What is the essence of love? Deadhead takes the reader upon a trip inside the minds of Liza McNairy and Danners Forthright, veteran private detectives hired to solve the case of The Crier... a woman who walked away from her life in New York to embark upon a road trip which turned out to last forever. Forthright, a self-professed gay man, has fallen hopelessly in love with his partner. Unbeknownst to him, McNairy returns his amorous affections and yet neither seems willing to take that next step toward fulfilling their life-long desires to finally be together with that special someone. Liza McNairy, former call girl, waitress, and erstwhile deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, has a pack a day habit and it isn't cigarettes, either. When she's not high on the hooch she's busy searching for her next dose. With Danners Forthright acting as her guardian angel, Liza spends her days skidding crossways through life all the while bargaining with the devil in order to sustain some semblance of normalcy.