Hang Wire

February 15, 2014

San Francisco blogger Ted Hall is enjoying a birthday dinner in Chinatown with friends when he gets a fortune cookie that will change his life. Suffering from blackouts since the party, Ted comes to fear that there is some connection between him and a serial killer known as Hangwire who has been stringing up victims all over town. Powers are stirring in San Francisco, and they all seem connected somehow to the circus that has come to town and to Ted. VERDICT Echoes of Ray Bradbury and Neil Gaiman can be found in this well-paced stand-alone urban fantasy. Christopher's (Empire State; The Age Atomic) characters are fascinating, but where he really excels is in painting the mood on his broody, foggy San Francisco streets.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2014
There's a lot going in this genre-bender. Let's start with the title, Hang Wire, which refers to a serial killer terrorizing San Francisco. Not to be confused with Highwire, the brilliant new circus performer who keeps disappearing from his place of work. There are some ancient gods in human form who are very concerned about making sure other ancient gods don't find the mysterious Thing Beneath, and there's the book's nominal hero, Ted, who appears to be a regular guy who's going through a seriously rough patch: he just can't seem to get enough sleep, no matter how often or how long he closes his eyes. It's only natural to approach a new novel by the author of Empire State (2011), Seven Wonders (2012), and The Age Atomic (2013) with wide-eyed enthusiasm and a childlike sense of eager anticipation, and Christopher fulfills our expectations and more: just when we think the story couldn't get any weirder, he adds a whole new layer of weird, bouncing from one unexpected moment of goofiness to another, keeping us stuck to our chairs until we think it'll take an industrial-strength solvent to pry us loose. Days after finishing the book, you'll still have a grin on your face.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)