In the stark Nevada landscape of the 1950s, A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon explores the aftermath of a murder through the intertwined lives of three individuals. Tom Lang, a deputy sheriff, finds solace in a secret affair with Ettie Calvert, the wife of his overbearing partner, Ronnie. Their lives unravel when Adam Ott, a troubled teenager, impulsively murders Ronnie, setting off a harrowing chain of events that culminates in a deadly pursuit through the rugged mountains. Against the backdrop of the country’s nuclear bomb tests, which ominously shadow the narrative, Tom, Ettie, and Adam each wrestle with their choices and seek redemption from the haunting consequences that relentlessly pursue them.

Praise for A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon

“If John Updike had gotten together with Cormac McCarthy to write a novel called No Country for Young Men Either, they might have come up with a book as urgent and finely wrought as Richard Babcock’s A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon. This is a page-turner for the thoughtful reader: sensitive, suspenseful and deeply forgiving of its all-too-human characters. Babcock shoots for the heart and his aim is true.”

—Peter Blauner, New York Times bestselling author of Picture in the Sand and Slow Motion Riot

“A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon is so well written, so well crafted, and so deeply moving that it climbs beyond most novels of its genre and into the realm of true art. Dick Babcock is one of the best in the business.

—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life

“In the vast reaches of the Nevada desert, a cop and his Native American guide go in search of a teenage boy from a wealthy family who has committed a murder. But A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon is not just a great adventure story, it’s about people caught in the web of their own morality, a cop having an affair with his partner’s wife, a devoted mother possessed by a dangerous passion, and a group of Native Americans trying to come to terms with the modern world, but still carrying within them the legacy of history.”

—Dinitia Smith, author of The Prince

“The starkly genuine western landscape of A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon is likely to make you think of Cormac McCarthy, but the moral universe of this novel is unique and true unto itself. And, as in all of Babcock’s work, the pages are suffused with a knowing tenderness. He writes with a very smart heart and in his latest book he takes you on a suspenseful, soul stirring ride through a realm whose barrenness makes his characters seem all the more vibrantly alive. Babcock is all hat and all saddle. You will be a better person for having joined his posse.”

—Michael Daly, author of New York’s Finest

“Buckle up. The darkest cloud that hangs over Richard Babcock’s 1954-set thriller is not the aftermath of nuclear testing in the Nevada desert, but the collision of wounded characters—young and old, Indian and white—set in motion by the shocking murder of a local cop during a routine traffic stop. This is a thumpingly good chase story with writing reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and Jim Harrison. Pursuit is the drivetrain of this haunting desert tale in ‘geography that shapes people,’ but the story is made memorable by characters pursuing absolution for deeds already done.”

—Denis O’Neill, author of The River Wild