La Frontera Publishing Announces September Release For

Nicholas Clapp's Book Who Killed Chester Pray? A Death Valley Mystery

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — La Frontera Publishing (www.lafronterapublishing.com) announced today that in September it will release the book Who Killed Chester Pray? A Death Valley Mystery, the latest historical investigation by noted author Nicholas Clapp, which will be distributed through the University of New Mexico Press in its Fall 2007 catalog.

Written in the newly-recognized nonfiction genre of historical reconstruction, Who Killed Chester Pray? A Death Valley Mystery transports the reader to a last, grand hurrah of the American West. Seeking his fortune in the early 1900s, young prospector-assayer Chester Pray filches a Nevada sheriff's horses, steals a U.S. Senator's gold, and ultimately discovers one of the richest mining lodes ever in Death Valley.

Then, Pray is shot dead in the night.

By whom? Why? As many as seven individuals had ample cause to kill Chester Pray. His new partners? Gunslinger “Diamondfield Jack”? Even pretty Clara, his fiancée? The psychologically compelling answer may not be what the reader expects.

“Who Killed Chester Pray? provides new and revealing information about one of Death Valley's most provocative unsolved mysteries," said Linda Greene, co-author of A History of Mining in Death Valley National Monument.

 "Author Nicholas Clapp's intensive research and use of a flowing narrative result in a wonderfully readable book that not only probes the dark side of human nature, but presents an exciting picture of the American mining West of the early 20th century."

"Nicholas Clapp, author, film-maker, photographer, and amateur archaeologist, has been called by some the real 'Indiana Jones,'" said Mike Harris, publisher of La Frontera Publishing. "He has received 70 major film awards including Emmys and Academy Award nominations.

“His published works include the acclaimed The Road to Ubar and Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen, and we are pleased to bring out his latest probe into historical mysteries."

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