HIDE YOUR FIRES

Ethan Faulkner is a precocious thirteen-year-old with a brilliant yet sociopathic sister, a troubled father who is a veteran of the Iraq War, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her...

One of the men invades the house and - after a struggle - leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan has a successful teaching career and a budding relationship with a coworker, Marisa. But Ethan's new girlfriend proves to have issues of her own, including an unhealthy obsession with Ethan's past. When Ethan attempts to break things off with her, Marisa's reaction threatens to shatter the life Ethan has carefully constructed. Then a shocking murder, with evidence pointing to Ethan as a possible suspect, leaves Ethan no choice but to turn reluctantly to his uncle, the man who raised him and his sister after their parents' deaths - a man with a criminal history of his own.

From the private school halls and mansions of Buckhead to the foothills of northern Georgia and the midnight streets of downtown Atlanta, Hide Your Fires by Christopher Swann is a suspenseful thriller about crime, vengeance, and atonement, and how the bonds of family never truly let go.

Christopher is a graduate of Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. He earned a B.A. in English from Washington and Lee University, an M.A. in English and creative writing from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Ph.D. in creative writing from Georgia State University. He lives with his wife and two sons in Atlanta, where he is the English department chair at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School. Shadow of the Lions, published in 2017 by Algonquin, was his debut novel.