Plot Summary:

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Between 1985 and 1987, six residents of Flarestown, a tight-knit suburb in upstate New York, died under bizarre and tragic circumstances. Lori Vaude, a young entitled stage performer, Jack Stippler, an absent father, Olive Osbourne, a jealous waitress and cheerleader, Walter Barsden, the annoyingly optimistic town mayor, and Charlie Veraldez, a brash drug and cigarette addict. Each case was declared an accident and were never looked into further. Though every victim had strained relationships and plenty of enemies, no arrests were ever made. After the sixth death, fear consumed the community; Flarestown was declared “cursed,” and everyone remaining abandoned the town for good. All except one. Albert Fleer, a former English teacher now in his mid-sixties, secretly remained behind. Since then, he has been living undetected in the abandoned town library, sheltering in his late mother’s former office. Unlike the others, Albert never believed the deaths were accidents. He had known each of the victims personally and was convinced their fates were connected by something far more deliberate. For the past thirty years, he has devoted his life to uncovering the truth — sifting through what remains of Flarestown in hopes of finally bringing closure to the victims’ families. But time is against him. Age, years of isolation, and the decaying conditions of his surroundings begin to erode his grip on reality. As his increasing hallucinations blur the line between memory and imagination, surviving on the ephemeral grief from the loss of his loved ones, Albert must uncover what truly happened before his mind—or his life—gives out and the victims are forever left unavenged.