by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book, and links to purchase it.

December in the Mississippi Delta is not the snow-covered trees kind of holiday season. However, towns each have special celebrations. Sarah Booth Delaney is happy to travel to nearby Columbus for a few days of alone time with her honey, Coleman, the local lawman. Of course, alone time is a relative term since the trip is funded by Sarah Booth’s PI business partner and pregnant at last best friend, Tinkie. Along for the trip is Tinkie’s husband Oscar, CeCe the reporter, her boyfriend, Jaytee, a jazz player, Millie from the diner, and Harold. And even though this is a vacation, there still shouldn’t be any thoughts of sleeping in. Tinkie is unrepentantly a morning person and wants to shop, sightsee, and enjoy herself as much as possible before the long-awaited baby arrives.

Tinkie has rented the entire hotel and hired a limo for their group. One of the activities is the flotilla of holiday decorated boats. The weather is cold, the water icy, but the excessive amount of lights and decorations on the boats is heartwarming. When the boat they’re on has an underwater collision, people are thrown off their feet. Two women disappear overboard. Only one is rescued.

Donna, the boat and hotel’s owner, has lost her best friend. The other victim hires Sarah Booth and Tinkie to find out who’s trying to kill her. The boating incident isn’t the first time.

Then all the pranks start—a faulty wire, concrete poured into a convertible, a fall down the stairs—they seem random, but with a bit of investigation, Tinkie and Sarah Booth are able to find out they’re aimed at society women who are not too choosy about who they sleep with, married or not.

Despite their reluctance to accept the job, Tinkie and Sarah Booth are determined to do a good job, make the most of their time away from home, and have a merry Christmas when home again.

This is book twenty-two of twenty-three. It looks like everyone has figured out what matters most and are on the verge of having it. Sarah Booth has Coleman—and Jitty, her resident ghost. Tinkie’s baby will fulfill her dream. CeCe and Millie have a new column in the paper and are having great fun with it. The romance between Coleman and Sarah Booth is hot enough to catch the page on fire.

Look for book twenty-three, Independent Bones, in May, 2021, available for pre-order now.

To enter to win a copy of A Garland of Bones, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “garland,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen December 5, 2020. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If you are entering via email please include you mailing address in case you win, it will be deleted after the contest. You can read our privacy statement here if you like. BE AWARE THAT IT WILL TAKE MUCH LONGER THAN USUAL FOR WINNERS TO GET THEIR BOOKS DUE TO THE CURRENT CRISIS.

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You can use this link to purchase this book from indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy, and KRL gets a portion of the sale:

A Garland of Bones (A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery #22)

You can use this link to purchase these book from Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. A Murder of Crows, edited by Sandra Murphy (a popular title so you need her name to search), has twenty-one cozy stories. Each features the collective name of an animal and a crime. The animals range from tarantulas, koalas, wolves, bears, jellyfish, toads, cats, dogs, alpaca, goats, penguins and more. No animals were harmed. The people weren’t so lucky. Available at the usual outlets, print or ebook.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.