You may not want to shake hands with Miriam Black. 
 By simply touching anyone Miriam gets a vision of the exact date, time and circumstances of anyone's death. The bitch of the situation is that she can't do anything to change it. In fact, by trying to stop it she may actually cause it to occur. Since she feels like a helpless puppet to fate Miriam has taken up a nomadic existence of roaming America's highways that she funds by being around to loot the wallets and purses of anyone who goes toes up. After she meets a friendly trucker named Louis and gets a vision of his brutal homicide caused by him meeting her a horrified Miriam tries to get away from him. However, events involving con man, a couple of killers, and one creepy drug dealer draw her back to Louis and seem to confirm that fate won't be thwarted. 
 This is an odd one in that the main character is simultaneously the best and worst part of the book. The idea of a young woman trying to outrun the gift/curse of being able to know how anyone will die but being helpless to stop it was a helluva of an intriguing concept. It's certainly understandable that Miriam would turn into a drifter with a bad attitude and a love of booze and cigarettes. 
 Unfortunately, she drifts a bit too far towards being a glib smart-ass who is delighting in her self-destruction rather than a tragic figure. It's a difficult line to walk because it'd be tiresome if she was a hand-wringing guilt-ridden mess for the entire book, and there's a certain charm to her frank appraisal of her situation and her own nature. But at that same time it seemed like she also took a giddy joy in her circumstances that gives her a license to not give a damn. That could be interesting angle for the character too, but it always played as just a bit off to me. 
 I still enjoyed the book overall. It's a fast paced supernatural road story with some colorful villains and a nice hook of Miriam's spooky ability. For being a violent story about death, it's got some good laughs to it, too. I just wish that Miriam wasn't quite so delighted in her misery of being fate's butt monkey.