Keep Out!  Nick Redfern, 2012.

If you’re not yet paranoid about government conspiracies and cover ups, you will be, just a little bit, after taking Redfern’s lively tour of ominous secret bases and clandestine projects.

Devoting a chapter to each locale, Redfern begins our journey into the weird by exploring two landmark UFO sites: Area 51, where in 1989 Bob Lazar claimed to have worked with alien technology; and Hangar 18 at the Wright-Patterson AFB, which is allegedly both home and detainment center to live aliens.

Redfern’s hush-hush locations then run the gamut from moon bases to the London Underground (which may populated by subhumans and massive black panthers).  Noah’s Ark, supposedly recovered from the Nazis, could very well be stored in a secret Smithsonian vault.  Aliens quite possibly control a U.S. underground establishment in Dulce, New Mexico.

These scenarios all seem to be the fantasies of reclusive, tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy freaks, and waaay out of the realm of rational possibility.  That is, until Redfern produces a tantalizing snippet of information: a quote, interview, document, or reference that corroborates a part of the story.  This teasing bit of truth creates just the shadow of a doubt in the reader’s mind.  Could chupacabras and underwater UFO bases in Puerto Rico be possible?  Redfern clearly takes some pleasure seeding that uncertainty.

Keep Out!  is good fun.  It makes for fascinating, if potentially alarming reading.  Redfern takes the far-out rumors and stories with a grain of salt; agreeing with the reader that yes, this does sound crazy, but…allowing for the possibility of some truth in there.

We delve into time travel, teleportation and invisibility at Camp Hero in Montauk, the Long Island source of the Philadelphia Experiment rumors.   We learn about the bizarrely connected deaths of microbiologists attached to Britain’s Porton Down laboratory, the equivalent of our Fort Detrick, which used to (used to…or does still…?) house the U.S. bioweapons program.

Redfern even examines HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Alaska, which arguably does positive scientific things like working to enhance technology for radio communication and analyzing variations in the ozone layer.  But is there a sinister side to HAARP?  It may be testing mind-bending EM fields.  It may be creating earthquakes or tsunamis in order for the United States to gain access to countries with natural resources that we covet.

Keep Out! Is entertaining as all heck.  And it isn’t all just crazy conspiracy theory stuff. Redfern clearly put some serious research into each location.   His bibliography is extensive and includes FBI records, US Army and Air Force reports, DOD briefings, and articles from mainstream news publications: Not just a handful of wackadoo websites. That makes the reader take a little pause.  Redfern probes – oooh, I went there! – each location with roguish enthusiasm, fanning the flames of paranoia.  Raising lots of unlikely questions.  What if...?  A highly engaging read!