To say that Stonecypher Road crosses genres is an understatement. First of all, it's literate. But then again, it's also a pulp novel, and pulp adventure thrillers don't usually read like literary fiction. The subject matter is even more of a paradox. Crystal skulls and The Holy Grail and "mole people" are preposterous to the point of being tacky, and yet in the hands of these two authors, these cliches seem totally believable. Maybe even mundane.

With this book, it's hard to know what's real and what's fiction. That sense of reality stems partly from the rich dialog. It's exceedingly conversational. Again, this is something not normally found in a pulp novel. It is perhaps because of this believability growing throughout the pages that the ending achieves its shock value. And shocking it is! I defy any reader to say they see it coming.

This book is either a brilliantly-plotted novel, or a confusing enigma. I've read it twice, and I'm still perplexed by it. Whatever it is, it's certainly unique.

Stonecypher Road- the debut novel from co-authors, Warren and Nancy Longwell-has a tone and style that's remarkably literate for a potboiler. But, then, this isn't an average potboiler.
If you wonder, as I did, how a married couple would go about the process of co-authoring a book, the answer becomes evident as two stories are combined seamlessly in this work. The death of a mother and the confrontation of childhood poverty (Nancy's story) blends with the cat-and-mouse intrigue of an ingeniously-hidden code and an ancient prophecy (Warren's story) into a believable tale with an ending that is truly stunning. I can enthusiastically recommend this book for its multiple-story-line plot.