"People explode. One minute they may be relaxing in a chair, the next they erupt into a fireball. Jets of blue fire shoot from their bodies like flames from a blowtorch, and within half an hour they are reduced to a pile of ash.... For centuries, this gruesome way of death has been debated, with many people discounting it as a myth. But spontaneous human combustion is real...." — Brian J. Ford in New ScientistIn this psychological horror story with a redemptive twist, veteran author D. Patrick Miller imagines what it might take to build up a fatal fire within. Terry, a lonely retiree with a lifelong feeling of not belonging in a seemingly uncaring world, tries to come out of his shell with forays into the Tea Party and a Unity Church. But the flames of his lifelong alienation finally erupt in an horrific yet strangely healing climax.