Second Novel for Local Author

A sci-fi/love story set in a world awash with political problems.

Two years later, Don Johnston has done it again! His first sci-fi novel, The Dar Lumbre Chronicles, garnered positive feedback. Kirkus Review called it “an ingenious narrative.” His latest book, The Alamogordo Connection, promises to be even more entertaining.

In 2045, incoming radio waves surge from the M13 star cluster, and President Rex Horn, a Planet X junkie, describes the signals as SOS, mayday, or cease and desist messages. Despite impeachment threats from his opponents, Mr. Horn funds a new program to intensify the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The program provides scholarships for outstanding students, and the President urges recipients to think outside the box.

Darien Segura and Carly Hansen receive scholarships to participate in the M13 study as students at New Mexico State University. Darien, abandoned as a baby in the Darien Province of Panama and adopted by a couple in Alamogordo, is an astronomy student. Carly, a beautiful newcomer from Texas, is studying parapsychology. While studying the incoming radio waves, they discover low-frequency waves embedded in them, apparently a message. Carly believes ESP is the key to solving the riddle. They begin testing for the elusive psi phenomenon and locate traces of it in twins, including monkeys, dogs, and people, all born in Alamogordo. Carly refers to this oddity as The Alamogordo Connection.

To their surprise, they discover that Darien possesses substantial ESP, but not enough to decode the message without linking to someone else who also has it. Darien is convinced that he has a twin living in the jungles of Panama, and they embark on a journey to search for him. Upon trekking to an isolated village, they find the witch doctor who delivered Darien. Just before she dies, the old woman reveals a startling fact.

Will it be enough to decipher ET’s message?