The Perfect Bridge

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Is there anything more metaphorically perfect than a bridge?

Two opposite sides being joined, by a seemingly impossible (and often beautiful) structure. You can go either way on them--into or away. Someone may show up that you hadn’t expected.You can go right to the edge--and make a decision. Bridges can carry you over a dangerous place, but if they break--and no one may be able to predict when that will happen--you are clearly doomed.

The brilliant Taylor Adams uses a certain bridge as the centerpiece--as you can see from the atmospheric cover--of his new thriller HAIRPIN BRIDGE. Publishers Weekly gave it a starrer review--and (deservedly) called it “dazzling.”

I asked Taylor--what is it about bridges? And as he reveals below, he “interviewed” several of them--before he came up with the inspiration for his architectural star.

The Perfect Bridge

       By Taylor Adams

I’m so excited for the release of my new thriller HAIRPIN BRIDGE, about a young woman who sets out to prove that her estranged twin sister’s suicide was actually a murder. The only problem: her murder suspect is the state trooper who claims to have found the woman’s body. Lena’s fight for the truth about her sister – and, quickly, her own survival – features twists, terror, and (of course) one very creepy abandoned bridge.



I’ve always been fascinated by bridges. Maybe it’s just my inner child – because I’m equally enthusiastic about dinosaurs and volcanoes – but there was something especially captivating about setting a contained thriller atop a derelict bridge. An ancient, rust-eaten structure that’s slowly cracking apart under the sun was too fun to pass up!



In the outlining stages, I was excited for what this setting could do for the story’s atmosphere. Generally, I love to set my stories in confined spaces to add natural pressure to the characters – and as wide-open and scenic as a bridge may be, there’s also a crushing sense of claustrophobia that may not be readily apparent until you’re up there. Spatially, it’s ruthlessly simple – there’s only one way forward, one way back, and literally nowhere to hide. All while suspended hundreds of feet in the air.



Early on, I researched real bridges but quickly settled on creating something fictional. This gave me the flexibility to design a look, feel, and mythos to best serve the story. 

One inspiration was the mind-blowingly tall (480+ feet) Perrine Bridge in Idaho – which was originally very skeletal and eerie-looking before being modernized in the 1970s. For Hairpin Bridge, I thought – what if the original Perrine Bridge fell into disrepair instead? What might it look like by now, decades after being closed and declared unsafe?


Another real-life site I considered was the stunning Astoria-Megler Bridge, which spans from Oregon to Washington (I’ve driven over it numerous times on vacation to the coast!) This four-mile bridge ends with a surprisingly sharp 180-degree turn a hundred feet above downtown Astoria, and inspired the titular “hairpin” aspect in my story. It’s stunning to look at – and perhaps a little precarious…


I was also intrigued by how local rumors (true or otherwise) can give places an eerie reputation. If a house can be haunted, surely an exterior location can be, too? Years ago, as a college student with entirely too much spare time, I used to carry cameras and audio recorders around local “haunted” locales in hopes of capturing something paranormal (with mixed, albeit not entirely unsuccessful results). Along those lines, I wanted Hairpin Bridge to feel like the sort of site I might have visited as a college kid – a place with its own dark history that may or may not be connected to Lena’s personal tragedy.


This faint tease of the supernatural reflects the entwined narrative – in some ways, heroine Lena is something of a ghost hunter herself (even carrying an audio recorder of her own), desperately seeking a way to make sense of her despair. I wanted the story to entwine past and present so tightly that the living and dead twins Lena and Cambry eventually start to feel like the same person – and as her confrontation with a killer reveals truths that Lena is unprepared for, we start to learn exactly why.


HAIRPIN BRIDGE is in bookstores now – I hope you’ll check it out!


HANK: I am reading this right now--and it is terrific! I have a huge fascination with bridges. I can’t understand how they can possibly be constructed. I can’t understand how they can be designed. Many of them are gorgeous.

They’re life-changing--and can be unpredictable and dangerous. (Do you know the story of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge? YIKES. Look it up. There are videos.)

And when I am on one, I’m thrilled and terrified and awed.


How about you, Reds and Readers? Have you been on the causeway to Key West? The Verrazzano Bridge?The Brooklyn? The Golden Gate? What’s your fave?

And what questions do you have for Taylor?



AND Congratulations Gigi Norwood - you’re the winner of a signed copy of Connie Berry’s THE ART OF BETRAYAL - Contact Connie so she can send you the book (message her on Facebook or use the CONTACT form on her web site http://connieberry.com).




Taylor Adams graduated from Eastern Washington University with the prestigious Edmund G. Yarwood Award. His directorial work has screened at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and he is an avid fan of suspenseful fiction and film. His 2018 novel NO EXIT has been published in 32 languages and is currently in development as a feature film by 20th Century Studios. He has worked in the television industry for several years and lives in Washington state.

ABOUT HAIRPIN BRIDGE

From the author of the “full-throttle thriller” (A. J. Finn) No Exit—a riveting new psychological page-turner featuring a fierce and unforgettable heroine.

Three months ago, Lena Nguyen’s estranged twin sister, Cambry, drove to a remote bridge seventy miles outside of Missoula, Montana, and jumped two hundred feet to her death. At least, that is the official police version.

But Lena isn’t buying it.

Now she’s come to that very bridge, driving her dead twin’s car and armed with a cassette recorder, determined to find out what really happened by interviewing the highway patrolman who allegedly discovered her sister’s body.

Corporal Raymond Raycevic has agreed to meet Lena at the scene. He is sympathetic, forthright, and professional. But his story still seems a bit off. For one thing, he stopped Cambry for speeding just an hour before she supposedly leaped to her death. Then there are the sixteen attempted 911 calls from her cell phone, made in what was unfortunately a dead zone.

But perhaps most troubling of all, the state trooper is referred to by name in Cambry’s final enigmatic text to her sister. Lena will do anything to uncover the truth. But as her twin’s final hours come into focus, Lena’s search turns into a harrowing tooth-and-nail fight for her own survival—one that will test everything she thought she knew about her sister and herself...




"A shot of adrenaline straight to the heart! Propulsive and unpredictable, Hairpin Bridge will have you on edge from the first page to the last."
-Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Home Before Dark