Nowhere Land: A Stephan Raszer Investigation

Stephan Raszer Investigations #3

by A.W. Hill

After a young member of the Jehovah’s Witness Church is abducted in conjunction with a ritualistic triple homicide in the mountains outside of Los Angeles, the church engages cult specialist Stephan Raszer to find her perilous trail. Based on evidence that the girl may have been trafficked into a sex and terrorism ring with a Middle Eastern nexus, Raszer soon unveils an inside-out reality that begins on the Internet and ends in a fabled fortress on the borderlands of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, where a powerful figure known only as the Old Man is said to hold the strings.

With the dubious aid of the abductee’s wayward sister, along with a renegade CIA agent and a fraternity of sojourning gamesters, Raszer journeys far from the rational world and deep into a dangerous and erotically charged netherland. Piece by piece, he gathers evidence of a world-altering criminal conspiracy linked to an ancient Persian sect that uses an Internet role-playing game to recruit its foot soldiers. To solve the puzzle and find the girl, Stephan Raszer must play the game and try to hold on to his soul and his sanity in a world turned on its head.

388 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book- Hill has a gift. It's a private-eye thriller- made contemporary in content, with spirituality as the criminal content and motivation. Hill has a great dramatic sense, and is able to keep the reader craving for more.

[teal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me, on page 442: This book cannot conclude in a way I'll accept with so few pages left.

A.W. Hill: Challenge accepted.

I cannot decide if I can handle more Stephan Raszer or not. I need more time to simmer on it.

[LavenderPoodle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in 2010, when the ISIL wasn't even existing. When I heard how they recruit their terrorist fighters, I had the very uncanny memory of how precisely this has been foreshadowed by this book. The novel left a great impression.

[Harry Kuperberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this paranormal detective thriller. Detective Raszer goes on a chase that takes the reader to far-flung, exotic locales in search of weird cults.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was One odd duck book.