Introducing The Desert King

a novel by T.F. Torrey

Get lost in the desert!

It’s 1985, and Jack Trexlor is fresh out of the Arizona state mental hospital. He’d like to simply tend bar, paint pictures, and lay low for a while, but his old friend Macy Barnes turns up, and things quickly spiral out of control. Macy introduces him to an enigmatic Navajo man named John Lupo and the high-adrenaline world of the desert. Thrilled by adventure, Jack accepts their invitation to a weekend fishing trip. By the cool water of the Verde River, deep in the heart of the desert, he thinks he just may find something he’s been missing. What he finds instead is trouble. The group grows to include John’s girlfriend and Macy’s wife, and snakes, scorpions, and the ghosts of Jack’s own past keep everybody on their toes. And when some poachers slink out of the sagebrush, things go from bad to worse. As their quiet fishing trip decays into a desperate ordeal of survival, Jack slowly comes to realize that, even if John Lupo can lead them out of the desert, nothing will ever be the same.

Tonto National Forest is a vast wilderness preserve northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. Imagine being lost there. Imagine being hunted there. That’s The Desert King.

What They're Saying

... The Desert King has a Pulp Fiction feel about it with the whole back tracking and going over people’s lives. I liked that and I was instantly interested as I wanted to know who these people were and what were they doing. It’s a book where everything is not as it seems. As a reader I kept thinking I knew what would happen next and then was surprised when it didn’t....

From Once Upon A Romance

Compelling characters + tight plot + beautiful/unforgiving setting=GREAT READ!

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Get It Now

The sleek publishing arrangement of Provocative Press allows The Desert King to be available in a variety of formats and locations. Get it now from these fine sources ...

Trade Paperback: Available best signed from the Author Direct, but also available (unsigned) in the U.S. through Amazon and worldwide via Lulu.com
Hardcover: Exclusively at Lulu.com
PDF E-Book: Available at Lulu.com

... or read on for more information.

The Players: Characters of The Desert King

When the chips are down and the desert is big and sun is hot and the storms are brewing and the hunters just keep coming, all these five friends will have is each other—and their secrets.

Jack Trexlor: Perpetual anti-hero, Jack is 23, dreaming as an artist, working as a bartender, and looking for adventure. Somehow, Jack always ends up getting more than he bargained for, and plenty to feel guilty about. He will find all that and more in the desert.
Macy Barnes: A childhood friend of Jack's, Macy is working to set himself up in a new life in Phoenix. Since he saw Jack last, he has grown fond of high-adrenaline games—and the desert.
Sharon Barnes: Macy's high-school sweetheart, now his wife. She is not happy with Macy, not happy about being pregnant, not happy about being in Phoenix. And she knows Jack's secret. One of them, anyway.
John Lupo: First a co-worker, now a fast friend of Macy's, this enigmatic Navajo man has a quick mind, deep wisdom, a generous heart, and a most amazingly steadfast outback hat.
Erica Bailey: She has been a nurse at the VA hospital for a few years, and John's girlfriend for a few months. Try as he might, Jack can't seem to stop looking at her—no matter how much trouble it brings.

Preview: "It Begins With A Yes"--from Chapter One

No good adventure ever began with a no. On the night everything started, though, that’s exactly what I was trying to say. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to spend time with my old friend Macy, or that I wasn’t open to adventure. It wasn’t even that I was scared—well, not that scared. I was just trying to stay out of trouble.

That was soon after I had stopped driving to work. Without my car, I wouldn’t be able to drive around after work and get lost; I’d pretty much have to go straight home. I wouldn’t be able to give drunk girls a ride home; I’d have to call them a taxi. Walking to and from work, I thought I could just tend bar and keep my nose clean and stay away from trouble. That’s what I thought.

But I was wrong.

My old friend Macy Barnes showed up one night at one a.m. as I was closing down the bar. He gave me a ride home, and we drank a couple of beers. Then his friend, John Lupo, whom I did not know, showed up. They began talking about playing some game involving the police and shooting guns. Then they wanted me to play, and they wanted to leave now.

They swallowed the last of their beers and stood up. John took a small revolver from his pocket and popped out the cylinder to make sure it was loaded. He looked at it, smiled, snapped the cylinder back in, and put it back in his pocket.

Macy turned to me. “Are you comin’?”

Trouble had found me.

