Tour guide Nikki DuMonde makes her living taking groups of tourists to see haunted mansions and ghostly graveyards in the Big Easy, but she’s not prepared for a spooky nocturnal visit by one of her employees. In fact, when Andrea Ciello appears at her bedside at four o’clock in the morning begging for help -- then disappears -- Nikki is more than a little miffed at what she assumes is a joke perpetrated by her coworkers. She vows to let them know that she doesn’t scare so easily at her first opportunity.
Then, in the harsh light of day, the police arrive to inform Nikki that Andy died the night before -- at the exact time she “appeared” in Nikki’s bedroom. Andy was a recovering drug addict who had apparently died of an overdose. But Nikki is sure that Andy was clean -- and, though she can hardly believe it, she suspects the young woman had come to ask Nikki to help bring her killer to justice.
No one believes her -- until she meets Brent Blackhawk, a paranormal investigator desperately trying to forget his tragic past. Half Irish, half Lakota Sioux – and able to communicate with the dead -- Brent is used to living in two worlds, the living and the ghostly.
Brent has come to New Orleans to look into the murder of FBI officer Tom Garfield, an above-reproach investigator who was also found dead of an overdose. He’s quick to pick up on the similarities between Garfield’s death and that of Andrea Ciello. When he discovers that Nikki has also been “seeing” Garfield, he’s sure that both he and Andy were victims of the same vicious killer.
Brent knows that Nikki somehow holds the key to the mysteries surrounding these brutal deaths. To find the truth about both murders, he must not only convince her that she has a special ability to communicate with ghosts, but he must also get her to cooperate in his investigation.
Not surprisingly, Nikki -- whose friends have arranged to send her to a shrink -- doesn’t welcome Brent’s attempts to explain that he, too, “sees ghosts.” She can’t deny her attraction to the tall, dark and mysterious man who’s walked into her life, nor can she shake the fear that he’s right about the specters who keep trying to talk to her. As she gives in to the truth, the couple begins an unearthly investigation -- and a very real and passionate love affair.
Soon, a clever conspiracy is revealed that threatens not only Nikki but reaches into the highest levels of political life in New Orleans. With time running out and too many suspects, Nikki and Brent must use every nuance of their special abilities to stop the plot -- and bring peace to the restless spirits, freeing them from their ghostly walk.
