Beasts of the Field

When war-torn photographer, Robert Ellis, publishes a photo that leads to a man's death, he is forcibly drawn into a Cartel boss's violent Central American Underworld. When it turns out the dead man is the boss's son, Robert Ellis must either find a way out, or pay with his own life. 

Robert Ellis sees images--a hula-hoop glittering in the center lane of a Utah highway, a soldier kneeling in a field of Afgan poppies. It is 2009 when the young photojournalist arrives in the Republic of Nicoya, a backwater nation in Central America, to sell a single exposure to a private collector. Disillusioned by hi profession, and perhaps the ethos of his country, Ellis leaves behind a moment in American history overshadowed by war and recession, carrying the hope of receiving recognition for his word. Instead, he finds himself stalked by an ex-CIA counterinsurgent as he's inexorably drawn into a violent crime network. Beasts of the Field is a novel marked by visions and trauma, a harrowing ride through animal and human nature.

"When artistic ambition leads a young photographer into the dark underworld of dogfighting, a plot of gruesome vengeance is set into motion. Alex Webb Wilson draws from the traditions of Cormac McCarthy, Horace McCoy, and Paul Bowles to give us a singular novel of vivid, hallucinatory violence. Brutal, Beautiful, and damn near impossible to put down."

-Lee Clay Johnson, author of Nitro Mountain

"An engrossing novel filled with political and psychological insight. Get it!"

-Kirkus Reviews

Alex Webb Wilson Renders his characters as complete, familiar, frightening worlds--each hurtling toward a massive collision. In the debris, the reader is left with the detritus of our world, both terrible and true.

-Kimball Taylor, author of The Coyote's Bicycle