Iain

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.

When Chaz Perron's wife discovers that he is running a scam (posing as a marine biologist to doctor water samples so that an agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping fertilizer into the Everglades), he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner. Unlucky for Chaz, Joey survives clutching a bale of Jamaican pot. Rescued from the Atlantic by a former police officer, Mick Stranahan, she decides not to report him but instead haunt and taunt him, with Mick's help, by playing dead.

Nothing in Cree's experience as a Harvard-trained clinical psychologist or as a paranormal investigator has prepared her for Tommy Keeday's case. A talented young Navajo, Tommy has recently been exhibiting bizarre symptoms that his family believes are signs of possession by a chindi, a hostile spirit. As Cree struggles to find answers, she becomes increasingly aware that Tommy and the people who surround him have some deep and disturbing secrets.