Inverness, California

Alister Turner was one of those filmmakers destined to fade into obscurity. It is said that he shot a dozen films during the golden age of low-budget cinema; that he worked with mob-connected producers, B-list actresses, eccentrics, bikers, and ghostwriters; and that he experienced just enough success to spend the rest of his life failing. Or perhaps none of that happened quite that way. The narrator of this novel reconstructs his life, attempting to rescue a cursed filmography from oblivion. Yet, the deeper he delves into Turner’s life, the harder it becomes to distinguish reality from legend. From 1970s Los Angeles to the forests of Northern California, the novel traverses a twilight America—a landscape populated by motels, cults, fugitives, impostors, and visionaries. With hypnotic prose and a highly original structure, *Inverness, California* explores the impossibility of separating art from life. For, in the end, the true mystery lies not in discovering who Alister Turner really was, but in understanding why we feel as though he truly existed.