Bonefire of the Vanities

The twelfth in Carolyn Haines’ charming series finds Sarah Booth Delaney on the trail of a porn-star-turned-psychic operating from a haunted estate on the edge of town. Marjorie Littlefield, an eccentric billionaire, has always planned to leave her fortune to her cat. But when “medium” Sherry Cameron promises to reunite Marjorie with her dead child, Sarah Booth is convinced it’s a scheme to separate a lonely woman from her fortune.

So, Sarah Booth talks her way onto the March estate as a maid, where she finds Marjorie and several other wealthy eccentrics ready to commune with the dead. Between chores, she explores the estate, finds a few corpses, and runs into a few ghosts along the way. But which guest or staff member is a killer? And are the “ghosts” real? Even Jitty, Sarah Booth’s personal haint, won’t tell until Sarah Booth has uncovered all of Sherry’s well-kept secrets.

With charlatans and spooks coming out of the woodwork, Sarah Booth is the only PI in southlands who can put an end to this elaborate scam.