Curse the Names - Paperback

by Robert Arellano (Author)

"In this unsettling mix of noir and paranormal obsession . . . Arellano displays a sly, Hitchcockian touch." --Publishers Weekly

"Arellano pulls off the not-inconsiderable feat of making the disintegration of his hero more compelling than the end of the world as we know it." --Kirkus Reviews

High on a mesa in the mountains of New Mexico, a small town hides a dreadful secret. On a morning very soon there will be an accident that triggers a terrible chain reaction, and the world we know will be wiped out.

James Oberhelm, a reporter at Los Alamos National Laboratory, already sees the devastation, like the skin torn off a moment that is yet to be. He believes he can prevent an apocalypse, but first James must escape the devices of a sensuous young blood tech, a lecherous old hippie, a predator in a waking nightmare, and a forsaken adobe house high away in the Sangre de Cristo mountains whose dark history entwines them all.

A massive bomb is ticking beneath the sands of the Southwest, and time is running out to send a warning. James has to find a way to pass along the message--even if it ruins him.

Author Biography

Robert Arellano is the author of the Edgar-nominated noir Havana Lunar and two earlier novels, all published by Akashic Books. Writing as Eddy Arellano, he collaborated with three artists on the graphic novel Dead in Desemboque from Soft Skull Press, and as Bobby Rabyd he created the Web's first interactive novel, Sunshine '69. He lived for seven years in the small mountain town of Dixon, New Mexico, and he now teaches in the College of Arts & Sciences at Southern Oregon University.