Alarmed by breaking news reports of thirteen men, women, and children who died of thirst on American soil—and twenty-two other human beings saved by Border Patrol rescue teams—John Annerino left the cool pines of his mountain retreat and journeyed into one of the most inhospitable places on earth, the heart of the 4,100-square-mile “empty quarter” that straddles the desolate corner of southwest Arizona and northwest Sonora, Mexico. During the Sonoran Desert’s glorious and brutal summer season Annerino, a photojournalist, author, and explorer, watched four border crossers step off a bus and nonchalantly head into the American no-man’s land. On assignment for Newsweek, Annerino did more than just watch on that blistering August day. He joined them on their ultramarathon, life-or-death quest to find work to feed their families, amid temperatures so hot your parched throat burns from breathing and drinking water is the ultimate treasure. As their water dwindled and the heat punished them, Annerino and the desperate men continued marching fifty miles in twenty-four hours and managed to survive their harrowing journey across the deadliest migrant trail in North America, El Camino del Diablo, “The Road of the Devil.” Driven by the mounting death toll, John returned again and again to the sun-scorched despoblado (uninhabited lands)—where hidden bighorn sheep water tanks glowed like diamonds—to document the lives, struggles, and heartbreaking remains of those who continue to disappear and perish in a region that’s claimed the lives of more than 9,700 men, women, and children. Following the historic paths of indigenous Hia Ced O’odham (People of the Sand), Spanish missionary explorer Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, and California-bound Forty-Niners, Annerino’s journeys on foot, crisscrossed the alluring yet treacherous desert trails of the El Camino del Diablo, Hohokam shell trail, and O’odham salt trails where hundreds of gambusinos (Mexican miners) and Euro-American pioneers succumbed during the 1850s. As the migrants kept coming, the deaths kept mounting, and Annerino kept returning. He crossed celebrated Sonoran Desert sanctuaries—Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Barry M. Goldwater Range, sacred ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham—that had become lost horizons, killing grounds, graveyards, and deadly smuggling corridors that also claimed the lives of National Park rangers and Border Patrol agents. John Annerino’s mission was to save someone, anyone, everyone—when he could find them. Dead in Their Tracks is the saga of a merciless despoblado in the Great Southwest, of desperate yet hopeful migrants and refugees who keep staggering north. It is the story of ranchers, locals, and Border Patrol trackers who’ve saved countless lives, and heavily armed smugglers who haunt an inhospitable, if beautiful, wilderness that remains off the radar for journalists and news organizations that dare not set foot in the American desert waiting to welcome them on its terms.

It is America’s killing field, and the deaths keep mounting. As the political debate has intensified and demonstrators have taken to the streets, more and more illegal border-crossers die trying to cross the desert on their way to what they hope will be a better life. The Arizona border is the deadliest immigrant trail in America today. For the strong and the lucky, the trail ends at a pick-up on an Interstate highway. For far too many others, it ends terribly—too often violently—not far from where they began. Dead in Their Tracks is a first hand account of the perils associated with crossing the desert on foot. John Annerino recounts his experience making that trek with four illegal immigrants—and his return trips to document the struggles of those who persist in this treacherous journey. In this spellbinding narrative, he takes readers into the “empty quarter” of the Southwest to meet the migrant workers and drug runners, the ranchers and Border Patrol agents, who populate today’s headlines. Other writers have documented the deaths; few have invited readers to share the experience as Annerino does. His feel for the land and his knowledge of surviving in the wilderness combine to make his account every bit as harrowing as it is for the people who risk it every day, and in increasing numbers. Each book includes an In Memorium card recognizing an immigrant, refugee, border agent, local, or humanitarian who has died in America's borderlands." The desert may seem changeless, but there are more bodies now, and Annerino has revised his original text to record some of the compelling stories that have come to light since the book’s first publication and has updated the photographs and written a new introduction and afterword. Dead in Their Tracks is now more timely than ever—and essential reading for the ongoing debate over illegal immigration. For information on First Serial Rights, Book Club, Film, Television, & Options, visit the Author's Web site.

Missing persons investigator David Raker’s search for a teenage girl leads him toward a site haunted by a dark history—book two of Tim Weaver’s international bestselling mystery series Seventeen-year-old Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. A straight-A student from a happy home, she studied hard and rarely got into trouble. Yet six months on, she still hasn’t been found. Missing persons investigator David Raker knows what it’s like to grieve. He knows the shadowy world of the lost, too. So when he’s hired by Megan’s parents to find out what happened, he recognizes their pain—but knows that the darkest secrets can be buried deep. And Megan’s secrets could cost him his life. Raker’s investigation takes him through a confounding string of surprises and deceptions. People close to Megan turn up dead. Others remain too terrified to talk. And soon the conspiracy of silence leads Raker towards a forest on the edge of the city. A place with a horrifying past as the hunting ground for a twisted serial killer. A place known as the Dead Tracks. . . .

Two Arkansas teenagers are run over by a train. The state medical examiner rules they smoked themselves into "a marijuana-induced stupor" before lying down, side by side on the tracks. He rules the deaths accidental. Case closed. Except that when the parents of one get the bodies exhumed, new autopsies point to murder. That launches the mom of one of the boys on a journey that will lead her into a dark world of drugs and political corruption. In 2001, after this book's release, a U.S. court of appeals wrote: "The record in this case reads like a John Grisham novel." Shockingly, this story is true.

Rob Deering has been listening to music his whole life, but it was only in his mid-thirties that – much to his surprise – he found himself falling in love with the hugely popular, nearly perfect, sometimes preposterous activity of running In this vividly conjured collection, Rob shares stories of when a run, a place and a tune come together in a life-defining moment. His adventures in running have spanned four continents, fifteen marathons and numberless miles of park and pavement, and the carefully chosen music streaming through his headphones has spurred him forward throughout. What makes the perfect running tune? Where can you find the best routes, even in an unfamiliar town? Why do people put themselves through marathons? In Running Tracks, Rob Deering shares his sometimes surprising answers to these questions, and explains how a hobby became an obsession that changed his life forever.

FBI Agent Mitch Kearns had just finished teaching a mantracking course and was looking forward to time off when the daughter of a former black-ops mentor shows up on his doorstep in desperate need of help. The Aeneid Corporation, a military contractor that provides mercenaries to third-world governments, wants Devorah Leitner dead and the secrets she carries buried. With his life taking a drastic turn as the two are pursued by trained killers through the desert, Mitch has to use every trick in his arsenal as a former combat tracker until they can thwart the sinister plot to launch a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Dead In Their Tracks is the first book in the action-adventure series by author JT Sawyer.

"A wonderfully entertaining YA horror novel" —NPR Erasmo Cruz is from the wrong side of the tracks. His dad was a junkie who overdosed. His mom chose to run off rather than raise him. His only passion is the supernatural, and his only family is his grandmother, whose aches and pains, he soon learns, aren’t just from old age but from cancer. Desperate to help his grandmother pay for treatment, Erasmo sets up shop as a paranormal investigator. After witnessing a series of inexplicable events, he must uncover the truth behind his clients' seemingly impossible claims. From hauntings to exorcisms, Erasmo soon finds that San Antonio is a much scarier place than even he knew.