Thirty-five years ago, Libertyville had a population of 2,000. Its citizens thought it would become the next Atlanta. But it’s now 1989, and the population is down to 278 and falling. The town’s remaining employer, the outdated, money-losing Libertyville Cotton Works, owned by an elderly Holocaust survivor, has been sold to a conglomerate that intends to reap huge tax and political benefits.

But two other factions have different ideas. Bishop William Wyatt Walker, spellbinding African-American televangelist whose church takes in $500 million a year in contributions from the poorest of the poor, decides the church has lost touch with the common man and needs a new symbol of salvation – the Libertyville Cotton Works and the 40 acres that surround it. He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the church gets the property.

Meanwhile, a brilliant, Mexican-American lawyer and his militant contingent, faced with “the country’s growing paranoia toward Hispanics,” seeks to create his own Sanctuary Nation. His “army” takes armed control of the cotton works, holding hostages to ensure that the factory and its acreage are deeded to “the first truly Mexican town in the Southeastern U.S.”

The stage is set for a Stalemate of epic proportions, a war where there can be no winners. Like James Dickey’s Deliverance, this book is a mixture of a thriller tinged with adventure, camaraderie, dread, and the horror that only an unexpected, unspeakable situation can inflict. Human nature is human nature, and it is impossible to predict how anyone would act if confronted with a similar situation. Powerful and suspenseful, Stalemate explores the best – and the worst – in the human spirit as it thunders toward a spine-chilling climax.

International best-selling author Hugo N. Gerstl’s latest work is one you won’t be able to put down – and one you’ll long remember.

Published by Pangæa Publishing Group

184 pages – 23 cm x 15 cm