I’ve found that there are two types of narrative non-fiction. The type that cares about its prose and is steeped in its research, and the type with more workaday prose where the research has to be there but you feel like you’re only getting the surface. Unfortunately, I went into this expecting the former and got the latter, which left me disappointed. It’s not that this is a bad book—it’s interesting and keeps your attention—but it’s not particularly memorable either.

I did enjoy the way Mezrich charted Zukowski’s descent into obsession and found that story and its related marital issues just slightly less compelling than the tracking of UFOs and animal mutilations, which I freely admit I was reading it for. There’s some interesting stuff there, by the way. If you have a passing interest in Roswell and UFOs and that, it’s worth the read. But the obsession storyline is equally strong and, I dunno, it needs to be there because this is a pseudo-biography, but using “Is he going to lose his job/family?” to keep us turning pages felt a bit cheap. As did the ending.

I‘m not sad that I read this, and at least it was fast, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up another Mezrich book. (This was my first.)

Warnings: Graphic images of dead animals. Related descriptions of gore.

6/10 ( )

Chuck Zukowski has been fascinated by UFO’s for years. A computer programmer and geek, he has managed to persuade his family to accompany him on the trips out to Colorado visiting the locations of sightings and reports. However, things are about to take a disturbing turn as he begins to read about reports of horses and cattle that have been mutilated in very strange and inexplicable circumstances. Seeing the deceased animals on a ranch with a terrified owner adds a dramatic edge to the macabre scene.

What starts out as a weekend hobby though rapidly becomes an obsession that takes up all his free time and ever increasing amounts of his bank balance as he heads to locations across Utah, Colorado and Kansas seeking details and meeting the folks that have seen these strange lights and experienced strange things. The more he finds out the stranger things become. He starts working with the Mutual UFO Network, an organisation that his sister, Debbie, also is associated with and discovers that all suspicious sightings are reported to the Bigelow Aerospace Company, a mysterious organisation founded by Robert Bigelow to begin the private exploration of space, but who seem to have feelers into other pies now. His journey into the unknown takes us to sacred Indian sites, into forests seeking the source of strange lights in the sky, the infamous Roswell and to the very edge of Area 51.

There are moments of genuine bafflement as to what is going on; is it just government programmes or something of greater significance. He is trailed by SUVs with tinted windows and federal plates with the sinister ‘men in black’ guys who do their best to put him off continuing investigating the unexplained… I do like to read the odd conspiracy theory book, sometimes just for the entertainment factor. Mezrich thankfully lifts what could be a dull story about something that you really cannot get a handle on, to something quite readable and quite dramatic at times. Fairly sure there isn’t visitors from elsewhere, but there is definitely something happening with government heavies all over these reports and sightings. ( )

I've read a number of Mezrich's books and they all follow the same general flow. He takes a trendy topic with a supposedly nonfiction characters and spins a tale of wonder and intrigue. Well almost, here we have him taking on the lore of UFO-ology and runs with it.

The main character is a jack of all trades talker type who becomes a reserve police officer, but his hobby and/or life passion is investigating UFO incidents mainly from the distant past such as Roswell. He seems to have more going on with cattle mutilations however and the book constantly comes back to these. Nothing really to see here folks as most of the book is a snoozer. He leaves us with his great discovery which we won't spoil, but read the title. And it is left hanging there as we are suspecting secret government Ops or maybe a mysterious billionaire with his own space program and agenda. Stay tuned. ( )

Not sure whether to take this book seriously or treat it as some kind of joke. It comes across as a pseudo-serious account of UFO sighting, animal mutilations, but the whole thing is written in such a overly dramatic fashion it almost reads like fiction. The ridiculously redacted last page is the final straw. ( )

Ultimately a disappointing read for me. I've never read Mezrich before, although I'm aware of some of his work. The subject of this one appealed to the X-Files fan in me, but there's no substance to it. The whole premise of a 'UFO Highway' isn't even addressed until the very end, and there's no effort made to examine whether there's truth to it. I think there's an interesting story in here, but this book doesn't deliver it. ( )