A cold-blooded killer-for-hire, Edison North drifts across America from city to city, crime scene to crime scene, leaving behind a world in flames. But during a seemingly random stop at a fast food restaurant, Edison meets Christian, a young girl who mirrors his own sense of isolation and stink of “other.” Though it’s been a long time since he felt anything resembling a human connection, something about this desperately lonely child calls to him like a fallen nestling. Edison feels certain she deserves better. And while he is not convinced that he can give her that, he can teach her to fly on her own. So he takes her.
Thus begin the chronicles of Edison North―and his protégée. Weaving together past and present, Edison begins Christian's strange apprenticeship as Christian looks back upon her fractured upbringing and the training that made her into the killer she's become. What emerges is a savage―and ultimately tender―exploration of the unlikely bond between two outsiders: a fledgling assassin and the man who took her under his wing.
“Fiegel combines engaging sociopathy with a bit of the anarchist bent seen in the television show Mr. Robot in his electrifying debut.... [Blackbird] is satisfying and original.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Emotionally riveting, mesmerizing, visceral, acutely observant... Blackbird is a lyrical, bloody upper of a book. Fiegel's debut is an invitation to eavesdrop on internal monologues while being whisked around modern day America.”
— Caroline Kepnes, best-selling author of You and Hidden Bodies
“From its unsettling opening to its thought-provoking conclusion, Blackbird is a fascinating study of two outsiders and the strange acts of violence that bring them together. And in the freshness and originality of his writing, Michael Fiegel sets himself apart as a striking new voice in mystery fiction.”
— Kevin Wignall, best-selling author of A Death in Sweden
“A caustic crime thriller with a daringly pitch black sense of humor, and a literary examination of alienation in the age of terror and conspiracy. Like Oates's Zombie and Brite's Exquisite Corpse, Blackbird pulls you into a world you’d rather not inhabit and fascinates as often as it repels. A scathing and singular debut.”
— Jeremy Robert Johnson, author of Skullcrack City
“Blackbird is a harrowing and original journey unafraid to explore the darkest corners it can find.”
— Zack Parsons, author of Liminal States
“Disturbing, upsetting, and utterly engrossing. Oddly sweet in its own twisted way.”
— Emily Hemenway, author
“Intense and interesting... If you like gritty page turners about killers and the young apprentices they groom, this is the book for you!”
— Cindy Bokma, HelloDollface.com
