In book 3 of this paranormal YA series, teen sleuth and ghosthealer, Michael DiSanto, uncovers a nest of evil that has festered too long and destroyed lives in his hometown of 1980s Berkeley, California.
After the life-changing losses and grief of the recent past, Michael intends to forge ahead, begin college and, hopefully, explore the budding romance between him and Kiku, even though Kiku is back in Tokyo. Not so fast!
He hasn’t even gotten to his first class when he’s accosted by the ghost of an elderly man, pointing the finger at the grandson he’s haunting, as his murderer, wanting Michael to report him to the police. Lloyd Park, son of a wealthy car dealership family, sees Michael staring and goes on the offensive, unleashing verbal abuse on Michael and his yakuza bodyguard Jimmy, right there in a campus café! Right away, Michael’s heightened senses understand that the relationship between Lloyd and his ghost is not all it appears, and decides not to get involved. Not only isn’t Lloyd asking for help, he seems to want to chase Michael off. What Lloyd doesn’t know about his ghost won’t hurt him and Michael decides to heed the apparent warning and get on with school.
That is, until the next day before class, Michael meets a second ghost, a young Ohlone woman, haunting a table in another coffee shop on campus. Emily Greyfeather knows who killed her and isn’t much interested in getting justice. She does, however know the connection between her killer and her sister Jane, and begs Michael just to find Jane and make sure she’s alive and well. That’s all.
Simple, right? But when has Michael’s life ever been simple? As soon as he delves into the search for Jane Greyfeather, Lloyd’s sudden presence in his life turns out not to be the coincidence he first thought it was. In fact, Lloyd is turning out to be the biggest non-coincidence he could have imagined…
