CROSSTOWN

A story of murder and revenge set in a world where anything is possible.

Zethus is a sorcerer for hire in CrossTown, a place where the world’s infinite possibilities are all available to those who know how to walk the branching Roads to alternate realities. With the help of his Legion of captured spirits, he takes on jobs like banishing troublesome ghosts for pay. But he should have known that a job that offered one golden hour just for meeting with a mysterious messenger was too good to be true. The job tangles him up with the world of Faerie, setting a remorseless hunter on his trail. And then there’s the bounty the Whitesnakes’ cult has placed on his head. Oh, and the little matter of his mentor, Corvinus, being viciously murdered. Sorting out this whole tangle of plots and double-crosses, not to mention saving his own skin, will take Zethus on a journey through the darkest and wildest Ways in CrossTown—and require him to confront some uncomfortable truths about himself. The atmosphere is one of hard-boiled mystery, but the reader isn’t given enough information soon enough to make any educated guesses about the identities or motivations of any of the bad guys. The result is a plot that feels like one thing after another rather than a logical progression toward the truth.

This book attempts to tackle some provocative ideas about the nature of power but lacks the suspense needed to keep the reader interested in hearing them.