A former sheriff’s deputy, Chuck Zukowski, stars in this
based-on-fact story of how he became obsessed with investigating flying saucer
reports, visiting cattle mutilation sites and gathering evidence that there is
a huge government conspiracy to suppress the truth.

Through making weekend trips with his family to UFO
hotspots, interviewing witnesses and conducting research he came to the
conclusion that all these incidents are on, or close to the 37th degree 3,000
mile long latitude line, which he has nicknamed the Paranormal or UFO Freeway.

This is a tourist guide to US ufology that ticks all the
boxes, Roswell, Area 51, military UFO encounters, shadowy government agencies,
sacred Native American Indian sites, underground and underwater alien bases,
giant humanoid-like creatures all lumped together with astronomical connections
and magnetic anomalies that hang-out on Bukowski’s UFO Freeway.

It’s an entertaining story especially if you don’t know
much about ufology or never seen a UFO film, otherwise it doesn’t bring much new
to the table. Other ufologists have come up with UFO and ley line connections,
or produced grids and networks showing UFO patterns that ‘exist’ throughout the
world. I’m sure you could find any 3,000 mile lines or circles or triangles
that you could fill with amazing UFO and anomalistic connections. Putting
coloured pins on a map isn’t scientific research or evidence of any
inter-connectedness between all of this phenomena.

Zukowski is depicted as something of a maverick who
operates beyond the confines of organised UFO groups, but there are many other
UFO investigators who would make a better story. This has already been done in
the case of John Keel who was portrayed by Richard Gere in The Mothman
Prophecies, which at least stirs up some sinister doings in a small West
Virginia town.

There is a distinct possibility that The 37th Parallel
will be made into a film, but I fear it will not have enough power or
originality to get out of the shadow of the comedy movie Paul which featured
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost making a tour of US UFO hotspots in their RV.

THE 37TH PARALLEL / AUTHOR: BEN MEZRICH /
PUBLISHER:  ATRIA BOOKS / RELEASE DATE:
SEPTEMBER 2016