Just before Christmas, Delaney Detective Agency partners Tinkie Belcase Richmond and Sarah Booth Delaney are in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, with their families. Invited to help judge the local library's annual Christmas tree decorating contest, they are determined to relax and immerse themselves in the local history (including a connection to Al Capone). Instead, they are thrust into the epic rivalry between two of the judges, local authors Sandra O'Day and Janet Malone. It starts with a catfight outside a downtown bookstore and continues when O'Day and her research assistant vanish during the reception O'Day is hosting at her mansion. Curiously, Malone hires Tinkie and Sarah Booth to find the missing women. Even with the help of the sleuths' friends, Cece and Millie, the investigation leads nowhere, causing the partners to wonder if the disappearance is a publicity stunt. Jitty, the Delaney family "haint," makes numerous appearances as various silver-screen actresses, enhancing the history of the Gulf Coast and the offshore islands as havens for bootleggers, all of which serves as intriguing backdrop to the modern mystery.

Haines's Southern charm--drenched 25th mystery featuring Zinnia, Miss., PI Sarah Booth Delaney (after Lady of Bones) takes Sarah Booth and her business partner and best friend, Tinkie Richmond, to Bay St. Louis, Miss., to serve as judges at the local library's annual Christmas tree decorating contest. Their entourage includes various family members and Jitty, a shape-shifting ghost who assumes the guise of famous movie stars of bygone eras. Their fellow judges are bestselling authors and fierce competitors Janet Malone and Sandra O'Day, whose epic and very public battles have captured the public's attention. When Sandra and Sandra's assistant go missing at a book signing, Janet becomes the prime suspect in her rival's disappearance and hires the visiting private eyes to find Sandra and clear her name. Appealing characters and amusing digressions, such as Jitty's stories of the stars she impersonates, compensate for a host of red herrings that serve to pad what in the end amounts to a shaggy dog tale. Fans will love catching up with their favorite detectives, who never forget that they are Southern ladies at heart. Agent: Marian Young, Young Agency. (Oct.)

A mysterious disappearance disrupts a very Southern Christmas. Detective duo Sarah Booth and Tinkie Bellcase Richmond are in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, along with Tinkie's baby, Maylin, and the ladies' significant others to judge a Christmas tree decorating contest. Their fellow judges, authors Sandra O'Day and Janet Malone, are always at daggers drawn, and the sleuths soon get to see their fraught relationship up close. When Sandra and her assistant, Daryl Marcus, vanish from a party, leaving traces of blood behind at her mansion, which Al Capone built for a daring actress, Janet surprises Sarah Booth and Tinkie by hiring the pair to find them. They're soon entangled in past and current tales of Capone's missing fortune, which could very well be hidden in the house or somewhere on the Gulf Coast, where he brought in loads of illegal booze. Along the way, the women learn that Sandra and Janet are not the bitter enemies they portray in public, making them wonder if it's all a publicity stunt, but rumors of the dangerous Gulf Coast Mafia suggest another possibility. Although Daryl's fishing family claims to know nothing, the contacts of Sarah Booth's lover, Sheriff Coleman Peters, come in handy in getting information from unlikely sources. As the tough Southern belles continue the search, they get threats and are stalked by unknown people. But they won't back down in their search for the missing pair and possibly a very large fortune. Fascinating characters dripping in grit and Southern charm highlight a twisty puzzler. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.