Fifteen-year-old Caleb Hideki Smith is a loser's loser. As one of the few half-Japanese students in East Portersville High School, Caleb has accepted that he will never fit in. He's not popular, can't play football, and the girl he likes doesn't even know he exists. Well, that was before he accidentally burnt down the town's most beloved historical landmark. On one fateful day, Caleb and his sister Emily stumble upon a Shinto shrine deep in the Great Smoky Mountains: a shrine Caleb knows wasn't there the day before. Faced with his unfamiliar heritage, Caleb quickly learns that fitting in was the least of his problems. You cannot outrun who you are and the past will always catch up to you eventually. Something is lurking in the caves of the mountains. And it wants to get out... AGES: 14 plus AUTHOR: Author A.J. Hartley is the bestselling writer of mystery/thriller, fantasy, historical fiction, and young adult novels Cold Bath Street, Written Stone Lane and Impervious. He is also the author of the Monsters in the Mirror middle grade series. A.J. was born in northern England, but has lived in many places including Japan, and was the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where he specialised in the performance history, theory and criticism of Renaissance English drama, and worked as a director and dramaturg.
