ZERO A. D. — Wade Miller

WAS ALL HISTORY FAKE – AND THE EARTH REALLY ONLY 20 YEARS OLD?Wade Miller is a Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allen Poe Award, the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Crime Writers League Award. Here is Wade Miller at his hart-boiled best - but in a science fiction novel. And what a novel!When reporter Johnny Sharp was asked to interview the world-famous scientist and researcher, Professor James Crockett, who had offered Sharp's paper a breakthrough story, Johnny had no idea it was not just a story that would astound the world – but change it completely. For Professor Crockett had discovered that the universe wasn't 14 billion years old as astrophysics seemed to show, or even 6 thousand years as others believed – but only 20 years old. And that everything else, from geological evidence to people's memories had been fabricated and created as an experiment by a superior race, inhabitants of the true universe and Earth (called Moneta), which lay in another dimension, beyond our on limited space-time. Further, Moneta, unlike our world, was a peaceful utopia, free of strife, poverty, hunger, hatred, and the million ills known to Earth and humanity – and our Earth a controlled experiment to study how things could go wrong so the Monetians could prevent them on their world and keep it utopian. After Professor Crockett provided indisputable Moneta was not a madman's dream but a real place, Johnny Sharp knew he had the story of a lifetime. What he did not foresee was that the next day, after he broke the story in his paper, it would shake Earth to its foundations and make him the most hated man in the world. Immediately, stock markets fell, churches were deserted and Johnny was targeted for death by the followers and henchmen of religious leaders and oligarchs alike. Now Johnny was on the run for his life, hunted by fanatics and professional killers – with every man's hand turned against him – and his only ally Ann Shelton the smart, sexy, svelte clothing designer who had enough courage and imagination for them both. And she would need it all before the final confrontation in a cabin deep in the woods – the only safe place (or so he thought) for Johnny Sharp to seek refuge from a world gone athirst for his blood. A hard-boiled science fiction classic from the March 1948 Fantastic Adventures. Wade Miller's work has machinegun tempo, tight writing, unexaggerated hardness [and is] highly satisfactory. –Anthony Boucher, San Francisco Chronicle. Wade Miller smacks the jackpot ... hardboiled, crammed with suspense and exciting action ... his characters are believable, the emotions honest, the action paced at a hot-rod clip, and the prose smoothly-flowing. In brief, brilliant. -Pasadena Star News