ODE TO THE BONES by Carolyn Haines

A feisty Southern Private Investigator returns to her childhood home in Leflore County, Mississippi, to reconnect with her past. But the landscape doesn’t bring her the comfort she desires, and while passing the Tallahatchie Bridge, she sees a woman in a long white dress who vanishes in an instant. Where did the woman go? Is she real, or is she a ghost haunting the bridge in the Mississippi Delta in ODE TO THE BONES by Carolyn Haines, the latest novel in the long-running Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries?

Sarah Booth Delaney reports the strange occurrence to her boyfriend, Coleman Peters, the Sunflower County sheriff. But Sarah has other things to worry about. She and her partner, Tinkie, are hired by Tinkie’s husband, the President of the local bank, to find a missing farmer who defaulted on a loan. Tinkie’s husband is afraid that the farmer, Danny Anderson, is distraught and may hurt himself from the despair of losing his family farm. Tinkie and Sarah take the case and begin to look for Danny, but the case gets more complicated as they learn about Danny’s relationship with the preacher’s wife, a string of burglaries, digging expeditions on sandbars, and the murder of a local man.

ODE TO THE BONES combines a sassy southern sleuth, the hot Mississippi climate, ghost encounters, and a well- crafted mystery centering on the plight of farmers in the Delta region. Sarah Booth Delaney leads the charge, with her resident haint making strange appearances and referencing protest songs from the past. Sarah has a love for animals and the landscape. There is plenty of action and clues as the mystery progresses, and Sarah finds herself in some precarious spots, including being shot at in the river as she tracks suspects. The secondary characters add a lot of flavor to the plot, including a devious land buyer, a deceptive preacher’s wife, a sneaky vixen, and a suspicious supermodel. It’s also enlightening to hear about the plight of the Delta farmers and how droughts, floods, heat, economics, and other agricultural issues affect their livelihood. ODE TO THE BONES is a multi-faceted mystery that’s highly entertaining as Sarah Booth Delaney tracks down the suspects in her sassy way, while her dogs save the day. The reappearance of an old nemesis and a nice cliffhanger at the end leave readers wondering about Sarah’s next move.

The next novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney.

Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney returns to her Mississippi Delta roots, hoping that long drives through cotton fields and the companionship of her dogs will ease her restless spirit. Instead, she’s confronted by a ghostly vision of a woman in white on the Tallahatchie Bridge, who disappears before Sarah Booth can investigate further.

When the local bank president hires her to find a missing farmer, Danny Anderson, Sarah Booth is forced to shift her focus back to the land of the—hopefully—still living. Danny is about to lose his family’s generational farm to foreclosure and is rumored to be entangled in a secret affair with a preacher’s wife. As Sarah Booth and her feisty partner Tinkie dig deeper, they uncover a web of gossip, ghost sightings, and a shadowy land buyer snapping up vulnerable farms.

With the help of her resident ghost-turned-spiritual-guide, Jitty, and her own unrelenting instincts, Sarah Booth must unravel the mystery of Danny’s disappearance, confront a town full of half-truths, and decipher the cryptic clues left behind—including those wrapped in lyrics and riverwater. But someone is watching her every move, and if she isn’t careful, she may be the next body swept away by the Tallahatchie’s current.