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Harper Blaine is still working on her recovery from the incidents in Poltergeist. She's trying to work out her relationship with Will Novak, but since he won't or can't believe that the world might be different from what he's always believed, it's putting a strain on things. Then Quinton, her security technological expert, calls and wants her to investigate missing street people. Something or someone is killing the homeless in Seattle and Harper needs to find out who or what before more of them die.

More Kat Richardson: Greywalker Poltergeist

Harper is a PI. She's also a Greywalker with an ability to see into the otherside. She's still learning about her abilities and how to use them. She sees, or can see, the city as a series of layers in time and walk into those other times and observe them. It sounds like a great gift but it also means she needs to constantly concentrate on her surroundings in order to avoid tripping over things that are there that she doesn't see, or avoiding things that she sees that aren't there. But now she's also a part of the world of vampires, necromancers, and other things that go bump in the night -- and since she's a PI, they come to her for help. Theses are the jobs she can't talk about with people who don't know about this other world that lives along side ours.

It's cold and Seattle's homeless are disappearing, and they're not moving South. Quinton, who by his own choice, chooses to live underground, is concerned as some of the missing are his friends or acquaintances. He wants to hire Harper to get to the bottom of this and stop the killings.

Richardson has, in each of the books, woven her stories into the historical past and present of Seattle. This has been masterfully done, giving the reader a slice of history along with a deeply involving mystery to be solved by her main character. In this present book, it's the history of Seattle's underground. On my one visit to Seattle, I never got the time to take the Underground Tour and regretted missing it. Now, if I do get to go on the tour I'll have a greater appreciation for the sights that I'll see thanks to Harper and Richardson.

Harper is the type of person who can't not do the right thing. She'll complain about it first but, in the end, she will do what she thinks is right, even when it will cost her -- whether the cost be a friendship, money, comfort, or her own life. She's a paladin in a time of me-first attitudes. It's hard not to cheer for her success and once you get into the story, there's no way you can stop and leave her, not knowing what will happen next.

In many ways this is a book that brings together all that Harper has learned and felt over the previous books. She's stronger and more centered. Unlike other books of this type, Harper doesn't gain more and more power; she has the same powers, she's just learning to use them. She's a very human and humane character and one that we hope will stay on side of the learning curve that allows her to be part of many more stories.