The Return: a Novel by Austin Boyd (2007)

Austin Boyd's new book, The Return: a Novel (2007, NavPress), was published earlier this summer. An engineer and former Navy pilot, Boyd was a candidate for NASA’s astronaut program. This is the third book in his Mars Hill Classified series.

Here’s a description from Amazon.com: Six years after completing a manned mission to the Red Planet, Admiral John Wells is set to make another journey to Mars. But this time his crew is not alone, as John's team encounters a secret colony comprised of individuals pursuing John Raines' strange religion, the "Father Race." While John begins to uncover a web of lies on Mars, his wife and daughter are struggling for survival on earth. Now John must survive his dangerous mission and find a way back home, even as a shocking plan begins to unfold millions of miles away on earth.

Another description of The Return and a sample of the first chapter are available at the website of the publisher, NavPress.

A lengthy biography of Boyd appears on his website. Also, a July 2, 2007, interview with Boyd by Paula K. Parker is available at buddyhollywood.com.

The first book in Boyd’s Mars Hill Classified trilogy was The Evidence: a Novel (2006); the second book was The Proof: a Novel (2006).