James Anderson’s new mystery novel, “Lullaby Road,” invites readers to ride along on a central Utah highway with Ben Jones, a half-Jewish, half-American Indian truck driver who was adopted and raised by a Mormon couple.

The stark landscape of Utah’s high desert and the story’s themes — considering issues of immigration and child trafficking — are unusual ground for a mystery novel.

Early reviews have praised Anderson’s writing, noting the main character’s “dolefully observant and engagingly self-deprecating voice” (Kirkus Reviews), as well as the lasting impression of the “arresting desert vistas and distinctive characters” (Publishers Weekly).

In addition to the marketing firepower of his New York publisher, Crown, Anderson, 65, is borrowing a storytelling trick from multimedia-focused younger readers to help his novel find a wide audience.

On Thursday, he will screen a short film, shot in the southern Utah ghost town of Cisco, at his 7 p.m. book launch at The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City.

The 5-minute film conveys the intriguing noir mood of the novel rather than just teasing its fictional plot. It features actor Cosme SkyWalker Duarte as Ben Jones, leading Amber Cruz, as Manita, and other children through a desert landscape dotted with the haunting images of dirty white tennis shoes abandoned on trees and trails.

The beautiful cinematography is a far cry from the kind of formulaic trailers that marketers have released to promote mostly nonfiction books. “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing,” Anderson jokes, quoting a 4 a.m. on-set comment from Joe Boran, the director of photography.

(Photo courtesy of James Anderson) | Actor Cosme SkyWalker Duarte as Ben Jones leads children through the central Utah desert in "Lullaby Road," a short film accompanying writer James Anderson's second novel. (Photo courtesy of James Anderson) | Actor Cosme SkyWalker Duarte as Ben Jones, a Central Utah truck driver, in "Lullaby Road," a short film promoting writer James Anderson's second novel.

Anderson credits his talented friends in creating the short and says director Kent Youngblood plans to enter a slightly longer version in film festivals. The film is scored with original music by composer Michael DeLalla, as well as a Leonard Cohen song performed by Grammy Award winner Terrance Simien.

“It was a lot of people who really loved the story and really wanted to do something artistic,” Anderson says.

The writer, who splits his time between Oregon and Colorado, says he’s always asked why he has set two novels in Utah’s high desert.

“It inspires my imagination, but it also fits with my characters, all of whom are grappling with very human, but very spiritual issues, about themselves and about others and about the land,” he says. “And somehow that just all happens in Utah in a way that I can’t feel anywhere else.”