Conversations with the Dead

A burnt-out long-time adjunct disillusioned with academia, Professor Peter Gabriel has just decided to quit forever when a dying old billionaire, Mr. Elias Monroe, makes him an irresistible offer: to travel the whole country on the rich man's dime, investigating mediums and psychics in search of the truth about the afterlife.

His research meets with little more than dead ends until he attends a séance at the house of Mrs. Laura Begay in Ilion, Arizona, a small town outside of Flagstaff. Three spirits take shape before his eyes, telling an incredible story of hate and love that spans multiple reincarnations across different lifetimes. Meanwhile, Peter's fiery romance with Rosey Bennett, the owner of the town's only proper coffee shop, is starting to blossom into something special-until a vengeful new spirit appears, accusing Rosey's aging father of a horrible crime.

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD explores romance, religion, reincarnation, and reinventing oneself after one's dreams have died. It reads as if Haruki Murakami wrote a response to John Williams's STONER.