In this world it is possible to buy portable lie detectors ("barking dogs"), which affect how justice and social relationships change as a result of being able to discern when someone is not telling the truth.
[2] Douglas Barbour of Canadian Forum wrote that Green was "very good at showing the psychological disruption the time shifts create in his two central characters".
[1] In Shadow of Ashland (1996), an expanded short story, Green drew on his own life and that of his family to write about a son's search for his dying mother's brother.
[2] Malachy Duffy of The New York Times Book Review praised the novel's "dedication to exploring its underlying themes of redemption, resolution and homecoming".
At the center of the novel is the "Blue Limbo" technique, which allows the dead to be brought back to consciousness, and a rogue cop's desire to avenge the murder of his partner.