Tell-Tale Bones

This was a cozy-ish mystery with a ghostly twist. This is book 26 in the series, but I didn't realize that so it's the first one I read. I didn't feel like I missed out much by jumping in like this, though I'm sure I'd be more familiar with the characters if I had read the others.

Tell-Tale Bones is about a cold case of two missing women. The husband of one of the two wants her declared dead after 10 years which will also allow him to inherit her fortune. This causes the PI Sarah Booth to get pulled into the case. Sarah Booth and her partner Tinkie will try to figure out if these two are actually dead or alive, and if they are dead, who killed them?

What was cool about this mystery for me was all the literary references (especially The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe) and a ghost that helped the detective with cryptic clues. This is the first mystery I read that involved a sidekick ghost.

I found the characters charming, especially the main character. I also liked her boyfriend, the sheriff. I liked that he was supportive of her endeavors, and accepts her as she is, rather than fighting against her wish to jump into the middle of a mystery.

While this book has the shape of a cozy mystery, some of the themes are less cozy, such as domestic abuse and access to abortion. The book does a good job of highlighting the difficulty of getting out of abusive relationships and the difficulty of identifying when it's happening from the outside.

Onto the mystery, I found it quite intriguing and interesting, it kept me turning the pages. I continuously flipped back and forth between they must still be alive, and they must have been killed, getting pulled in directions by the red herrings and clues alike. The story goes in many interesting directions I wasn't expecting, I was kept on my toes throughout.

Rating: 3.6⭐

Thank you to St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the eARC!