From Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award winner Scott O’Connor comes a literary thriller about an infamous desert art installation, the cult it inspired, and a series of violent events.

Los Angeles, the late 1970s: Jess Shepard is an installation artist who creates environments that focus on light and space, often leading to intense sensory experiences for visitors to her work. A run of critically lauded projects peaks with Zero Zone, an installation at the former site of nuclear bomb testing in the New Mexico desert. But what begins as a vehicle for healing, soon becomes the flashpoint for a violent confrontation between a small group of fanatics experiencing what they perceive as a religious awakening within Zero Zone and the authorities.

Devastated and haunted by the events in the desert and the ensuing media attention, Jess retreats from the world. Unable to work, she unravels mentally and emotionally, plagued by a nagging uncertainty as to her culpability for what transpired in her creation.

Three years later, a survivor from Zero Zone comes calling, compelling Jess to face down her fears and recover her art—and possibly her life—from the violent cult intent of making it their own.

From Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award winner Scott O’Connor comes a literary thriller about an infamous desert art installation, the cult it inspired, and a series of violent events.

Los Angeles, the late 1970s: Jess Shepard is an installation artist who creates environments that focus on light and space, often leading to intense sensory experiences for visitors to her work. A run of critically lauded projects peaks with Zero Zone, an installation at the former site of nuclear bomb testing in the New Mexico desert. But what begins as a vehicle for healing, soon becomes the flashpoint for a violent confrontation between a small group of fanatics experiencing what they perceive as a religious awakening within Zero Zone and the authorities.

Devastated and haunted by the events in the desert and the ensuing media attention, Jess retreats from the world. Unable to work, she unravels mentally and emotionally, plagued by a nagging uncertainty as to her culpability for what transpired in her creation.

Three years later, a survivor from Zero Zone comes calling, compelling Jess to face down her fears and recover her art—and possibly her life—from the violent cult intent of making it their own.