FICTION
A Small Disturbance
on the Far Horizon
Coming July 2025
In the stark Nevada landscape of the 1950s, a senseless murder sets off a harrowing chase over a rugged mountain and leaves two adulterous lovers and a troubled teenage boy haunted by their actions.
ADVANCE COMMENTS:
“A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon is so well written, so well crafted, and so deeply moving that it climbs beyond most novels of its genre and into the realm of true art. Dick Babcock is one of the best in the business.”
-Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Life
"If John Updike had gotten together with Cormac McCarthy to write a novel called No Country for Young Men Either, they might have come up with a book as urgent and finely-wrought as Richard Babcock’s A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon. This is a page-turner for the thoughtful reader: sensitive, suspenseful and deeply forgiving of its all-too-human characters. Babcock shoots for the heart and his aim is true."
-- Peter Blauner, New York Times bestselling author of Picture in the Sand and Slow Motion Riot
The starkly genuine western landscape of A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon is likely to make you think of Cormac McCarthy, but the moral universe of this novel is unique and true unto itself. And, as in all of Babcock’s work, the pages are suffused with a knowing tenderness. He writes with a very smart heart and in his latest book he takes you on a suspenseful, soul stirring ride through a realm whose barrenness makes his characters seem all the more vibrantly alive. Babcock is all hat and all saddle.”
--Michael Daly, author of New York’s Finest and The Book of Mychal
In the vast reaches of the Nevada desert, a cop and his Native American guide go in search of a teenage boy from a wealthy family who has committed a murder. But A Small Disturbance on the Far Horizon is not just a great adventure story, it’s about people caught in the web of their own morality, a cop having an affair with his partner’s wife, a devoted mother possessed by a dangerous passion, and a group of Native Americans trying to come to terms with the modern world, but still carrying within them the legacy of history.
--Dinitia Smith, author of The Prince
Buckle up. The darkest cloud that hangs over Richard Babcock’s 1954-set thriller is not the aftermath of nuclear testing in the Nevada desert, but the collision of wounded characters—young and old, Indian and white—set in motion by the shocking murder of a local cop during a routine traffic stop. This is a thumpingly good chase story with writing reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and Jim Harrison. Pursuit is the drivetrain of this haunting desert tale in “geography that shapes people,” but the story is made memorable by characters pursuing absolution for deeds already done.
--Denis O’Neill, author of The River Wild
Martha Calhoun
Sixteen-year-old Martha Calhoun lives with a loving but unreliable mother in a small town in Illinois. After a misunderstood incident with the nine-year-old boy she was babysitting, Martha faces the juvenile justice system and ultimately runs away. Her days on the road provide a fresh understanding of the world and her place in it.
REVIEWS:
“What begins as a quiet stream of conversation quickly widens into a mighty river of a book that is deep, swift and—here is Babcock’s crowning achievement—hilarious.”
--Washington Post
“Once in a while a novel of such elegance and power comes along that it seems not written, but delivered. Such is the case with Richard Babcock’s first, Martha Calhoun.”
--San Francisco Chronicle
“Babcock, a fine writer with an unsparing eye for detail and an acute ear for speech patterns, makes both the simplicity and the narrowness of small-town life come alive with this humorous, rueful and throughtful novel.”
--Publishers Weekly
Bow’s Boy
In a small Wisconsin town shadowed by the Vietnam War, two remarkable individuals strike up an unusual relationship—Bowman Epps, a rich, brilliant, criminal defense lawyer, and Ginger Piper, a gifted high-school student from a hardscrabble family. Their differing views of justice and the push and pull of the war lead to a tragedy that is emblematic of the era.
REVIEWS:
“Bow’s Boy is more than a regional novel about a moment in history. We recognize the actors as our magnified selves and the time as too much like our own.”
--Chicago Tribune
“. . .complex and satisfying….”
--Los Angeles Times
“There is an emotional honesty and intelligence in the characters that is at once exhilarating and sad and entirely memorable; they stay with you, haunt you, change you long after you’ve turned the page.”
--Joe Klein, author of Primary Colors and The Running Mate
Are You Happy Now?
John Lincoln, a disgruntled Chicago book editor, falls into a romance with a young woman who is writing a novel about her work on the famous University of Chicago sex survey. Their troubled but spirited relationship provides a lens on Chicago, writing, modern mores and love. The novel was a finalist in fiction from The Society of Midland Authors book awards.
REVIEWS:
“In telling the story of missteps and missed opportunities, Babcock refuses to provide the solace his characters crave, deferring to pragmatism over youthful ambition. A smooth and winning plot….”
--Publishers Weekly
“…a smart and winsome story about the realization of unlikely dreams.”
--Booklist
“The headlong, grimly uncomfortable ride John Lincoln endures across Chicago’s literary, sexual and baseball divides is a sweet comic blast onto West Waveland Avenue. Gone.”
--James McManus, author of Going to the Sun and Positively Fifth Street
My Wife’s Story
A Kindle Single
A husband relates how the story endlessly repeated by his wife drives him to desperate ends. This best-selling short piece of fiction continues to sell.
Ah, Rat
A Kindle Single
When a rat invades a couple’s vacation house, the husband has to deal with both the harassing intruder and his faltering marriage. A Kindle Singles best-seller when it was published.
Autopsy: A Love Story
A Kindle Single
A witty and adventurous saga unfolds as a wife tries to cover up the murder of her abusive husband.