Exploring the themes of fidelity and metaphysical love, DON'T BE CRUEL follows the wildly careening adventures of Miles Miner, a middle-aged journalist whose life is turned upside down by a five-year-old boy who appears to hold the memories of many past lives. The child, Ian Rivard, was born with a congenital defect that apparently allows the souls of long dead people to communicate through him, including Miner's father. Complicated by his estranged wife and a new love, Miner's struggle to understand and protect the child forms the central conflict of the novel. Set in and around Memphis, DON'T BE CRUEL takes the reader through the decadence of Beale Street, the infamous cruelty of Shelby County Jail, Elvis Presley's Graceland, the downtown renaissance anchored by Auto Zone Park, and the rural backroads of Tennessee.