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Count me all the way in on this one.
Rob Hart, one of the coolest and most talented dudes in all of publishing, teaming up with the creator of the hit TV show Manifest for a brand new series? Yeah, I’m here for it, and I cannot wait to read their first book together, Detour, which rockets into bookstores on January 13th.
Here’s the plot details:
A space shuttle flight crew discovers that the Earth they’ve returned to is not the home they left behind in the first book of this emotional, mind-bending thriller series from the creator of the hit Netflix show Manifest and the bestselling author of The Warehouse.
“If The Martian and The Twilight Zone had a baby, it would be Detour—a thriller that messes with your head as you scramble to piece together what’s really going on.”—Steve Netter, Best Thriller Books
Ryan Crane wasn’t looking for trouble—just a cup of coffee. But when this cop spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt.
As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.
A devoted family man, Ryan is reluctant to leave on this two-year expedition, yet with the encouragement of his loving wife—and an exorbitant paycheck guaranteeing lifetime care for their disabled son—he crews up and ventures into a new frontier.
But as the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes.
When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, such as lavish upgrades to their homes, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.
Separated and suspicious, the crew must uncover the truth and decide how far they’re willing to go to return to their normal lives. Just when their space adventure seemingly ends, it shockingly begins.
So, yeah, I’m hyped for this one. Hart, one of the better writers in the game today, has penned some of my favorite titles over the years, including his outrageously fun Assassins Anonymous (2024) and, before that, The Warehouse (2019), a dystopian novel that dared to explore the dark underside of an Amazon-like tech company. Never one who’s afraid to go big, Hart’s books are always mandatory reading for me, and honestly, as a writer myself, I marvel at his ability to crank out one hit after another.
Admittedly, because I write full-time and still run The Real Book Spy, I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV, but Manifest happens to be one of the rare shows that I tuned in for the very night it premiered, and stuck with all the way through the final episode. So, I’m also a fan of Jeff Rake, and I personally can’t wait to see what he and Rob have created.
While I’ve yet to get my hands on Detour, former AP book critic turned Book Spy correspondent Jeff Ayers (a brilliant writer in his own right—check out his books here), did score an advance copy. Even better, he was able to sit down and chat with both Rob Hart and Jeff Rake, who dished on their first book together, their writing process, teased where their series may be headed, and what they’re each currently working on. (spoiler: Hart’s penning a YA book and Rake is knee-deep in a Manifest spinoff.)
Read the full interview below!
Detour Interview with Rob Hart and Jeff Rake
By Jeff Ayers
A trip to explore Saturn’s moon, Titan, provides the catalyst for Rob Hart (Assassin’s Anonymous) and Jeff Rake’s (TV series Manifest) first collaboration, Detour. Being a fan of Hart’s books and Rake’s TV work, I had high expectations when I first got my hands on a copy, and I was thrilled when it exceeded them beyond my imagination.
I mentioned in my review for firstCLUE that it “moves from Gene Wilder’s version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, then dives into Andy Weir and Rod Serling territory.”
After reading it, I knew I had to chat with them both about how they created such a stellar book together.
Jeff Rake writes for television and was finishing up Manifest for Netflix, a show that began its journey on NBC. The series had a great hook: A plane takes off, hits turbulence during the flight, and it lands for the passengers to discover it’s five years later, and they were all presumed dead since the plane was never found.