"Broken-Neck spat forth a stream of Spanish which no doubt contained disparaging comments about my intelligence. Or my appearance. Or my fashion sense. The only Spanish words I knew were the expletives my friend Mike had taught me. Even so, I recognized insults when I heard them."

The White Ladies of San Diego are one of the city's supernatural powers, organized and led by Graciela. But now their leader is missing, and the Ladies have hired John Smith, supernatural mediator and sometimes-private...