This is a much harsher story than what I would usually choose to read, but it is very good. Slater has survived electrocution while hopping a train in Detroit, but this (and drugs) have messed up his thinking. Believing that he has killed a man, he heads to Michigan. This a fast-paced book which looks at the rougher side of life. ( )

Wire to Wire is a beautifully written literary crime novel. It is filled with damaged people who are on a collision course with each other. They can't help but run in to, over and through each other as their lives, actions and relationships fill them with an ache. Things won't end well for them

(This review incomplete -mck) I liked this book. An abundance of defective characters are addicted to alcohol, any kind of drug you can think of, violence, perverted co-dependencies. [Michael] Slater and Harp [Maitland] find respite riding the rails as hobos do. But as There is purity in escape on the rails. But like the Michael Corleone quote in "Godfather III: "Just when I think I'm out, they keep pulling me back in." The deterioration of the rail systems in the 1970s is emblematic of the distopian ethos of this novel.

Slater and Harp accept of the reality of the moment however dismal. And that's the joy. The fight for the next moment, never never beyond it. ( )

Scott Sparling's Wire to Wire is a bleak, tense story that is permeated with both crime and unremitting misery throughout.

Sparling's book is set in both the Arizona desert and the wooded wilderness of Northern Michigan. Occurring during the 1970's, all of the book's primary characters are battling with various self-inflicted hardships and vice, as a reflection of that period of time. These battles continually prevent each of them from ever connecting completely with others and often dictates the poor choices that they continue to make throughout the story.

The book's protagonist, Michael Slater, who is a train-hopper with his friend Harp Maitland, suffered a severe head injury and near fatal electrocution, while riding on top of a train car. This event permanently shapes Slater's perceptions and recollections, as the book winds labyrinthine from tragedy to tragedy.

Slater mentions that he is looking for a woman with a "fearless heart", but in actuality, would like to find that very quality within himself. As the bodies accumulate and the amphetamine-fueled madness conflagrates around him, Slater has to call upon himself to develop that "fearless heart", as a means of survival.

As Wire to Wire unravels, Slater eventually appears to reconcile his life and the considerable losses that he has suffered as a result of his poor choices. By no means a "feel good" novel, Wire to Wire is always taut and never less than intriguing. ( )