The first, best clue is the extended discussion of The Dead Zone’s John Smith, and Mr. Hill himself admits to other references in a cool interview he did recently for CBC Arts. ” There’s some other places where I’ve echoed the language in some of dad’s books because I thought it was fun.”

And that’s just the beginning. Outside the Tower — in a way, if you insist that our world isn’t in there/on there somewhere — there are some other clever little bits. From that selfsame interview:

“Each part of the book is named after a work by someone in my family,” he explains. “The first part, The Briars, is the last book that I wrote that I couldn’t sell. Part two is called Flight or Fright, and that is the title of an anthology my dad did with Bev Vincent. Part three is called Double Feature, which is the title of my brother’s first novel. Part four is called The Trap, which is the title of my mother’s second novel. And the final part of the book is called Save Yourself — my brother married the wonderful writer Kelly Braffet, and I think that’s the title of her third novel.”

You can enjoy the full piece here, and fear not: it may be the first full-length novel from Hill in a decade, but it’s pretty damn solid. And, of course, it serves the Beam.