Matthew Janeski

Kieran Quinn’s cousin is dead. They found him out in the woods, not a scratch on him. Then things got really weird. A creepy FBI agent is following Kieran around town in a minivan. He’s stumbled upon an odd, not-so-abandoned house in the forest. And his new friends, a quartet of octogenarians who live in the basement of a tiny house on Church Street, are telling stories unlike any he’s heard before.

The sudden death of 12-year-old Kieran’s cousin Michael is the first in a string of perplexing events that forces Kieran to remap his inner and outer worlds. Soon after Michael’s funeral, Kieran befriends the residents of a pair of extraordinary houses who begin to weave an unbelievable story about the true nature of the universe. Spurred on by his desire to find answers about Michael’s death, Kieran ranges over the humid suburban landscape, all the while evading an unfriendly FBI agent whose work may involve a lot more than he lets on. As the line between what is real and what is not becomes a blur, Kieran is propelled ever closer to the scene of Michael’s death. Too close, in fact.