AustLit

'Nate Monk is Kieran's father. He's a single parent of a "differently wired" child, a talented musician who once stood on the cusp of success and a man resigned to a pragmatic life of responsibility over opportunity. Both share the scarred aftermath of the Infernal Day.

'On a perfect autumn April noon five-and-a-half years before, wife and mother Felicity died saving her only child from a raging house fire. Although Kieran's inadvertent hand was complicit in the tragedy, Nate refused to apportion blame. The tragic circumstances of the blaze, however, constituted a secret that a fearful father dared not share with his "different" son.

'But now, as the burning forests of nearby Pendarra Hill fill the sky with smoke and the TV screen with concern, Kieran will discover the devastating truth. And driven by a desire to make amends for the "stupid little kid" of half a decade before, he will disappear into the night.' (From the publisher's website.)