Blood Family

Divorced technical writer Alex Whitfield lives a life of studied normalcy in sharp contrast to his deeply dysfunctional family: uncle in prison for arson half-sister missing after a stint in rehab father dead by suicide in a psych ward. But Alexs normal life is shattered one night when he finds his half-sister April lying in his bathtub with her wrists slashed--until she disappears a few seconds later. Alex is terrified to think he might have inherited his fathers madness but when he confides in a friend she suggests that Alex might not have been hallucinating; instead perhaps he saw Aprils ghost. Alex doesnt believe in ghosts and he doesnt want to believe April is dead either. Still he dreads hearing what a doctor might say about his sanity so he delays the inevitable by letting his friend take him to see a witch who supposedly can help him. Thus begins Alexs reluctant journey from the streets of Atlanta to the mountains of Appalachia and from this world to the next one as hes forced to grapple with hidden truths about himself his family and the very nature of reality. Along the way hell find friends and enemies among both the living and the dead and hell learn why his father really committed suicide why April went missing and why she desperately needs his help.