My old friend Macy was a California native and looked the stereotype with his blond hair trimmed short, shiny blue eyes, and stylish mustache. Macy was about five feet, nine inches tall, and at that time he was twenty-two years old. John Lupo, on the other hand, looked to be an American Indian of one sort or another. He seemed to be quite a bit older than Macy; I guessed about thirty, but I couldn’t tell for sure. John was a couple inches shorter than Macy, but they were both built lean and firm, the way people get not from working out in a gym but from working hard for a living. They both looked like they could take care of themselves.

I was a few inches taller and a year older than Macy, but I did not work hard for a living, and I felt soft. “No,” I said. “I can’t go.”

“Why not?” Macy asked.

“Oh.” I thought quickly. “It’s too hot tonight.”

“This is Phoenix. Almost July. It’s hot every night.”

“This night feels hotter than usual,” I lied. It could have been forty below and I still would have been sweating. I didn’t like the police, and I hated guns.

“That’s because it’s more humid than usual,” he explained. “Monsoon’s coming.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “What time is it?”

“A little after two.”

“Whew!” I yawned a little. “I’m getting tired.”

“Once things get rolling and your adrenaline starts flowing, you’ll be wide awake. I guarantee it.”

He didn’t have to. It already was. “But it’s so hot ….”

“You won’t even notice. Besides, you can crank up the air and this little apartment will be nice and cool by the time we get back.”

“What if we get caught?”

“We won’t get caught. John and I have done this lots of times. Even if the police were to catch us, we’d just say we didn’t know anything. They couldn’t prove it was us. And besides, they won’t even have a crime to arrest anybody for.”

I thought about it. If we got questioned I would have the best alibi. I could just say I’d gone for a walk after work, that I had heard the shots but hadn’t seen anything. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d lied to the police. And they probably got lied to all the time, anyway.

“Well?” Macy asked, smiling broadly now that he could see he had me hooked. “You coming?”

I stood up from the couch and picked up my beer. I paced over to the wall and back, swallowed the last of the beer, and studied the empty bottle. Ah, sweet alcohol, sweet maker of tough choices. I chose to look at the whole thing as a learning experience. Besides, no good adventure ever began with a no.

“Let me change my clothes.”

Read the rest of Chapter One online, or read on for more....

More Previews

Like to read before you buy? You're in the right place with this book. Between the the preludes and postlude, excerpts and extras, you can spend quite some time browsing the literature. Enjoy.

Online Excerpts

The excerpts present material from the book, exactly as it appears.

Foreword: A note by the author about the incredible journey this book took to get into the world. All true.
Prologue: All the Trexlor books have a prologue to set the mood for the story.
Chapter One: Quite an action-packed introduction, full of memorable violence and bad smells.
Thorns And Miles: An excerpt from the middle of the book, when the predicament becomes clear.

Find many more previews, including preludes and more, at the book's website at www.tftorrey.com/thedesertking.

Preludes

I wrote quite a fair number of little vignettes showing Jack's life leading up to his adventures in The Desert King. In them, a reader will gain insight into Jack's state of mind going into his adventures, as well as an appreciation of Jack's apartment and work life, which are never really explored in the book. The stories are listed here in chronological order. Getting Out takes place in August of the year before the adventure, and the stories progress until Home Is Where The Art Is, which is about two weeks before the start of The Desert King.

If you like the book, you'll like these. And if you like these, you'll like the book.

Getting Out: At the end of a yet-unwritten prequel, Jack leaves the hospital.
A Place Of Destiny: Jack finds employment at Gridlock.
Return Of The Car: Just when Jack begins to feel as though he's building a new life, along comes a relic from the past.
It Doesn't Count If You Turn Around And Go Home: Jack isn't quite this desperate. Yet.
An Ordinary Night Like No Other: Jack meets a person who will become pivotal in his life.
Art Doesn't Just Happen: Jack's best laid plans come together, for nothing.
Tarnished Dreams: Jack begins to fear being in a rut.
Home Is Where The Art Is: Jack realizes he is poised for adventure.

Postludes

And here is a postlude, from a time soon after the story, fleshing out an event referred to in the book (or is this simply a prelude for The Tonto Ten?).

The Famous Jack: Returned from his adventure, Jack finds fame, and his old life, tiresome.

Some other things of possible interest to fans:

Edition History: A complete listing of various editions of The Desert King.
The News: Read the latest information about The Desert King, as reported in my weblog.