GHOST WALK

Author: Heather Graham ISBN: 0778322181 10/2005 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

Nikki DuMonde's newest employee is standing at the end of her bed at four o'clock in the morning begging for help. It's a joke, right? Besides, as manager of a successful New Orleans haunted-tour company, Nikki doesn't scare easily. But in the light of day, harsh reality sets in as a police officer informs her that Andy was brutally murdered—at the exact time Nikki swears the distraught woman was in her room. No one believes her except Brent Blackhawk, a paranormal investigator desperately trying to forget his tragic past. Half Irish, half Lakota—and able to communicate with the dead—Brent is used to living in two worlds. But when he realizes the ghost of a slain government agent is also trying to reach out to Nikki, he knows that she, too, must listen to the dead...if she wants to keep living.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

GHOST WALK is a fun, upbeat, off-the-wall kind of story that, at times, can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and at the same time make you feel completely comfortable, all the while throwing all kinds of suspense and drama at you. I loved it. Plain and simple.

When Nikki and her friend/coworker, Andy, go to a psychic's house, the psychic warns Andy not to go out of her house and to lock all of her doors. They both pretty much blow off the psychic's warnings and go about their merry way. Well, when the next night Andy is supposed to be dead, and she shows up at Nikki's house at 4:00 in the morning, Nikki thinks she is playing a trick on her. She will find out soon enough that Andy is not tricking her at all, but enlisting her help.

The only person who believes Nikki is Brent Blackhawk. Brent is an investigator who can see and talk to people who are dead. From the moment he and Andy meet, even before she knows who he is, sparks fly in every direction!

This being only my second paranormal, I am finding that I really like this genre tremendously. My only complaint with this book is that it really didn't pick up at all until the third or fourth chapter. I was extremely hard pressed to get through the first few chapters and had to set it down once, but, once I did get through the first 75 or so pages, it was smooth sailing. Heather Graham never disappoints me, and even with the rocky start, GHOST WALK is a wonderful book with great characters, an excellent plot and a beautiful love.

Kristal Gorman