Fifteen-year-old Caleb Hideki Smith is a loser's loser. As one of the few half-Japanese residents of Portersville, North Carolina, Caleb has accepted that he will never fit in. He's not popular, can't play football, and the girl he likes doesn't know he exists: and that was before he accidentally burnt down the town's most beloved landmark.

But that same day, Caleb and his sister Emily stumble upon a Shinto shrine deep in the Great Smoky Mountains, a shrine Caleb knows for a fact wasn't there the day before. Things get only stranger from there, as Caleb finds he has developed some unusual abilities and his sister is doing her best not to accidentally turn into a fox. They need answers, and that means tapping into a family heritage they know nothing about, and fast. Something unspeakable has been trapped under the mountain. But it has found a way out...

If Caleb and Emily are going to stop the disaster threatening Portersville, they are going to have to start figuring out who they really are.

Hideki Smith, Demon Queller is the new mythological fantasy from New York Times bestselling author A.J. Hartley, with family members Hisako Osako, and Kuma Hartley.

Covert art by Jeff Langevin