Mark Nykanen, former Hood River resident, former NBC correspondent, & Emmy and Edgar-winning author will present his taut new suspense novel, Primitive on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:00pm beginning with a reception in the lobby of Columbia Center for the Arts. Presentation to follow at 7:30.

Columbia Arts is partnering with Waucoma Bookstore for the event. Books will be available for purchase.

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Environmental extremists want to use her, corporations want her dead, the government wants her gone, and her daughter just wants to save her life.

In the snowy wilderness of the Pacific northwest, a "neo-primitive" cult kidnaps fashion model Sonya Adams and forces her to be their global spokesperson. They have terrifying evidence of a cover-up by the government that could lead to an environmental doomsday. Suddenly, powerful forces want the cult and Sonya Adams silenced. As time runs out and the world watches, her daughter allies with the activist underground in a desperate attempt to rescue her, while battling dark agendas from the government and energy corporations.

Nykanen writes in his author's statement, "Primitive represents a departure for me. It’s the deeply intense story of a mother and her adult, estranged daughter caught up in the “war on terror” and climate change. There is no serial murderer in this book; however, the environmental concerns that form the subtext of [earlier books] HUSH and Search Angel step front and center in Primitive. By no means a preachy novel, Primitive contains the same narrative tension that drove readers through page after page of Primitive’s predecessors. And in the end, the accelerating force of the story may make you wonder what is truly primitive."

"The violence that does take place," Nykanen says later, "...is the kind we've become much too inured to, thanks to the militarism of U.S. policies, both at home and abroad. By telling what is clearly an allegorical story, I trust that readers will find themselves inside the "storm" in a way that's not as easy to experience by reading non-fiction accounts.

"It's also, I trust, a deeper story about the strained relationship of a mother and her adult daughter, and how their values, so remarkably in conflict at the start of the story, may not be so different by the time it ends.

"Whether that's true is up to readers to decide."

PUBLISHING DATE: October 2009, www.bellbridgebooks.com, www.marknykanen.com.

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