It is a sequel to two of his earlier novels, Last Call and Expiration Date, with the respective protagonists of those novels returning as supporting characters. The three novels are collectively referred to as the Fault Lines trilogy.
This novel provides examples of:
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: William Shakespeare, Ken Kesey, and Sarah Winchester, among others, play significant roles in the backstory.
- Canon Welding: Expiration Date and Last Call were separate works with unrelated plots and no major shared characters until this joined them together.
- Electromagnetic Ghosts: Ghosts affect compasses, make telephone calls, and appear on TV sets to communicate important information.
- Fisher King: The legend of the Fisher King is central to the plot.
- Split Personality: The female lead in Earthquake Weather suffered a trauma in her childhood that has resulted in her having over a dozen different personalities, some of whom like the male lead more than others and one of whom is an actual ghost that attempted to possess her, initiating the fracturing that produced the others.
- Stolen Good, Returned Better: Fugitive Cody steals a car, picking one that's a few decades old because it's easier to hotwire. She does some work on it while it's in her hands, so when the owner eventually gets it back it's in better condition than it was when she stole it.
