The Signal Book

A beautifully written and suspenseful tale of love and peril by an award-winning writer

Backpacking into the Wind River Mountains on their tenth annual trip, Mack and his wife, Vonnie, find the magnificent woods and stunning mountains of Wyoming full of ghosts and danger. Mack comes from a long line of ranchers, and his dedication to keeping the family land has led him into penury and a life of crime. Vonnie is a fiercely intelligent, headstrong girl who came west for love, only to have it stolen from her bit by bit.

They've made this trip to say goodbye to each other, but as they navigate the trails they know so well, they come to understand the true nature of their wounds. And Mack has one more secret: he is trying to receive a signal and retrieve something that has fallen from the sky. It is a beacon that will lead them into a wood far darker than they've ever imagined. Ron Carlson's love for the mountains and his mastery of fiction radiate in the pages of this thrilling, fast-paced love story.

The New York Times - Jennifer Gilmore

In The Signal, the visceral beauty of the land sustains the reader, as it has so clearly sustained Mack and Vonnie. Like Rick Bass and Jim Harrison, Carlson writes about the natural world with convincing authority. And Mack's love and admiration for the West, his familiarity with its seasons and changes, its weaknesses and strengths, illuminate, by contrast, just how limited his understanding of people can be, even his understanding of the woman he loves. The Signal takes us into terrain that's stunning and terrible. In doing so, it becomes both an elegy to a broken marriage and a heart-stopping, suspenseful thriller. It's a difficult journey, but relax: with Ron Carlson, you really are in expert hands.