The last thing practical, no-nonsense 36-year-old New Orleans schoolteacher Nettie Dunbar expects when she gives fourth-grader Anthony detention is having the business end of a gun jammed into her face. But that's just one surprise that awaits Nettie when she discovers he'd been living on his own in the small shotgun unaware that his mama was lying dead in the shed out back.

With daughter Abby away for spring break and skeptical that the young detective assigned to the case will follow through, Nettie decides to do some snooping of her own, though she has no idea what she's doing--or what she's getting into.

No matter. This isn't the first time she's had to go it alone, thanks to her snake of an ex-husband and the jaded opinion that men should be seen and not held--despite Lieutenant Gil McManus's efforts.

Determined not to let a little thing like a death threat stop her, and with only her instincts to guide her, Nettie stumbles her way through a maze of lies and secrets from the dismal housing projects to the tawdry clip joints of Bourbon Street.

Oh, and as far as Nettie is concerned, that snotnose McManus can go jump in the Mississippi River.