Lullaby Road by James Anderson

Lullaby Road by James Anderson is the 2nd in the Ben Jones series.  Ben Jones is a truck driver delivering in the winter desert land of Utah.  Ben is getting ready to take another delivery out to his faithful though not always trustworthy hardy customers who lived a hard scrapple desert life in Rockmuse.  Ben who lives in Price is a man of few words and so are his customers.  As Ben is filling up his truck with diesel, Cecil who runs the tire shop informs him that Pedro had left him something and that it was important that he get it.  Ben almost left  for his run to Rockmuse but curiosity won out and he found a small child out in the cold snowy day protected only by a few scant clothes and a big dog.  Ben couldn't leave the child there-he would die and went back to take him back to Cecil or Pedro but conveniently no one was in the tire shop.  Ben had no choice but to take the kid with him--it was either that or let him freeze in the snowstorm.  Ben then looks up to see his teenage friend Ginny slam the door on her ancient car and then reach in to grab her baby, Belle out of the car still strapped in her infant seat.  A short discussion passed on the reasons why he couldn't take Belle with him so that Ginny that could go to take 2 tests and then on to her job at Walmart.  Ginny won and soon Ben is headed out into the desert in his truck with his possibly illegal alien child who turned out to be a girl, her over protectant dog  and Ginny's baby girl.  This begins Ben's adventure out on this snowy day delivering to Rockmuse's hodgepodge of criminals and ne'r-do-wells mostly hiding in this town. 

This book is peppered with satirical jokes and an occasional curse word.  If you are bothered by that don't read it but if you want to read a book which is back and forth funny and sad read this one. If you want to read about the western desert read this book.  You will easily learn the people of the desert and appreciate them for their tenacity.   I had not read the first Ben Jones book but it is not needed to understand this novel.  I enjoyed it and read it easily in just a few days. 
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.