Kenneth Alan Therriault had been identified as the bomber who used the nickname Thumper. One day Liz approached Jamie at school and told him she needed him to help her with a case. Jamie describes that he later learned that Liz’s superior officers had suspected Liz was a dirty cop. Tia had promised not to tell Liz’s superior officers at the police department where Liz worked as a detective about the cocaine. She broke off the relationship with Liz and asked her never to return. One morning, Tia discovered two pounds of cocaine in Liz’s jacket. Meanwhile, Tia and Liz were having arguments that were becoming more frequent and more intense. Tia managed to write Regis' novel, improving her financial situation. Yet, Tia told Liz, her live-in girlfriend, that Jamie could talk to the dead. Jamie was angry with his mother because she had made him promise not to tell anyone what he could do.

She planned to write the novel herself following the notes she would glean from Regis using Jamie’s ability to communicate with dead people.

Tia took Jamie to Regis’ home to see if Jamie could locate Regis and ask him about the plot points for the novel he had been writing. Tia was desperate when Regis died with only about 30 pages of his final novel finished. Tia believed the only thing that would financially save her and her literary agency was the concluding novel that a bestselling author, Regis Thomas, was writing for his loved Roanoke series. Tia and her brother, Harry, had invested a good deal of money in a fund that was found to be a Ponzi scheme. Jamie describes how his mother’s financial situation deteriorated drastically during the Great Recession of 2008. Tia warned Jamie not to tell anyone else about this ability because she feared he would be exploited. Tia found those rings where Jamie said they would be.

Mona told Jamie where she had hidden her wedding rings, rings her husband had been unable to find. Jamie opens his story on the day that he proved to his mother, Tia Conklin, that he had talked to Mona Burkett, the dead wife of their next-door neighbor, Marty. In the horror story/crime thriller Later by Stephen King, James “Jamie” Conklin details his coming of age, a loss of innocence that is expedited because he has the unique ability of being able to see and converse with the dead. The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: King, Stephen.

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