A fifteen-hundred-dollar Civic that starts on the third try. A mechanic on Western Avenue who teaches him to listen. Lower Wacker Drive at midnight. And a father who already knows exactly what is down there.
Each book is one to two years of Alex Reyes's life, from a learner's permit in 1998 to a car that can't legally exist. Read them in order. The cars change. The lesson doesn't.
Every car in these books is real down to the engine code, from Alex's builds to his dad's Cutlass. Tap a card to flip it and read the timeslip.
The shop on Western, the house in Wilmette, the restaurant in Pilsen, and the people who end up in all three.
His father put a hand on the roof of the car. His hand was broad and short-fingered and had a burn scar on the back of it from a machine Alex had never seen.
“At the plant, there was a man. Old man, Polish. He could put his hand on a press and tell you which bearing was going. Everybody thought it was magic.”
“Was it?”
“No. He had his hand on that press for thirty years. The magic is the thirty years.” He took his hand off the roof. “Go inside. Your mother wants to know if the man fed you.”
From Ignition · Book One
Lower Wacker, Western Avenue, Pilsen, the forest preserves off Milwaukee. Chicago is specific in these books or it's nothing. Filter by book and tap a pin.
Book one is Ignition. A permit, a Civic, a crew, and the first night on Lower Wacker.