The Ghost Ocean: A Novel

Richard Benke

Foreword by Max Evans

Set in the border area between southwestern New Mexico and northern Mexico, The Ghost Ocean is a story of modern-day crime and violence. While tracking a wolf killer, Bureau of Land Management ranger Will Mann is startled by gunfire and then he finds the body of a twelve-year-old girl.

In the remote Gila Wilderness, violence is a way of life. The area is home to conflicting groups, including ranchers and environmentalists; drug runners, people smugglers, and law enforcement officials. During the investigation of the young girl's death, every group is suspect.

"The ghost ocean of the title covers the ancient sea beds that were once southwestern New Mexico. Found here are portraits drawn in words, with sentences so wonderfully trim and precise that Hemingway himself would have admired them. [Richard] Benke has perfectly balanced both sides of the border and both sides of the ecological war by revealing all its human participants simply as human beings, slowly, agonizingly coming together. The book is a murder mystery. It is an earth mystery, and we must read to the end to see if either can be solved."--Max Evans, author of Madam Millie and The Rounders

Finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award in the Best First Novel category.

". . . Evocative debut mystery novel. . . . unobstrusive but vivid description and convincing dialogue, both of which complement the severity of the land and the people who have learned the hard lessons in toughing it out there."--Albuquerque Journal

". . .well researched and precisely written."--San Antonio Current

"The Ghost Ocean is, above all, a good and rewarding mystery. The plot is so rich in potential culprits that deducing the murderer provides a challenge for even the keenest mind."--Los Alamos Monitor

"The Ghost Ocean, by Richard Benke, is a dark, complex mystery about the war between environmentalists and ranchers, drug runners and people-smugglers and the law."--The Denver Post

"A well-told story with so many plot twists that I was actually suprised at the end as to who had really done it. It's an excellent story, made all the more impressive by the fact that it is Benke's first novel." --Lummox Journal

"Reading [The Ghost Ocean] gave me the same sense of excitement and recognition that Michael McGarrity's Tulsarosa did years back. . . . Benke obviously has a long, heartfelt relationship with the land of Southern New Mexico, and if this finely crafted debut is any indication he's at the threshold of a long, successful career."--Poison Pen Reviews

"Southwest author Tony Hillerman comes to mind when reading Benke's book."--Oklahoman

"There are enough powerful scenes, enough vivid atmosphere, in The Ghost Ocean to make southern New Mexico boil to life. This is a high-minded novel in which many parts. . are exquisite."--The Santa Fe New Mexican

"This is a gripping story that you can't put down until you finish."--Roundup Magazine

"This is the best novel about this part of the West and its border with Mexico since Cormac McCarthy's 'All the Pretty Horses.' "--Silver City Press

Richard Benke spent nearly thirty years as an Associated Press newsman. He resides in Albuquerque.

6 x 9 288 pages