In its second edition, The Empty Lot Next Door sheds its "young adult" elements, opting instead for a deeper exploration of a real-life haunting over adolescent themes. The outcome is a more mature and compelling storyline, firmly rooted in the real-life events that inspired the book.

In an Austin neighborhood, Ray (Arthur’s childhood name) and his family excitedly moved into a small house in the midst of a big, green lawn. Beside their house is a strange, vacant lot where a house once stood, and a huge hole in the back lies mysteriously.

As a young boy with many new friends, Ray considers the empty lot an exciting playground. But the tale behind the lot keeps the boy intrigued and frightened as he learns that the house that was once there was burned down years ago, leaving a girl dead amid the fire. As the neighborhood kids say, the little girl will haunt anyone who dares to jump into the hole. Determined to validate the authenticity of this tale, Ray daringly and mistakenly challenges the ghost, a challenge that he will forever regret. Soon, he becomes haunted by the little girl, whom he named Candle Face, due to her charred face and body. The apparition began visiting his dreams and leaving handprints and other signs around the house, even when Ray was awake.

The Empty Lot Next Door is more than a ghost story. It’s also a story of the desperation, pain, and helplessness experienced by children whose parents work long hours away from home, necessarily leaving them to fend for themselves against real and imagined evils. It's about sibling abuse and the scars that such abuse leaves on the victims and the abusers. The Empty Lot Next Door is also a story of an intense struggle of a child to make sense of the world without communicating his fears and thoughts to the adults in his life since he doesn't want to add to the family's problems. The first edition was originally published in 2010.