When Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni arrives back in town, this time as co-producer on a Hollywood movie set, Lt. Dave Robicheaux is convinced the mobster is linked to a series of brutal murders of young prostitutes and embarks on an investigation peppered with mob money, violence, and ghostly encounters in the Louisiana swamps.

Detective Dave Robicheaux's world isn't filled with too many happy stories, but Desmond Cormier's rags-to-riches tale is certainly one of them. Robicheaux first met Cormier on the streets of New Orleans, when the young, undersized boy had foolish dreams of becoming a Hollywood director. Twenty-five years later, when Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, it isn't to congratulate him on his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Robicheaux has discovered...