Ham Bones (A Southern Belle Mystery) - Hardcover

A native of Mississippi, Carolyn Haines lives in Southern Alabama on a farm with her husband, horses, dogs, and cats. She has been honored with an Alabama State Council on the Arts literary fellowship for her writing, a family with enough idiosyncrasies to give her material for the rest of her life, and a bevy of terrific friends. She is a former photojournalist.

A touring production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof brings Sarah Booth Delaney's former boyfriend, Graf Milieu, and her nemesis, actress Renata Trovaioli, to her southern hometown of Zinnia, Mississippi. Graf persuades Sarah Booth to be Renata's understudy, and Sarah Booth gets her opportunity to shine when someone poisons Renata after the first act on opening night. Evidence is found connecting Sarah Booth to the crime, and her boyfriend, cop Coleman Peters, arrests her for Renata's murder. Everyone who knew Renata hated her, however, leaving many other suspects. Released on bail, Sarah Booth and her friend Tinkie hunt for the real killer. Already upset because Coleman seems to be dragging his feet in divorcing his manipulative wife, Sarah Booth is stunned when he seems to believe she is a murderer, leaving her open to advances from Graf. As always in Haines' southern-belle series, the heroine receives advice from a ghost who lives in Sarah Booth's restored mansion, the ever-amusing Jitty. Fans of Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity novels will enjoy the ghostly presence in this charming southern cozy. O'Brien, Sue