Harvest of Ashes is the second book in the Darkness Before Mourning series. December 1980 brings Jack Lewis not only the usual Christmas pressures felt by parents of young children, but a long list. He's promised his wife to be happy this year (despite some very sad anniversaries), work is a minefield, and his mom gets sick. Perkins again explores the dark and chilling side of the American Dream-in particular, the things that can never be spoken of no matter how large and terrifying they might loom. "I've spent my life largely out of step, being just different enough that the people around me knew I didn't entirely fit in. I thought I was used to it. Then I moved to the South. It wasn't just that I didn't hunt, fish, or like either NASCAR or grits. It was way beyond that. I was three-strikes unthinkable-an atheist in the Bible Belt, a damn Yankee in the South, and a PhD in Jesse Helms' country." (from the Prologue)