Name: Archie Parsons. Occupation: Malaria consultant. Hobbies: Mosquito husbandry. Boulder climbing. Long walks at sunset in failed states.That last item nearly gets Archie killed when he is mugged fresh off a plane in Liberia. He is lucky to limit his damage to a scalp contusion and a stolen passport.Turns out, these weren't run-of-the-mill thugs. They work for a secret and powerful industrial consortium. Their goals: murder and identity theft. They want Archie's visas and...

Aerie Walker should be famous or dead or both by now, just like her idol, bassist Scott LaFaro, who in 1961, at the peak of his fame, died in a fiery wreck in upstate New York.She plays upright bass too, and plays it very well. Won awards and acclaim, but could never manage a living. When her odyssey in professional jazz ends with spoiled dreams and a failed suicide attempt in Tokyo, she retreats to Ithaca, NY where she hopes to pursue a new career in the culinary arts.One ...

Nineteen year old James Moody, after a brief respite on a goat farm in Wales, resumes a life devoid of luck. He explores the threshold of the afterlife and gets caught up between two warring communities of freed souls, where he is forced to make some difficult allegiances while searching for his love in the land of the living.

James Moody, deported from the UK back to the US, strives to keep his promise to dead girlfriend Karla and rescue her from the frigid antechamber of Hell called The Deeps. Meanwhile, Frelsian assassin Wendell Franks employs coercion to recruit him as an apprentice, threatening to eliminate those he cares for one by one unless he complies.

James Moody has grown weary of the after lands, and wants nothing more than to rebuild a quiet life in the living world with his resurrected girlfriend Karla. He only wishes Karla felt the same. But she has long given up on life and yearns only to build a future with James as Freesouls in the Liminality.James' bliss prevents him from joining her on her frequent excursions to the after-realm. But then horrible things start happening to their friends in the UK. James remains blocked ...

James Moody is restless. Finally dead after a long run of living with one foot in the grave, he and his fellow 'trespassers' have rebuilt and re-populated the surface of Root after the war with Penult. But his good friend Urszula, a half-soul with a presence in two realms, remains a prisoner in the Pennies' Judicial Temple, evading their cruel brand of 'justice' by clinging to life, walking a tightrope of optimism while the 'Friends of Penult' attempt to topple her mood by murdering all th...

Two lightly intertwined stories of strangers lost in strange lands.Lassoed, knocked down, face planted in the dirt -- best thing to happen to Frank Bowen in years. When wife Liz went missing in the wilds of Belize, the constables of San Ignacio could find no trace. Years later, on a pilgrimage to her remote 'grave,' Frank is abducted and whisked away to a place he can't identify, by people whose motives and origins baffle him. Could this be what happened to Liz?Meanwhile, a...

Dan Tompkins, dead of supernatural causes at age 22, washes up on Lethe, where souls go to forget life and strive for Elysium. Pining for Gina, the love he left behind, Dan wants out. He teams with rogue soul Marco Sabonis to find a way back to the land of life. The Elysial powers are not amused. There may be Hell to pay.

Eleven short stories about bog men, swamp hags, witches' curses, hell hounds, pagans, slavic gods, death wishes, bucket lists, professional vigilantes, musical necromancy, artificial intelligence, demonic possession, aphrodisiacs and satyrs.