Fault Lines

Ghosts can be caught, bottled, and sold by covert dealers to addicts who inhale the things-and when a young boy named Kootie accidentally inhales the ghost of Thomas Edison, he finds that all the factions of Los Angeles's occult underground are after him, determined to kill him and get Edison's powerful ghost for themselves. Aided by Edison's confused and irascible ghost, Kootie flees-and finds himself dodging perils natural and supernatural in the gritty alleys and trainyards of a Los Angeles that tourists never see. From the slums around the LA River, to the abandoned Houdini mansion in the Hollywood Hills, to a final dramatic confrontation on the haunted ocean liner Queen Mary docked in Long Beach, Expiration Date is a heart-stopping supernatural adventure from one of fantasy fiction's most original talents.

A young woman possessed by a ghost has slain the Fisher King of the West, Scott Crane. Now, temporarily freed from that malevolent spirit, she seeks to restore the King to life. But Crane's body has been taken to the magically protected home of Pete and Angelica Sullivan, and their adopted son, Koot Hoomie. Kootie is destined to be the next Fisher king, but he is only thirteen years old-too young, his mother thinks, to perform the rituals to assume the Kingship. But not too young, perhaps, to assist in reuniting Scott Crane's body and spirit, and restoring him to life.