Southern Ghost

Another great one from Carolyn Hart I couldn't put it down. When you get to know the people in the books you really get into wanting to read more & more. She like Sue Grafton stay w/the people in her books & I like that. As I have said before, I thought I had this one figured out but I was wrong. I have been reading mysteries since I was a teen & she right up w/the best of the best like Susan Howatch, Dorothy Eden, Marylin Harris, Phyllis Whitney, Sidney Shelton & I can't forget Mary Stewart. I am so glad I have all their books including Sue Grafton. Nothing like a good mystery to keep you company & Carolyn Hart delivers can't wait to start the O'Henery series & The Bailey series. Sorry for any miss spelling but yaw all get what I'm saying if you like to read!!!!

I am finding this series is steadily improving as I go along. This was an excellent book. In it we have Max and Annie staying in a hotel Chastain while they are trying to find a young client of Max's who has gone missing. In their search they are are drawn into some monumental family squabbles that include two main important families in Chastain. They find they are also trying to solve a 22 year-old murder suicide, since it appears that this is what is behind the young girl's disappearance. The book kept me guessing most of the way through, but I couldn't seem to put it down. Visitations and ghost sitings helped make things interesting.

Max Darling receives a panicky phone call from his client, Courtney Kimball. She urges him to meet with her immediately but when he arrives at the agreed-upon place, she does not show up. When they do some investigating Max and his wife Annie find that Courtney has just discovered that she is part of the wealthy and powerful Tarrant family. She wants Max to find out who murdered her father and grandfather in 1970. Max and Annie figure that it has to be either a family member or one of the servants, since they were the only ones with motive and opportunity. They travel to the family home and interview each of the suspects, finding that each person has a motive for the murders. Max and Annie discover many secrets in the Tarrant family and that wealth and prominence do not make them immune from tragedy, greed, and deceit. This is a page-turner that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Southern Ghost was one of the stronger books in the Death on Demand Series. It seems the characters and the stories get stronger as the series progresses. This story includes a large number of local ghost stories that add a real flavor for the past to the mystery at hand. The story has Hart's usual references to a multitude of mystery authors and books, as well as some of the more colorful characters from past books in this series. Including characters like Miss Dora and Sybil added zip to what was already a well planned mystery and gave readers a deeper sense of the area that the books are set in.

The style Ms. Hart chose for this mystery kept me on the edge of my seat. It wasn't as funny as her previous tales, but certainly suspenseful. I loved her method of travelling back in time to give tidbits of information that would puzzle and then illuminate. As always, her setting is intricately woven into her story and you can feel and smell South Carolina before you are done. One of her best in this series.