An inheritance from a suicidal friend leads a film director into an unimaginable reality in this novel by an author who is “one of the special ones” (Neil Gaiman).

Like many young men before them, Weber and Philip went to Hollywood to make their fortune. Weber became one of the most respected directors of his generation, but Philip’s talent went unnoticed until he found his calling making horror pictures, a genre in which his gruesome imagination could shine. But everything changes one morning when he calls his old friend Weber to say hello, then kills himself only an hour later.

From Philip, Weber inherits a box of three videotapes. The first tape begins with Philip, warning Weber of challenges ahead, mysterious things he couldn’t handle but believes that Weber can. Then Weber sees something unbelievable: a first-person view of his mother’s last minutes alive before a plane crash took her life in 1960. Weber watches her settle into her airplane seat and read a newspaper, then hears the passengers scream as the jet falls from the sky. Before he died, Philip had unlocked a terrible secret. To understand it, Weber must learn the mysteries of death—no matter the cost.

From the author of Bathing the Lion and other acclaimed works, the recipient of honors ranging from the Bram Stoker Award to the World Fantasy Award, this is a novel filled with “wickedly imaginative twists and turns” (Publishers Weekly).

This ebook contains an all-new introduction by Jonathan Carroll, as well as an exclusive illustrated biography of the author including rare images from his personal collection.