Lights, camera, bones

Enjoying a day off, Tinkie Bellcase Richmond and Sarah Booth Delaney, partners in the Delany Detective Agency, scope out a movie set in Greenville, a nearby Mississippi Delta town. The action film will depict the 1927 flood of Greenville and is the project of its star, writer, and director Marlon Brandon, grandson of the former six-term senator and major landowner in the area. The set is abuzz with the news that a gaffer has gone missing. Marlon hires Tinkie and Sarah Booth to investigate, but then goes missing himself. Part of the body of the gaffer is soon found, along with evidence of mauling by a pregnant bull shark a long way from her Gulf of Mexico home. Caught between forces of those who hope to save the shark and those who want to kill it--and the film--Tinkie and Sarah Booth scramble to find Marlon, using their deep knowledge of Delta families and enmities, as well as the skills of their circle of friends. Fans of the long-running series (Tell-Tale Bones, 2023) will know that the early warning from Jitty, Sarah Booth's personal ghost, is on target.

A movie company filming in Greenville, Mississippi, gets pushback from people with secrets to hide. The movie is ostensibly about the 1927 flood that killed and displaced many but made fortunes for others. Though it's billed as an action flick starring Marlon Brandon, scion of a wealthy and politically powerful family with deep roots in the area, some locals fear a hidden agenda. Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney and Tinkie Bellcase Richmond, her partner in detection, also have deep roots in Greenville, and Coleman Peters, Sarah Booth's life partner, is the sheriff in the adjoining county. So when a gaffer vanishes, the insurance company hires the women to find him before the film goes down the drain. Local loudmouth Lamar Bilbo, who's already been complaining that the film will make Mississippi residents look bad, is joined by bookshop owner Mary Dayle McCormick in an attempt to use any means possible to shut down the production. When Marlon disappears, his grandfather, Senator Brandon Brandon, ask the sleuths to find him even though his relationship with Marlon has never been loving. A water search discloses the gaffer's severed foot, and everyone fears the worst. The foot was severed by one of the sharks known for occasionally swimming up the Mississippi; having a shark around makes the search for Brandon much more dangerous. Sarah Booth and Tinkie search everywhere they think Marlon or his body could be hidden and suspect everyone involved in the film. Who has a secret so powerful that they're willing to kill for it? The tough-as-nails Mississippi belles reveal more than just a killer in their exciting quest for the truth. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.