The Divide

Homegrown terrorists plot to blow up a major water tunnel under the Continental Divide in Colorado; it falls on a troubled hiker on the Continental Divide Trail to uncover their plan and stop them. 

In this newest Awol hiking thriller, Karl Bergman, whose trail name is Awol, begins to thru-hike the 3,100-mile-long Continental Divide Trail at the Mexican border. By the time Awol and his dog, Blazer, reach the Colorado Rockies, he has uncovered information about a terrorist plot. Awol asks his son, a graduate student at UCLA, to give details to an old friend, Detective Vincent Sacco. Awol tells his son he doesn’t want to get involved and continues his thru-hike. Awol is beyond annoyed when FBI agent, Diana Santos, finds him on the CDT and asks him to work with her and infiltrate. Awol, never having been so tested and full of incriminating information, is wounded by a compound-bow arrow as he rushes to prevent catastrophe. 

He knows he has a chance to save many lives, farms, and crops; he fears he will die before he can take that chance.

PRAISE FOR THE DIVIDE & RAY ANDERSON

“Anderson takes you through a scenic nightmare of greed, treachery, and death that isn’t resolved until the last page.” 

-Gary Braver author of Tunnel Vision and Gray Matter

“Ray Anderson has done it again. His second book, Sierra, is a fast-paced thriller that will take you hiking across the arid deserts and up the soaring peaks of the Pacific Crest Trail, all while chasing and being chased by a ruthless smuggling ring using the trail to run drugs. Lace-up your boots.”

Vincent H. O’Neil, author of Glory Main

Even in the wilderness, trouble seems to find Karl Bergman.

Years after his run-in with a serial killer on the Appalachian Trail, Bergman sets out on a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail with his dog, Blazer, with hopes of returning home a better man. But the discovery of a dead body on the outskirts of the Anza-Borrego Desert threatens to embroil Bergman in another violent chain of events with even higher stakes than his previous ordeal.

This time his adversary is not just one man as the dead body appears to be linked to a drug cartel using mules to move product from Mexico to Canada. An uneasy alliance with a San Diego narcotics officer makes things more difficult. However, when Bergman reconnects with his estranged son Kenny, a sophomore at UCLA, he puts both of them in grave danger that they can only escape by bringing down the cartel’s operation.

PRAISE FOR SIERRA & RAY ANDERSON

“In Ray Anderson’s Sierra, hard drugs are muled by thugs along the Pacific Crest Trail. No one has a clue until Awol and his mutt, Blazer, step into a hornet’s nest involving Mexico’s biggest drug cartel. Anderson takes you through a scenic nightmare of greed, treachery, and death that isn’t resolved until the last page.”

―Gary Braver author of Tunnel Vision and Gray Matter

“Ray Anderson has done it again. His second book, Sierra, is a fast-paced thriller that will take you hiking across the arid deserts and up the soaring peaks of the Pacific Crest Trail, all while chasing and being chased by a ruthless smuggling ring using the trail to run drugs. Lace-up your boots.”

―Vincent H. O’Neil, author of Glory Main

“Like Ray Anderson’s first novel The Trail, his new Awol thriller (named for his pseudonymous thru-hiking protagonist) is tense, twisty, and steeped in details that only an experienced long-distance hiker could put on the page. Anderson brings the danger and excitement of the remote Pacific Crest Trail fully to life. More than that, he tells one hell of a story. For fans of outdoor mysteries, Sierra is sure to satisfy.”

―Paul Doiron, author of Widowmaker 

Everyone hikes the Trail for a reason. Some reasons are more deadly than others.

After committing the most recent in a series of murders, Paul Leroux goes on the lam the last place the police would look for an out-of-shape chain-smoker.

Haunted by his past, Desert Storm veteran Karl Bergman leaves his wife and home behind and sets out on the Appalachian Trail in search of something missing in his life. He never dreams that his quest will force him to confront a serial killer.

When their paths collide, a tense battle of wills ensues. Will Leroux make it to Canada before the police can track him down? Can Bergman put his demons to rest and help stop him? And how many more people will die if he cannot?

Written with an eye for the details only those who have hiked the Appalachian Trail can give, The Trail combines the solitary world of trail life with the harrowing story of two men desperately trying to escape their pasts.

PRAISE FOR THE TRAIL & RAY ANDERSON

“The Trail is an intense psychological cat-and-mouse thriller, written by a bright new talent who is very familiar with the military survival strategies and the unique and unforgettable setting that distinguishes this story. Well-written and well-researched, Ray Anderson’s debut novel will grab you from the disturbing opening scene and hold you in its grip to the grand payoff at the end of the Trail.”

―Gary Braver, bestselling author of Skin Deep, Tunnel Vision

“There’s particular darkness in the crimes of a middle-aged man. Murder’s thought to be the medium of younger people with poor impulse control, bad nurture and a hormonally-induced taste for the dark side. But when a man at mid-life commits murders on the Appalachian Trail, the crimes open a window onto something aberrant. Ray Anderson captures this darkness with extraordinary skill. He’s in total control of his prose, characters, and a story that manifests the most disturbing crisis of all―that humans can do these things, and we the readers, are human too.”

―Mike Hogan, author of The Burial of the Dead

“This book has more twists and turns than the Appalachian Trail itself...a compelling, atmospheric thriller... Anderson captures the imagery and emotion of the renowned Trail like no one else...”

―Brett Ellen Block, author of The Lightning Rule, Destination Known, and The Grave of God’s Daughter

“The Trail perfectly captures the essence of the backpacker’s lifestyle, and the natural beauty of the outdoors stands in stark contrast with the violent events that unfold.”

―Michelle Ray, author of How to Hike the A.T.

“This novel is riveting – for all of us who like a good chase, fine descriptions of life along the famous trail, and a satisfying ending.”

- The Barnstable Patriot