A fast paced thriller with a sense of humor that examines the nuanced issue of who owns the past.

Petersen attempts toasty philosophical questions about the ownership of land and artifacts with a high octane western thriller, and it works, for the most part.

The setting is exceptionally well rendered, and the characters are an entertaining cast, though perhaps fewer of them and more time spent with each would have helped the parts of this that felt a bit jumbled.

Petersen is more successful with the philosophical component of the book than with the more plot driven, action components. I appreciated his careful discussions on conservation, and the recognition that it isn’t always as simple as the pie in the sky idealist would have you believe, even if their sentiments feel correct.

The more plot driven parts of the book veer off into hokeyness at times and feel cluttered at frequent intervals, but on the whole it’s an entertaining attempt to marry ethics and action.

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't think it was fair to review a book I didn't finish.

If like the bumbling of the Coen Brothers movies mixed with a thriller like thread running through, this is the book to read. Highly recommend.

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

A murdered, self-taught archeologist dentist, a National Park ranger, a disillusioned German dermatologist, an assassin named Scissors, two hapless brothers (one "tall and thin and off-kilter," the other resembling a "burnt stump"), a Japanese video game designer, a Princeton doctoral candidate, a conspiracy theorist recluse, sister wives and numerous other intriguing characters converge near Bryce Canyon National Park in Picnic in the Ruins, Todd Robert Petersen's darkly comic, madcap thriller with overarching social themes.

When artifact collector Bruce Cluff is killed, several maps are stolen from his home. What the maps show and who wants them is the greater plot arc, supported by a series of underlying threads that add to the mystery and lunacy. Sophia Shepard is researching her thesis on the ethics of preserving ancient artifacts ("One person's artifact is another person's ancestor"). Tourist Reinhardt Kupfer, disillusioned with the U.S. and his tour group, departs on his own "quest." Paul Thrift, park ranger and Sophia's semi-romantic friend, takes her on an outing to one of the secret map locations where she learns things she doesn't want to know. Not long after, they find themselves in a shootout and on the run with Reinhardt.

Unsurprisingly, Petersen (Rift) teaches creative writing and screen studies at Southern Utah University. Picnic is wildly creative and easily envisioned. The cultural appropriation and preservation lessons are thick, but they come by an honest need to avoid being engulfed by the blackly humorous, action-packed adventure. This fun caper stands up to some needed mindfulness.

This Western thriller takes place in an unnamed national monument near Bryce Canyon. I'm pretty sure it is meant to be the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the characters are involved in a scheme associated with the federal government's plans to reduce the size of the monument, something that has actually happened to Grand Staircase Escalante during the last administration. The monument contains many Indian ruins, both charted and uncharted, and this book concerns the attempt by some to plunder those ruins and the opposing attempt by others to protect them.

The characters are just what you might expect from a book set in the vastness of the Western landscape, including an archeologist, a park ranger, and a tourist on the preservationist side and backwoods brothers, an evil capitalist, and a hired assassin on the opposing side. In addition, the reader meets a small-town lawman, an off-the-grid eccentric, a polygamist family living alongside an isolated antigovernment group, and many others. The book has a very eclectic and fascinating cast.

Throughout, the reader is asked to join in a struggle to understand the nuances of ownership of ancient ruins and artifacts. As one can imagine, this is a very complex topic which Petersen asks the reader to contemplate but for which he doesn't provide a definitive answer. Copies of copies and provenance play a role, but mainly to stimulate reflection. The fast-paced suspense is well resolved, if somewhat quickly, at the end of the book. I found a connection revealed at the very end to be a bit hokey, but otherwise found the ending satisfying.

The writing about the desert landscape of the monument is beautiful and as enticing as it is frightening. I loved reading about this part of the world, an area that is familiar to me. Being transported by Petersen to the monument is as close as some will come to visiting it, and I imagine the heroes of this book, and Petersen himself, will be quite happy with that.

This adrenaline filled, crime ridden, often humourous romp through the wild lands of Utah and Arizona was like an action movie in print form. There were shootings, car chases, kidnapping, double-crosses, and of course murder, but somehow it was also really fun! There is an almost slapstick level of comedy provided by the Ashdown Brothers and their idiotic, yet witty banter that made me chuckle more than once. There are a lot of characters who at first seem to have little to do with each other but as time goes on connections are made until finally it escalates into absolute mayhem and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that not everyone survives. I was particularly concerned about sweet cinnamon roll and inadvertent cultural appropriator Reinhardt and I won’t give any hints about his fate or that of any other character, except the dog; the dog survives. I can say that the perilous final chase through the desert was an absolute nail-biter and I was sure everyone was going to die. There was serious tension until the glorious and satisfying end.

While this is a crime novel full of excitement and humour it also sneaks in serious messages about everything from archaeological ethics to government corruption to the treatment of Native Americans. As an archaeologist I died a little inside reading some of these scenes. Working in the Middle East I am very aware of looting and artifacts on the black market so I’m not at all shocked by that aspect but some of the actions of even the “good guys” caused me to physically cringe. I’m pretty sure my soul shriveled and hoped for death during the scene involving a backhoe. There are a lot of thoughtful relevant issues brought up dealing with the ownership of artifacts and archaeological sites and the ethics removing pieces to museums or even to private collections. The balance between preserving artifacts and preventing their possible destruction while maintaining their meaning is a tricky one and I certainly don’t have it figured out and neither do these characters.

I completely enjoyed this rowdy crime caper and its strange, wonderful, and often awful characters. While the archaeologist in me couldn’t stop figuratively covering my eyes in horror it didn’t prevent me from losing myself to the hot, dusty landscape and the madcap tale. There are characters to love and many to hate and I had no problem getting invested in and swept away by the story.

