Smalltime Boston thief Jimmy Leighton stumbles into a perilous quantum experiment – and a bullet – propelling him down the multiple paths his life might have taken in this exciting, innovative thriller by Dave Thomas and Max Allan Collins.

Jimmy Leighton has only two things going for him – his bad boy skills and a good woman’s love. In debt to a Vietnamese mob boss, Jimmy needs a score, and hits a nondescript house with a high-tech laboratory tucked away in the basement. With no idea what he’s looking at, Jimmy accidentally activates a quantum machine and is simultaneously shot by another intruder, sending him two places at once – a Boston hospital in a coma, and a Chicago penthouse apartment in another version of his life.

The petty crook has inadvertently become the guinea pig of MIT physicist Dr. Neil Goldman, whose research into the Many Worlds Theory opens a multi-dimensional portal of possibilities. Before Jimmy can adjust to his new life as a rich man in Chicago, he finds himself in a boxing ring being pummeled by a formidable opponent. Unable to control these transitions, Jimmy hops from one version of his life to another, each becoming more challenging and dangerous than the last.

Concurrently, Cambridge detectives Sam Neer and Taylor Farr – a crusty Black cop uncomfortably paired with a young female partner – remain in Jimmy’s original world, trying to solve the mystery of who shot the little thief from Southie. Their investigation draws them into the treacherous worlds of Boston crime and industrial espionage.


Variant cover by WBYK


DAVE THOMAS was a founding member and head writer of the legendary TV comedy series SCTV, co-creator of beer-swilling brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie. A film director (Strange Brew, The Experts), screen writer (Spies Like Us, Whitecoats) and two-time Emmy winner (SCTV and ESPN), Thomas was a writer/producer on Fox’s Bones and NBC’s The Blacklist.

MAX ALLAN COLLINS, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, writes the Nate Heller historical thrillers. His graphic novel Road to Perdition became an Academy Award-winning film. An indie filmmaker (Mommy), he has developed numerous Mike Hammer novels from Mickey Spillane’s files and co-authors (with wife Barbara Collins) the Antiques mysteries.

The collaboration works... It is the perfect marriage of Collins and Thomas’ sensibilities, one that will delight readers.