Lullaby Road

In Anderson’s atmospheric but implausible sequel to 2015’s The Never-Open Desert Diner, veteran trucker Ben Jones learns at the Stop ’n’ Gone Truck Stop outside Price, Utah, that Pedro, a tire man he knows slightly, has left his apparently traumatized son, Juan, who looks to be five or six, and the boy’s fiercely protective dog in Ben’s care. Ben feels he has no choice but to take Juan and the dog with him. Things quickly go from bad to worse: a speeding semi almost obliterates him and his precious cargo; his nomadic preacher friend, John, who hauls a life-size crucifixion cross up and down the highway, is left critically injured by a hit-and-run that may not have been an accident; and someone draws a gun on him for what will prove the first of several times during the next couple of days. Ben’s efforts to protect the child and the dog plunge him into increasing peril, but even after a harrowing climax the reader may well feel as though the journey has been, in the trucker’s words, “back and forth between no place and nowhere.” Arresting desert vistas and distinctive characters leave a lasting impression. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (Jan.)