At the Foot of the Story Tree (a title which should be familiar to readers of Shadowland) is an old-fashioned work of criticism that takes a hard, thorough look at the entire body of Peter Straub's fiction, from his relatively obscure mainstream novel, Marriages to Houses Without Doors and beyond. Book by book, story by story, Sheehan endeavors to untangle the complexities of Straub's fiction, to isolate and illuminate its central concerns, and to articulate his highly personal sense of its unique and enduring value.