The dead of nightâ¦
The Old West town of Lily, Arizona, is home to the Gilded Lily, a former theaterâ¦and bawdy house. These days, it offers theatrical productions geared to tourists, but the recent discovery of a skull, a real skull, among the props and costumes shakes everyone up.
So, who do you call? The Krewe of Hunters, a special FBI unit of paranormal investigators. In this case, itâs agent Jane Everett. Janeâs also a talented artist who creates images of the dead as they once were. But the Krewe always works with local law enforcement, and here that means Sloan Trent, former Houston cop and now sheriff. His great-great-grandmother was an actress at the Gilded Lilyâ¦and sheâs not resting in peace.
Then more remains appear in the nearby desert. As they search for answers, using all the skills at their disposal, Jane and Sloan find themselves falling into dangerâand into love.
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Praise for the novels of
New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham
âGraham deftly weaves elements of mystery, the paranormal and romance into a tight plot that will keep
the reader guessing at the true nature of the killerâs evil.â âPublishers Weekly on The Unseen
âSuspenseful and dark. The culture and history
surrounding San Antonio and the Alamo are described in detail. The transitions between past and present flow seamlessly, the main characters are interesting and their connection to one another is believable.â âRT Book Reviews on The Unseen
âA fast-paced story, involving history and ghost stories. Graham is skilled at creating intriguing,
mature characters involved in challenging situations.â âLesaâs Book Critiques on The Unseen
âI am amazed at Grahamâs ability to create a magical story that works so well in the present when part of the facts lie in the past. The Uninvited is a saucy romantic murder mystery with ghosts taking center stage.â
âJoyfully Reviewed
âThe paranormal romantic mystery
is exhilarating and fast-paced.â âGenre Go Round on The Unspoken
âIf you like mixing a bit of the creepy with a dash of sinister and spine-chilling reading with your romance, be sure to read Heather Grahamâs latest.⦠Graham does a great job of blending just a bit of paranormal with real, human evil.â
âMiami Herald on Unhallowed Ground
âThe paranormal elements are integral to the unrelentingly suspenseful plot, the characters are likable, the romance convincing and, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Grahamâs atmospheric depiction of a lost city is especially poignant.â
âBooklist on Ghost Walk
âGrahamâs rich, balanced thriller sizzles with equal parts suspense, romance and the paranormalâall of it nail-biting.â
âPublishers Weekly on The Vision
For Nan and Joe Ryan
and my one and only but really great trip to Tombstone with them!
Prologue
Mornings were quiet in Lily, Arizona.
A pity, Sloan Trent thought, walking up the two steps to the raised sidewalk of the townâs main street. He felt tourists were missing out, because these summer mornings were beautiful, retaining the nightâs chill, while the days were often blazing.
Not surprisingly, the street was called Main Street. Sometimes, when the wind picked up, tumbleweeds actually swept down the street, along with little clouds of dust. The tourists loved itâexcept on the few rainy days that turned the dirt road into a mud slide, which clearly explained the raised wooden sidewalks of the 1880s.
The entire town was built of wood; only a few of the newer dwellings on the outskirts were brick or concrete. When Lily was built, lumber had been the easiest material to acquire, so everything was made of wood. Even the jail.
It was probably a miracle that Lily had never burned to the ground. But, small and barren though it might be, the town was a survivor. Just naming it Lily had been a piece of optimism, but when Joseph Miller had first come in hopes of finding gold way back in the 1850s, heâd named the place for his grandmotherânot because sheâd been beautiful or sweet, but because the Irishwoman had been blessed with the greatest tenacity heâd ever known, according to his memoir.
And Lily, Arizona, was a town that had held on tenaciously through good and bad, fair times and foul.
Sloan looked down the broad dusty road that had been preserved. Lily had almost been a ghost town, in the truly deserted sense; at one time, in the early 1900s, only three places of business had remained open, and since one had been the sheriffâs office and jail, thereâd really just been two mercantile establishments, both hanging on by a thread. Those two had been the Paris Saloon and the theater, the Gilded Lily. Of course, staying afloat at that time in this dry Western town off the beaten track, on the road between Tucson and Tombstone, was a struggle, and the Gilded Lily had offered pretty tawdry entertainment in the guise of theater. Clearly, the place had been successful.