CHARLIE'S BONES

by L.L. Thrasher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1998

Former truck-stop waitress Lizbet Lange is having a swimming pool dug to celebrate her unlikely inheritance from her late ex-husband--a man so spiteful he wouldn't leave his wealth to his first two ex-wives or the five children they fathered--when something even more unlikely happens: The excavators for the pool unearth a skeleton. But that's nothing compared to the sequel: The skeleton's ghost, identifying himself as undercover cop Charlie Bilbo, appears to Lizhet (and only Lizbet, even when other people are right in front of him) and tells her he was murdered back in 1969. The setup sounds suspiciously like Ghost, but Charlie's murder will be a lot trickier to solve than Patrick Swayze's. For one thing, Oak Valley (Cal.) Capt. John Sterling insists that Charlie isn't dead--instead, he vanished with a stolen bundle after setting the bomb that killed student activist Samuel Towne and two Oak Valley cops who were on Towne's trail--and when Lizbet, prodded by Charlie, demands to see Charlie's dental records, they support Sterling's story, not hers. And Lizbet herself is no Demi Moore; she's chatty, unsentimental, and cheerfully nouveau riche, especially when it comes to using her money to bully and impress the likes of Charlie's son Jonathan Dillon, Charlie's wife Amanda Reynolds, and the bemused surviving members of the Oak Grove Police Department. Thrasher (Cat's Paw, Inc., 1991) spins a charming, and surprisingly logical, series of complications out of her supernatural game of musical graves.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Write Way

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1997

Categories: FICTION