​Cliffhanger: Jump Before You Get Pushed is a futuristic genre-busting blend of romance, intrigue, mystery, and sci-fi set in 2030, a near-future world that feels both familiar and frighteningly alien. Self-billed by Michael R. French as an 'existential thriller', Cliffhanger has been rewritten from a young adult story French began three years ago into one for adults, who will find its social and political messages especially powerful in these pandemic times.
The story opens twenty-nine years in the past, when an under-thirty Senate staffer on break witnesses the attack on the World Trade Center. Stuart moves from D.C. determined to avoid big cities and disillusioned about his pursuit of a political career, as a result. He randomly chooses to make his new home in Hawthorn, Indiana, which he deems "quiet and out of the way, and insulated from the dreams of unpredictable fanatics."