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Picnic in the Ruins

By: Todd Robert Petersen
Narrated by: Eliana Marianes
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Publisher's summary

Anthropologist Sophia Shepard is researching the impact of tourism on cultural sites in a remote national monument on the Utah-Arizona border when she crosses paths with two small-time criminals. The Ashdown brothers were hired to steal maps from a "collector" of Native American artifacts, but their ineptitude has alerted the local sheriff to their presence. Their employer, a former lobbyist seeking lucrative monument land that may soon be open to energy exploration, sends a fixer to clean up their mess. Suddenly, Sophia must put her theories to the test in the real world, and the stakes are higher than she could have ever imagined.

What begins as a madcap caper across the RV-strewn vacation lands of Southern Utah becomes a meditation on mythology, authenticity, the ethics of preservation, and one nagging question: Who owns the past?

©2021 Todd Robert Petersen (P)2021 Scribd Audio
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What listeners say about Picnic in the Ruins

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Incredible story, for fans of Ed Abbey & Baldwin

This book should be read by all fans of red rock adventures. A mystery, an outdoor adventure and a great story all in one. If you like Ed Abbey, Scott Graham's national park series, or A.W. Baldwin's Relic this is in that sphere.

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Good story bad reading

The readers weird Midwestern accent for the people in southern Utah was bizarre. Almost to the point I had a hard time finishing the book it was so distracting.

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Excellent!

This was a great story. Intrigued by the complex characters and completely transported by the beautiful descriptions of the landscape. Loved the suggested theme to current events and politics.Will be looking up further books by this author.

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The reading ruined the story for me

Awful choice of narration for a story with so many dialogue and accents. While the story sounded promising, it was ruined by the narration. The narrator sounds choppy and angry through out the book, makes every dialogue sound like an argument, and her portrayal of the accents is very cringe.

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