Distances Change, Neighbors Don't: Never Trust a Map More Than Mule

A missing naturalist. A scientist with too many maps. A raven with absolutely no respect for property rights. When physicist Nathan Cole arrives in the red-rock canyons of Utah, he plans to solve a decades-old mystery: What happened to Silas Boone, the legendary desert naturalist who vanished without a trace? The answer should have been straightforward. Instead, Nathan discovers a collection of impossible maps. Maps everyone agrees are wrong. Maps that somehow work anyway. As he follows Boone's trail through forgotten journals, strange observations, and increasingly baffling clues, Nathan finds himself joined by an unlikely team: Euler, a practical mule who distrusts steep hills, bad ideas, and most human decision-making; Möbius, a raven whose hobbies include theft, chaos, and accidental scientific breakthroughs; and >Together they uncover a mystery hidden beneath the landscape itself. Because Boone wasn't mapping places. He was mapping relationships. Rivers. Trails. Animals. People. >Part comic adventure, part scientific treasure hunt, and part heartfelt mystery, Distances Change, Neighbors Don't is a story about curiosity, friendship, persistence, and the surprising patterns that shape our world. Filled with humor, unforgettable animal characters, canyon-country wonder, and just enough science to make you look at a map differently, this is a novel for readers who enjoy mysteries, adventures, clever discoveries, and stories that leave them smiling long after the final page. After all, getting lost is easy. The hard part is figuring out what really matters.

Pages: 240, Paperback, Independently published