"Melissa is set in 1999-2000. At roughly 2 pm on 9th June 1999, on a small street in Hanford, Stoke-on-Trent, a young girl dies of leukaemia; at almost the same moment, everyone on the street experiences the same musical hallucination. The novel is about this death and accompanying phenomenon - and about their after-effects, as the girl's family gradually disintegrates over the following year."--Publisher's web site.