The Lost Highway

A highly suspenseful story of greed, betrayal and murder, The Lost Highway signals a thrilling new direction for one of this country's greatest authors. 'You can be a good man, a kind man, an officer of the human race, without having luck on your side. I have suffered enough, and have harmed no one.' For twenty years, Alex Chapman has been at war with his great-uncle James, popularly known as The Tyrant. Disillusioned and ill-tempered, Alex believes James has destroyed his chances in life when things do not turn out for him. He especially resents his great-uncle for ruining his chance at happiness with his one true love, Minnie, who married another. Alex seems destined never to amount to anything more than an embittered dreamer, until the night he runs into the simple mechanic Burton Tucker. When Burton says he has just sold James Chapman a winning lottery ticket worth thirteen million dollars, Alex immediately knows that his uncle must never see the money. That moment is the beginning of an enthralling mystery and an emotionally shattering tale of a family's passions and betrayals. The Lost Highway is a chilling study of what happens to men and women when moral questions become matters of life and death. A page-turner with great spiritual force, The Lost Highway is the work of a brilliant novelist at the peak of his powers. Strange how soft the night was, and music, coming from far across the river for the grand opening of the fair. And what else-yes, yes, yes, the most faint traces of Beethoven's Song of Joy. Amy heard the same song of joy, as she was approaching her house. She was trembling with anxiety. She woke the next day, and for the first time inher life, felt a sense of dread. What happened the night before? Later that day after she picked blueberries in the field, she heard that Poppy Bourque had disappeared. The first thing she thought of was how coincidental it was to have seen his nephew the night before. Then standing with a pail of blueberries in her hand, waiting for her mother to come from across the field, a feeling of trepidation suddenly filled her. 'Nonsense, ' she thought. 'It was nothing ' Alex Chapman was a well-known man all over the river, who had done nothing if not treat her kindly. --From The Lost Highway