Poor Ghost

An audacious, clever, and poignant debut novel from author David Starkey, Poor Ghost tells the unforgettable story of Caleb Crane, a retired insurance salesman whose average suburban life is upended when--on a September afternoon in Santa Barbara--a private jet carrying the members of one of America's most storied rock bands plunges into his backyard.

Still mourning his wife's death from Covid, Caleb finds himself navigating trauma, grief and loss, all while his quiet neighborhood is invaded by pushy reporters and rabid Poor Ghost fans.

Recalling Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid in its fictional documentary structure, Poor Ghost moves back and forth between the impact of the plane crash on Caleb's life and an oral history of Poor Ghost, from its beginnings as a working-class punk band to rock icons.

Connecting these two suspenseful threads are text messages and news articles, Instagram, Nextdoor, Twitter, Youtube and fansite message board posts. As the twisting and turning strands of the plot converge, the mystery of what happened to Poor Ghost's plane is finally revealed.

Reverberating with the whole range of human emotion, Poor Ghost is an elegiac novel of art, ambition, and the ephemeral nature of fame; a love song to the relationships that sustain us and the painful beauty of the world as we know it.