Hold Short: A Novel

Evan Cole has spent twelve years learning to be necessary without being seen - a ramp worker at Colwood International, fluent in the silent choreography of wands and headsets.

Then one ordinary shift ends, and a private reckoning he can't name anymore stays quiet.

Twelve minutes later he's airborne in a stolen turboprop, alone in the rain, and the only person who can bring him down is Dana - a veteran air traffic controller working a frequency that has become the entire world.

Hold Short is a novel about the last resort of the invisible: about burnout, the fantasy that one reckless act can make a life feel real, and the unglamorous work of paying attention - to a scope, to a radio, to a person still choosing, minute by minute, to stay on the ground.

Contains themes of depression and a mental health crisis. No on-page depiction of suicide or self-harm.