Thank you Counterpoint Press for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

I really wanted to like this. I had heard it was funny, and in my mind I had kind of expected it to be a Coen brothers dark comedy type of road trip adventure, but that is not what it was. It was...so slow. It just unspools, but in a way you just can’t bring yourself to get that worked up about. I like big sticky philosophical questions, but this. I just don’t know. It wasn’t the book for me. I found myself just very frustrated, very not-laughing, and bored. I didn’t hate it - it’s really well written. But I just didn’t find the experience enjoyable at this particular moment in time.

I did love the setting, and having visited the area on a number of occasions helped me really imagine it vividly. The cast of characters is somewhat sprawling. No one is particularly that likable (not a deal-breaker at all but, just a fact). So many details included about some of the characters that I just wonder so much about why they were included.

This is not a fair comparison, but this story is kind of like if you took Grisham’s novel The Pelican Brief and then removed ANY SENSE OF URGENCY from the story. Just, kind of convoluted and politically fraught, an assassin chasing people, but like, you don’t care that much.

I wish I could be more constructive. *hides face in hands* Sorry, just not my favorite reading experience.

Maybe it is because I spent a lot of time in this part of the Four Corners region and explored Native heritage sites, this book was spot on for me. The overlying theme of the story is what it means to “own” land and artifacts, and how we should be looking at history. Should history be stuck on shelves in private collections or museums? When an outspoken anthropology Ph.D candidate is sent to the Bryce Canyon region for her dissertation work, she becomes friends with a rogue Department of the Interior employee. Both along with a German tourist end up being shot at by a fiend trying to access ancient artifacts. The storyline is great, but what I enjoyed most about this book is the characters. Peterson must be a good people watcher. Reinhart, the German doctor with the romantic vision of the Native American was spot on. I’ve taught nutty brothers like he Ashdowns. The characters are so authentic. I’m lamented the death of Tony Hillerman and am pleased to see a new author with an appreciation of the Native American point of view.

This is one of those rare novels that would be better as a movie. Sophia, a Phd student in archeology, finds herself in the middle of a somewhat muddled mess of people in a remote area of the southwest. She's studying the impact of tourism on Native American sites even as she gives tours and lectures. She crosses paths with the loathsome Ashdown brothers who were involved in a robbery of artifacts. Then there's a cast of others who felt in some ways like caricatures. I wanted to like this, I really did, but the message about owning history got lost in my impatience with the people. That said, I'd love to see what the Coen brothers would do with it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

There’s a ‘scene’ in “Picnic in the Ruins” where Sophia Shepard is giving a presentation to a herd of tourists. While she talks about museums and who owns the items inside of the museums, one of the audience members mentions that instead of going to a museum, these tours are bringing people to the original locations - almost more of an ‘on-site’ museum. Something about this stuck out to me. When we (as people) go to museums, we are just looking at stuff from other places. Why don’t we go to those places instead? Why are there collectors of artifacts? Who owns these artifacts? What is the value of these items and these places?

Maybe that’s going too deep. Let’s set the stage.

Sophia Shepard is a Ph.D student who has been relegated to remote Utah. She studies in the impact of tourism on Native American sites. The Ashdown brothers are two ne’er do wells who botched a simple robbery and now are on the run from their fixer…who is a ex-magician. There’s a (handsome) Department of the Interior agent and a dermatologist from Germany who join Sophia on her studies and journey to various sites.

There’s also a small town sheriff, a widow and a hi-tech cyber punk turned hermit. It’s like….It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World took place in the Utah desert and instead of ‘loot’, its artifacts and historical sites.

This book is almost an onion - on the surface, a mystery, but peel back the layers for the comedy, then the core. The core plot of this book is the idea of ownership and artifacts. The question of who owns land and how has colonialism and westward expansion changed the landscape. Of what happens to those people and artifacts.

I’m a massive fan of Todd Robert Peterson and his books and I have been for a long time. He was, in fact, the first comp. professor I had in college and his lessons on writing stick with me to this day. His books and writing in general always leave me with a lingering feeling - one that makes me want to write more, to research more, to question more. This book is no different.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in advance of the January 5, 2021 release date. Thank you x1 million to Todd for continuing to inspire me, 20+ years later.

This is OK. I was hoping to like it more. I don't think the story and it's elements are particularly memorable. It's mostly engaging, which is certainly a plus. It just didn't have the polish of higher quality mysteries.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

What I did like about this book was its setting. But it's the second thriller I've read lately that uses dispute over antiquities, their provenance and eventual fate. Who owns the past. There are quite a lot of characters, but with one exception, none are particularly memorable.

I would have given 3.5 stars if possible because the book did grab my attention, and keep it until the end. That said, the plot and characters were muddled, and it got increasingly unrealistic as the story progressed. I appreciate the author's attempt to draw attention to important conversations about who owns the land, and how colonialism has turned history and culture into spectacle, but it definitely could have been addressed more smoothly.

If you like the desert & National Parks of Utah and Arizona, you'll appreciate reading this book for descriptions of place alone. Also good for people who like archaeological thrillers.

I love the premise of this book. Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t quite live up to the promise. An over abundance of storylines clouds the more interesting discussion about the treatment of indigenous people, their lands and their culture.

Simply put, I did not enjoy this book.
Set in the Southwest United States, it's a story about ancient Indian ruins, their preservation, and their looting.
I feel the author lost his way. Too many characters, none of whom I liked. The story itself couldn't figure out where it wanted to go. It felt jumbled together, and not really going anywhere. It just left me feeling unsettled and unsatisfied.
Cannot recommend this one.