DEAD WRECKONING

A swashbuckling murder investigation plunges an outspoken Texas private eye into hot water.

In Smith’s third book (Deadly Sins, Deadly Secrets, 2007, etc.) featuring plucky wannabe detective Sidra Smart, her heroine learns that she’s passed her Texas state board exam and is now a full-fledged investigator at The Third Eye agency, a business she inherited from her dead brother. It’s been a long road since Sidra abandoned her stagnant, 30-year marriage to a misogynistic preacher to embark on a treacherous, if liberated, life of a sleuth. Her first case involves Boo Murphy, a poor, backwoods woman accused of murdering her second cousin Sasha’s husband, Zeke, after returning from examining the remains of a historic schooner nestled in the murky waters of her backyard swamp. Sidra is unsure whether to take on Boo’s case, but after she discovers that George, a private investigator who mentored her, is involved in both the theft of a museum-quality crystal collection and plans to steal the pirate ship’s sunken treasure, she immerses herself in the case. While boating on the water searching for the elusive schooner, the smart female detective sees the vision of “pirate-queen” Mary Anne Radcliff materializing on the bow of a boat. Later, another pirate ghost, Jean Lafitte, appears to guide the daring detective to success. A psychic, a few smuggling plots, long-buried family secrets and a host of snoops all conspire to keep Sidra from getting Boo free from her jail cell. The dogged detective has her hands full sorting out whether the mystery ship is real, along with keeping her wedding engagement to boyfriend Ben intact. An early subplot involving a kidnapped and raped woman is left dangling and isn’t weaved into the main narrative with any clarity, but Smith offers a tidy conclusion, rife with good-natured ghostly humor to round out the innocuous frivolity. Fans of Smith’s spicy Cajun mysteries surely haven’t seen the last of Sidra Smart.

A kooky, homespun whodunit rich in Southern wit and charm.