Nicholas Rome seemed destined to follow in his father’s crime fighting footsteps, but a DUI on the night of his graduation from the sheriff’s academy confirmed his belief that the right genes do not guarantee the right path. The elder Rome’s mysterious death before bringing a killer operating in the realm of the supernatural to justice is destined to be vindicated by Nicholas, until now resigned to teaching criminal justice courses at the local vocational college. But Nicholas Rome cannot escape the specter of his father’s fame nor his own lack thereof. Until now. By chance, Nicholas discovers his father’s secret journal, a cryptic document that unearths an evil identity forged in the spirit world. The last murder case the famous Chase Rome worked will soon thrust Nicholas into his father’s dark past; bring him face to face with a killer, the role of ceremonial hallucinogens in Native American culture, and a blind man as his most powerful ally.___"She fanned the white sage deeper into her lungs; it brought forth the memory. While still in her teens she had made the first through third levels. The fourth passed without effort. She sailed through the sixth through eighth. A first. She was destined. Trouble began in the ninth as she encountered beings foreign to her. Known only by the most experienced puvalem, senior shaman. Alien. Sent by another creator. Her fear almost sent her careening back to her mortal world. But she pressed on, challenging them to defeat her. Their laughter presented the next few stages, more beings, more curious worlds with their own inhabitants, textures, landscapes not of this world. Her body turned completely in on itself. Marguerite Santanos had floated above her body. Full separation had been reached. From afar, she felt and saw the concern and anger of her father. Concern that she would not be able to travel back. Anger that she had done something that few accomplished. No woman to be sure. The thirteenth level. How would the others react? How would they look upon her?"