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From ancient times people have wondered what exactly happens to us when we die. This question is at the heart of all of the world's major religions and has crept into countless stories and legends over the centuries. Some of these tales portray the spirits of the dead sometimes residing near the living, lurking in graveyards or old houses until the matter which has kept them here is resolved. In modern literature this type of ghost story still fascinates us and is the principal lure employed by the writer in her novel.
Amy Fletcher is a psychic who comes from a staunch Catholic background where chatting with the dead is severely frowned upon. Struggling in her relationship with her widowed, controlling father, she is relieved to have the chance to escape California for a while to help her best friend in Georgia deal with a haunting. But Amy encounters much more than she expects on beautiful St. Simons Island. Murder, romance, betrayal, and a new spiritual perspective all play a role in the mystery she has to solve in order to bring the late Lily Richfield to rest.
Sheffield, a practicing psychic and medium herself, does a good job of making Amy a realistic character with the doubts and foibles that imbue us all. Her book does suffer from some inadequate pacing, periodic grammar and usage errors, and the tendency to be a bit didactic at the end with its promotion of a New Age worldview. Still, overall it is a suspenseful and often amusing book for lovers of paranormal fiction.