won a 17th Annual MIPA Midwest Book Award and a 2007 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY).

The story begins in 1977, with the vivid description of a dying soldier, who lies in a pool of his own blood on an army base in Virginia. The reader is then quickly pulled back to 1958, where bullets tear through the body of a young man on a lonely Oklahoma highway. Phoenix bar manager Josh Kincaid is a common link to both events. In 2002, when Kincaid's cousin proposes an urgent trip to the Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde to resolve the riddle of one of these deaths, Kincaid reluctantly agrees. Soon, he and a van full of misfits are on their way to the cliff dwellings of the "ancestral enemies," where modern enemies await them among the ruins.

A Silver Star General with a secret, a Native American ex-con named Tommy Three Hands, an eager young reporter and a failed model with a dark past round out the intriguing cast in the character-driven "Places the Dead Call Home." The book is somewhat of an orphan's crusade, as both Kincaid and reporter Jeffery Bonus were born fatherless; their dads were the victims of the riveting deaths that drive the novel. While the story progresses, the lives of each character become more strongly intertwined from past and present circumstances, and the suspense and danger mount exponentially.

Hall defines the novel as an "unconventional mystery story," because it doesn't contain a neat and tidy resolution at the end. "They are restless for the truth and that truth is endlessly elusive," Hall says of the novel's characters. The lives of the present and murders of the past finally converge in Mesa Verde, Colorado. There, the spirit of the Anasazi still seem to inhabit the ruins, and a powerful lesson about the ultimate futility of attempting to reconcile or justify history is all that remains.

About the Author:
Paul L. Hall resides in Troy, Michigan, but spends much of his time in the American Southwest and Rome, Italy. He is the author of the award-winning "Our Father" and its sequel, "The Big Island;" he is currently finishing a third novel for the series. Hall is also a prolific business writer, public relations counselor and writing instructor.

"Places the Dead Call Home" (ISBN 0595410715, iUniverse, 2006) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit www.placesthedeadcallhome.com. Publicity contact: www.readerviews.com. Review copies available upon request.

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