Arthur Tomas is a man with no past. A highly respected professor at Arizona State University, Arthur has an uncanny ability to remember minutia concerning his work, yet he can recollect nothing regarding his parents or early childhood. When he is invited to join the University's Peruvian archaeology expedition, Arthur jumps at the opportunity to immerse himself in ancient history. By searching for a lost civilization deep in the Amazon rain forest, he hopes to also uncover secrets regarding his own past.

Arthur soon finds that the key to a lost civilization -- and to his own history -- lies in THE ALTAR STONE (Goodfellow Press Hardcover; $22.00; September 2001). In this chilling debut novel, Robert Hackman takes readers on a riveting adventure through the jungles of Peru where they will encounter long vanished tribes, manipulative entities, passion, and the ultimate forces of good and evil.

During his travels, Arthur meets Beba, an exotic native woman living in a primitive village. There is an immediate bond between them, and a passionate encounter ensues. After Arthur continues on in his expedition, the village banishes Beba from her home. Wandering the Amazon, she meets the queen of a forgotten tribe and is subsequently forced to return to the isolated place of that tribe's beginnings. Arthur and Beba's widely divergent worlds dangerously collide, when they meet yet again. This time they are plunged into a horrifying struggle with otherworldly beings that possess their minds and control their bodies. With everything about his past in question and the freedom of the future at stake, Arthur must face his most dreaded fears.

Not since The Celestine Prophecy has there been a book as haunting and gripping as THE ALTAR STONE.

Goodfellow Press, the publisher of THE ALTAR STONE and the first Northwest fiction publishing house and teaching press, was founded seven years ago. Its goal is to discover, encourage, and nurture the unique talent of writers, book designers, and editors from the Northwest. Founder and publisher, Pamela Goodfellow, has been an editor for over twenty years. In launching Goodfellow Press, she has achieved a personal goal - to develop the highest standards of fiction, while introducing to the general public, new authors from the great Northwest.