Song for the Dead

A young man and his mother grapple with the disappearance and possible death of his older brother who may have jumped off a bridge on the Jersey shore. I AM NOT GONE is what the suicide note on Mason’s pillow says. His seventeen-year-old brother, Declan, finds it just before police arrive to search Mason’s bedroom for clues to his disappearance: several local business CCTV cameras in the New Jersey shore beach town have recorded a video of a young man fitting Mason’s description jumping from a bridge. But was it Mason? Police divers haven’t found a body. As Declan and his frantic mother endure local news coverage of the missing young man, nearly a week passes and the words I AM NOT GONE remain lodged in Declan’s memory. As he tries amidst his deep grief to return to his life as it was before Mason disappeared, Declan begins to hear about a group of people called The Liberators who are committing terrorist acts all over the U.S. And then suddenly he receives an unnerving direct message from Mason’s Instagram account. Then another message, both telling Declan to come find him. Convinced Mason’s account was hacked, Declan blocks the sender. But then he feels compelled to reconnect and finds that not only does the person sound like his brother, but they also know intimate things about Declan that no one else could possibly know. Is his brother still alive somewhere? And if so why would he do such a thing to the family? Then there is yet another layer: a song Mason wrote for the four-man band that he and Declan are part of, a haunting song that when performed posthumously, mesmerizes audiences. As the novel builds to shocking conclusion, Declan is forced to make sense of the mystery of his missing brother and to understand just what compelled Mason to write his cryptic note and take leave of his tightly knit family.