Colin Douglas is a 63-year-old writer of true crime who has just witnessed his latest subject being executed by lethal injection, an experience that 'left me feeling hollow, with a copper taste in my mouth.' He then begins having recurrent nightmares about a traumatic incident that occurred in 1959, when he was a boy growing up in Baton Rouge, LA, involving a teacher from his high school. It had happened in a cemetery near a Mississippi River levee and an abandoned slave plantation about five miles from town. Colin and his friend, Stan Chandler, happened to be camping nearby and they learned later that Stan's father was somehow involved, which stuns the two boys.In Colin's nightmare, he is sinking helplessly into the mud of a borrow pit as he is menaced by some sort of alien being. His nocturnal dread deepens and even begins to invade his waking life. He decides he must leave his home in Colorado and return to Baton Rouge to try to sort out what really happened on that night.The fascinating parallel narratives of Colin the boy and the mature writer seeking the truth come together when he meets his old friend, Blaize St. Martin, his only link to past events. Their meeting leads to some new discoveries into what occurred that dark night so many years before and ends with the shocking impact of an Alfred Hitchcock film.Based on a true story, this eerie novel of mystery and suspense subtly explores the reality beneath the surface of America in 1959, while giving us vivid characters and a convincing portrayal of adolescent boys, their friendships and conflicts. This book has been compared to ""The Body by Stephen King"" on which the movie ""Stand by Me"" was based.