From Publishers WeeklyIn this accomplished new novel that confirms the promise of Nunn's first book, Tapping the Source, the heat of the Mojave Desert not only curls the hairs on a driver's arm; it also makes the few isolated settlements tremendously lonely, the inhabitants rambunctious and vulgar, and faith a cross between beliefs that began long ago in another desert halfway across the world and kooky ideas about extraterrestrials as gods. Into this desert comes Obadiah Wheeler, a preacher trying to escape the Vietnam draft, who has been asked to lead a group of missionaries into this previously unassigned territory in barren Nevada. A man of shaky principles, he is separated from the sect elder and comes upon a ramshackle museum built around a manufactured space oddity. He encounters the trampy half-sister of the museum operator with whom he goes wandering among the desolate outposts while considering mysteries whose solution may yield either great truths or nonsense. Nunn writes with a keen portentousness about the warped people in this wasteland, creating what might be described as a western gothic. His examination of cultish thought is respectful, intriguing and funny, in a narrative that never loses dramatic momentum.From Library JournalObadiah Wheeler is a draft-dodger pretending to be a preacher. When he travels from Pomona to the Mojave Desert, he enters "unassigned territory"an area so sparsely inhabited by members of his sect that it is open to evangelistic efforts. As with Conrad's Heart of Darkness , Nunn's title refers not just to a physical place but also to an uncharted realm of confused moral values. During his sojourn in the wildernessa blend of picaresque wandering and spiritual pilgrimageWheeler discovers some varieties of religious experience far more exotic than his own. He steals a fake monster, tries to sell it to a man named Dr. Verity, gets involved in four murders, and finds true love. Nunn's outlandish characters, though skillfully developed, are like sideshow freaks: they have the power to fascinate, but they are not always credible.From the inside flap"Kem Nunn here takes his preoccupation with evil one giant step further. if you're up for a cast of characters out of a Nathanael West novel set in the High Desert, you'll love Unassigned Territory."—Carolyn See, author of Golden Days and Rhine MaidensKem Nunn's debut novel, Tapping the Source, was one of the three American Book Award nominees for Best First Work of Fiction in 1984. Hailed for his natural storytelling ability, Nunn now returns with a stunning evocation of the Mojave Desert and the unusual people who choose to live in "those terrible miles of nothing."Obadiah Wheeler, raised in a strict fundamentalist father, is fast losing his way. To keep his religious draft deferment, he is supposed to be preaching and teaching Bible study; instead, he's been hanging out in a seedy hotel, thinking up ways to lose his virginity.So, way behind in his quota of teaching hours, Obadiah agrees to go into unassigned territory—Nye County, Nevada, where there are scarcely enough people, let alone Friends, to form a congregation. And as his Brothers and Sisters are concerned with not only the quantity but the quality of Obadiah's work, they've asked Circuit Rider Harlan Low, a missionary whose spiritual strength is legend among the Friends, to go along for the ride.Unassigned Territory is the story of Obadiah and Harlan's exile. There Obadiah, craving a woman's touch, takes up with Delandra, and with her steals the Mystery of the Mojave, a terrifying creature that may or may not have been the creation of Delandra's father. And it is in the desert that Harlan, in hopes of saving Obadiah, endures a trial of spirit far greater than any he has ever known.In Unassigned Territory, Kem Nunn has created the kind of suspense that caused critics to compare him favorably the first time around with Hammett, Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. But in his poetic portrayal of the truths people confron in the arid emptiness of the American Southwest, Nunn Should also be compared to the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard.

People go to Huntington Beach in search of the endless parties, the ultimate highs and the perfect waves. Ike Tucker has come to look for his missing sister and for the three men who may have murdered her. In that place of gilded surfers and sun-bleached blondes, Ike's search takes him on a journey through a twisted world of crazed Vietnam vets, sadistic surfers, drug dealers, and mysterious seducers. Ike looks into the shadows and finds parties that drift towards pointless violence, joyless vacations and highs you might never come down from ... and a sea of old hatreds and dreams gone bad. And if he's not careful, his is a journey from which he will never return.**