Four short novels from the author of THE FIREMAN & HORNS ranging from creepy horror to powerful explorations of our modern society One autumnal day in Boulder Colorado the clouds open up in a downpour of nails splinters of bright crystal that tear apart anyone who isn't safely under cover ' Rain' explores this escalating apocalyptic event as clouds of nails spread out across the country & the world Amidst the chaos a girl studying law enforcement takes it upon herself to resolve a series of almost trivial mysteries apparently harmless puzzles that turn out to have lethal answers In ' Loaded' a mall security guard heroically stops a mass shooting & becomes a hero to the modern gun movement Under the hot glare of the spotlights though his story begins to unravel taking his sanity with it ' Snapshot 1988' tells the story of an kid in Silicon Valley who finds himself threatened by The Phoenician a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid that can steal memories And in ' Aloft' a young man takes to the skies to experience parachuting for the first time & winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud a Prospero's island of roiling vapour that seems animated by a mind of its own