In the dead of night, a man climbs the tower of St. Anthony's Church, driven by a compulsive urge to silence the bells.

In a deserted alley, a seemingly random victim is consumed by a torrent a flames.

And in the deceptive light of day, a mail-order businessman named Walt Stebbins receives a bizarre artifact - a glass jar containing the preserved body of a bluebird.

Things like this don't usually happen in a town like Orange, California. Ordinary people don't expect to face evil - real evil - in their backyards. But as Walt unravels the mystery of the bird in the jar, he learns that the battle between good and evil is taking place every day...

World Fantasy Award-winning author James P. Blaylock, one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre, has written eighteen novels as well as scores of short stories, essays, and articles.