Guest Post by Margaret Yang and Harry R. Campion - writing together as M.H. Mead



Sibling rivalry isn’t the central conflict of our new novel, Taking the Highway, but it certainly affects the narrative in key ways, and was uppermost in our minds as we wrote. Is there anything more important to character than family? We both have siblings of our own, although none of them nearly as annoying as Andre LaCroix’s much older brother, Oliver.



Oliver is a member of Detroit City Council, and Andre can’t imagine anyone more irritating. Nothing is worse than a politician, especially one who can’t seem to turn off his campaign. And if he’s ten years your senior and constantly telling you how to run your life? Unbearable.



But Andre LaCroix has to bear it, because his brother is constantly in his life, telling Andre how to do his job, giving him unwanted advice, and keeping extra-close tabs on the valuable classic car they both inherited from their father. But it’s the way that Oliver constantly pushes himself into the public eye that bothers Andre the most. Oliver can’t even eat at a fast-food place without choosing the most visible table in the room. His motto: see and be seen.



Andre tries not to let his brother get to him, but he looks at Oliver and sees the most frustrating aspects of his own jobs. Andre makes his living as a homicide detective, a job with plenty of politics of its own. He also moonlights as a paid hitchhiker called a “fourth.” Since every highway in Detroit is restricted to cars with four passengers, carpools that come up short must either take surface streets through dangerous neighborhoods or hire extra riders—fourths—to fill their cars.



Like all fourths, Andre is more than a warm body. Competition is fierce at pick-up spots. Every fourth has to be sharply-dressed and well-groomed. But more important than looks is charm. Andre has to flatter, appeal to the people in the car, and be interesting without being offensive. In short, he has to be a politician.



Andre would never admit to Oliver exactly how much he likes his second job, nor would he admit how much it makes him act like his older brother. For his part, Oliver wishes Andre would concentrate on law enforcement, especially when someone starts killing fourths, threatening to bring the entire city to a standstill.



Success as a fourth has made Andre a slacker of a cop. Yet, the harder he works for the city, the less time he has for fourthing. With both jobs on the line, Andre has to find the killer and he has to do it fast, before he becomes the next victim. But when his investigation exposes a terrorist cell, one of whom may be Oliver’s son, more than two jobs hang in the balance.



Playing politics only makes things messier, and Oliver can’t help. But he can do something for Andre—the one thing that little brothers always want their big brothers to do.



Stay out of the way.






About the authors: Margaret Yang and Harry R. Campion are the authors of three novels and many short stories, all written under the shared pen name M.H. Mead. To find out more about them and Taking the Highway, or if you have a key lime pie recipe to share, come visit their website www.yangandcampion.com.

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