SPLINTERED BONES

In her hardcover debut, Daddy’s Girl–turned–p.i. Sarah Booth Delaney already has enough fanciful habits to move Zinnia, Mississippi, into the whimsical column all by herself. She talks aloud to Jitty, the ghost of an ancestral retainer determined to marry her off; sleeps with Sweetie Pie, her ugly tic hound; and dotes on Kinky Friedman mysteries. The whimsy runs even higher when her lifelong friend Eulalee “Lee” McBride confesses to bashing in her husband’s head just before he was stomped to death by Avenger, their stable’s prize stud horse. Nobody, including Sunflower County Sheriff Coleman Peters, believes her, and all agree she’s protecting her violence-prone teenaged daughter Kip. Assisted in Daddy’s Girl style by society reporter Cece (née Cecil before a trip to Sweden and extensive hormone therapy) and flirtatious Tinkie, the partner in her detective agency, Sarah Booth is soon confronting Bud, the stable’s sexy trainer; LaCoco, a bayou Mafioso, and his three attendant goons; Nathaniel Walz, a smarmy land developer; and a cotillion’s worth of other Daddy’s Girls, including Carol Beth Farley, who’s obsessively jealous of Lee, and wannabe country star Krystal and her avaricious husband/manager. Insulin, arson, psychotropic drugs, teenage rebellion, and horse insurance will all come into play before a gun is shoved in Sarah Booth’s face and the Kinkster himself arrives to rescue her.

Something for everyone: spandex-wearing ghosts; horses and more horses; southern-fried dysfunctional families; even that heroic appearance by Kinky. Would it be too much to ask for logic too?