Tell-tale bones

Several missing women, an abusive husband, and a fight over money add up to murder and mayhem for a pair of Southern belles with deep roots in the Mississippi Delta. Sarah Booth Delaney has her own haint--that is, ghost--named Jitty, who one day shows up in the guise of Edgar Allan Poe. Shortly afterward, Sarah gets a visit from a very-much-alive medium who's been having disturbing dreams of a heart beating loudly in her house and a bathtub filled with blood. The biggest piece of gossip in town, though, is that Tope Maxwell, lawyer and college football star, is petitioning to have his wife, Lydia Redd, who's been missing for years, declared dead. Rumor has it that Tope wants to remarry and is desperate to inherit Lydia's money. Lydia is the only child of wealthy Elisa Redd, who wants Sheriff Coleman Peters, Sarah Booth's boyfriend, to reopen the case. Before Lydia vanished along with her best friend, Bethany Carter, while they were working as human rights organizers in Afghanistan, people knew that Tope beat her and spent her money, but everyone was too afraid of Tope and his influential family to say anything. Since Coleman's hands are tied, he suggests Elisa hire Sarah Booth and Tinkie Richmond, her partner in detection, to look into the case. Elisa is afraid that Tope murdered both women, and when his new fiancee falls or is thrown to her death, he becomes the likely suspect in that murder. The determined sleuths dig up a lot of useful information and possible sightings of the missing women, but will that be enough to find them and get Tope arrested? Full of Southern charm and an eye-opening look at the difficulties in ending domestic abuse. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.