Firecracker

by SeanStewart (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.29

  When William Kennedy is six years old, he sees his Uncle Billy at a family reunion. The only problem is his uncle died 3 weeks ago at an explosion in a Petroleum plant. For William, this is only the start. Nicknamed 'Dead' Kennedy, he realises he can see dead people all around him. With time, this just becomes part of life, although it does have its practical implications - for instance he can't drive a car because he keeps swerving to avoid the ghosts. Now aged 32, Dead Kennedy is approached by a distant cousin who needs help - the ghost of a girl is living in his garage and he thinks William can persuade her to leave. But when William Kennedy arrives at his cousin's house, he discovers that the girl was raped and murdered and that the perpetrator was the very man who is now asking for his help. In a twist, William kills the man and ends up being haunted himself. Meanwhile William is trying to get the rest of his life back on track - his relationship with his 12-ear-old daughter Megan and the ex-wife he is still in love with. Ultimately, FIRECRACKER is a love story, a ghost story, and the tale of a man who has lost his way and trying to find it again.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2005

  $3.29

  The hero of FIRECRACKER is a likeable, 32-year-old, slightly feckless divorced father-of-one who lives in Texas and is nicknamed 'Dead' Kennedy, for the rather good reason that he can see dead people. We're told this in a very matter of fact way - there's nothing gothic or horror-like about this novel - it's been something he's had to live with all his life and, apart from the fact that it makes driving a car impossible for him (he keeps swerving to avoid the ghosts), it hasn't really affected his life. DK is trying to put his life back on track, in part to do justice to the faith his daughter Megan - 12 years old, and very funny - continues to place in him, and in part because he's still in love with his ex-wife and he can't bear to prove her new ex-marine husband Don right. The trouble is, he keeps being distracted, first by a long-lost cousin with a weeping ghost in his garage and a terrible secret to hide, then by his all-too-alive mother who is planning a family reunion, and finally by a number of his dead relatives who all seem to want something from him. This isn't trying to be the Sixth Sense - it's far quirkier and funnier. It is a ghost story - with ghosts who are both living and dead - but it's also a love story and the story of a man who loses his way and the people who try and help him find it once again.