When the dead body of a young woman is found on the grounds of Belle Vie, the estate's manager, Caren Gray, launches her own investigation into Belle Vie's history, which leads her to a centuries old mystery involving the plantation's slave quarters--and her own past.

"The Shondell and Balangie families are enemies in New Iberia's criminal underworld, but teen musicians Johnny Shondell and Isolde Balangie have fallen in love and run away. As Dave Robicheaux investigates the couple's whereabouts, he runs afoul of Isolde's mafioso father, who puts a hit on Robicheaux and his partner, Clete Purcel. The assassin is unlike any they have ever faced: he can induce hallucinations and travels on a ghost ship that materializes...

"Fifteen-year-old Ilya arrives in Louisiana from his native Russia for what should be the adventure of his life: a year in America as an exchange student. The abundance of his new world--the Super Walmarts and heated pools and enormous televisions--is as hard to fathom as the relentless cheerfulness of his host parents. And Sadie, their beautiful and enigmatic daughter, has miraculously taken an interest in him. But all is not right in Ilya's world:...