Mansion of High Ghosts

Oh, happy day! It's awesome here in the doldrums of the post-9/11, pre-smart phone naughty-aughties in crappy Edgewater County, South Carolina as a trio of aging Gen-X malcontents-Devin Rucker, his sister Creedence and their rich friend Billy Steeple-all descend further into fiery dissolution courtesy a crucible of unresolved guilt, neuroses and deception:

Movie-obsessed Billy's written the screenplay of his dreams all the way to the ceiling, has a faithful girlfriend, lives well, and, Oh, for kicks also harbors a deadly secret. He's no Ted Bundy, however-all the murders were imaginary. Or were they...?

Creedence, hoping for rescue, grapples with a conundrum: someone's knocked her up, either her doofus husband or else her doofus lover. Solution? Seduce rich Billy, with whom she missed her chance years ago... and tell him the baby's his! What's the harm in a little fib about paternity to make her dream of escape come true? No problem-o.

And then tragic Devin: an end-stage alcoholic grappling with confabulated memories of a dark past involving his lost love Libby Meade, their beloved cat or possibly both, he's also still pissed over Billy's betrayal, in the worst way a best friend could. One of these days 'Ruck' will return wielding biblical-scale retribution. Sure. But only after he has his fill; only after he drinks one more for the road.Reader be warned: enter ye the MANSION OF HIGH GHOSTS praying these Edgewater County folk at last grow out of their stunted adolescent selves. For now it's enough to say, let's hope it isn't too late; here's hoping no one else ends up dead like Libby.

A prequel to award-winning South Carolina author James D. McCallister's DIXIANA saga, join us one final time in Edgewater County as we draw the literary curtain on this fifteen-year series of Neo-Southern gothic novels and stories.