More than 30 years ago, Walker Raines lost the woman he loves. Now he has clandestinely orchestrated what he hopes will appear to be an accidental meeting in very romantic circumstances: aboard the beautiful Delta Queen during a leisurely four-day spring cruise from New Orleans to Natchez.

He has chosen the setting very carefully. This stately steamboat has been a dynamic symbol for both of them all their lives. Now it will witness their reunion -- and the secrets that have kept them apart.

The Delta Queen is a National Historic Landmark, a 70-year-old steamboat that sails the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Not a reconstruction, she is the genuine article, a sternwheeler that has worked these rivers for half a century. Being aboard is like visiting in a fine old Southern home, where the parlors are filled with brass and crystal, mahogany and Old English oak, where the meals are legendary, a rocking chair is always available and the company is genteel.

Walk her decks with us now, while the journey is under way. Hear the towboats whistle as she goes by. Pilots sometimes even lean out their doors and shout, "Helllllo to The Del-ta Queeeeen!" They love her out here, because she is a working girl. They know her from New Orleans to Minneapolis/St. Paul, from St. Louis and Louisville to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, from Galveston and Little Rock to Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga. And yet she seldom stays anywhere more than a few hours. She is always on the go, from Louisiana ́s Bayou Country to the icy northern reaches of the Canadian border.

No wonder they flirt with this tough little prom queen. She has won the hearts of millions. And she has witnessed countless love stories in her travels. This is but one of them.

Delta Queen: A Novel, produced by Bowen Books, is a contemporary, intelligent love story in the new tradition of Bridges of Madison County, The Notebook and A Message in a Bottle. Readers who liked those books will love this one. And for anyone who has ever been a passenger on The Delta Queen, or who has always dreamed of being a passenger, this story is for you.