Donovan James enjoys his routine. Wake up. Catch the El. Teach high
school English. Run the track. Return home on the train. Repeat. In a
turbulent Chicago, this routine keeps his mind from wandering. Well,
from wandering into the less-immediate world anyway. You see, Donovan
can't seem to stop watching the people who frequent his morning commute,
or from dissecting their lives based on these regular but limited
encounters. He believes that he knows them well.
That is until one morning, he runs late, and by a series of minuscule
events he runs into her, the lady in the blue coat, a passenger on his
train car whom he has seldom paid attention. The moment is fleeting, but
now everything has changed. The routine is disrupted. Lives are not what
they seem. Soon Donovan will be caught up in the investigations of
Detective Lesley Powell as well as a train full of other lives and their
lies, careening toward something mysterious and sinister. Donovan knows
where he got on this train, but where will he get off?
In M-theory, Tiffany Cates meticulously layers America's societal,
spiritual, and moral tensions in a plot that travels through the streets
and elevated tracks of Chicago, creating a riveting thriller with an
endearing love story at its beating heart. As inventive and intelligent
as it is entertaining, M-theory marks Tiffany Cates as an important
voice in American fiction.
