by Matt Cahill
—Nominated for 2023 Foreword INDIES (Thriller category)—
Kris is an alt-rock musician who abruptly drops out of his popular band to rake over an unprocessed trauma from his childhood; Jill is an outcast who operates in the shadows of the city, cursed with a dangerous type of magic that draws mysterious strangers to her. By chance, they start a correspondence with each other and a strange relationship begins—one that coils around their lives like a macabre spell. As they share their stories with one another, they each approach the source of their misery and risk losing themselves, even their lives, in a darkness that seems destined for them.
Everything Jill senses tells an intense story, so she numbs herself with alcohol to keep her head clear, hoping she’ll meet someone who can tell her how she came to be the way she is. Kris struggles to maintain his grip on reality as he pulls apart the threads that make up his identity.
Working through fallen mentors, splintered identities, and substance dependency, the two of them try to help each other make sense of their lives, though it may ultimately reveal one of them as a serial murderer.
Radioland explores the absurdity of fame, the toxicity of trauma, and the morbid dangers unearthed as we seek a greater understanding of ourselves.
Publication: Fall 2022
Publisher:
Wolsak & Wynn/Buckrider Books
Rights sold:
- North America: Wolsak & Wynn/Buckrider Books
“It has magic. It has murder. It has music. It has everything I was looking for and it is a literary thriller you are definitely not going to want to miss.”
–Emily Breitkopf, The Ampersand Review
“I loved the compellingly visceral descriptions and the fabulously rich prose. A triumph in psychological-disaster storytelling, Radioland blasts across the airwaves with an enviable power and originality.”
–Lisa de Nikolits, The Minerva Reader
“Twisting and turning between rock musician Kris and ‘house cleanser’ Jill, Radioland serves up a terrifying, dangerous and electrifying tale that pinpoints where we belong and who we belong to. A wildly weird look at an off-kilter world full of crime and fear, Matt Cahill’s new novel will keep you up at night wondering what’s real and what isn’t.”
–Michelle Berry, author of Everything Turns Away and The Prisoner and the Chaplain