Bones (Talley)

Make Old Bones By: Leslie S. Talley Fifteen-year-old Connie Kittredge disappears in 1953, presumed drowned, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Almost forty years later, her skeleton is discovered in the disused dumbwaiter of historic Belgrath House, situated on an island in the tidal Halifax River. The discovery coincides with the thirty-five year reunion of Connie's Class of '57. Clarice and Otis Campion function as caretakers of Belgrath, newly restored and opened as a B & B. Clarice, along with their permanent guest Miss Letty, ninety-year-old star of the silent screen, decides to investigate the mystery. Could the murderer be one of Connie's classmates, now respectable citizens? A rejected boy friend? A jealous girl? Connie, a sneaky child, loved the power of finding out secrets; perhaps she found one just too dangerous for her to live. At a wake for Connie held at Belgrath House, someone collapses from iced tea laced with cherry laurel, proving that the murderer is still around - and dangerous. Complications cloud the picture in the form of suspicious bed and breakfasters, restoration society members, University of Florida freshmen...and a certain pelican. Clarice and Miss Letty re-double their efforts at sleuthing. The death of Connie Kittredge is tied directly to the history of the house, they learn. The house will ultimately reveal its secrets, but not before exposing Clarice to danger. Inadvertently left behind during a forced evacuation due to Category Four Hurricane Aphrodite, Clarice finds herself confronting a killer - and a rising tidal surge.

In this sequel to Make Old Bones Otis, Clarice, and Miss Letty act as exchange innkeepers at Castle Keep in St. Augustine, Florida. Castle Keep, built of timbers from a shipwreck, has a disturbing history which carries over to the present. Recently a series of break-ins by a homeless man and the sound of chains dragging in the attic complicate matters. Miss Letty and Clarice visit the original plantation site where Clarice discovers a skeleton in the icehouse. In addition, they find the burned body of the homeless man in a dragon sculpture, causing them to make connections among disparate events separated by over a century. Add to the mix a psychic, an African-American journalism student, the Donner wedding party, Florida Gators, two snobbish Southerners, father and son mural painters, an obstreperous Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Charles Dickens, and an obnoxious, but, unwittingly, helpful twelve-year-old named Beddington.

The Closer the Bone, the third adventure of sleuths Clarice Campion and Miss Letty, finds Clarice, husband Otis, and Miss Letty, former star of the Silent Screen, acting as exchange innkeepers at Flanagan's Guest House in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. From the first they are locked between two feuding families, the Quinns and the Donovans. Seamus Quinn is found stabbed and bleeding out on Flanagan's doorstep although the trail of blood leads from the Donovans'. Assorted disparate winter boarders add fuel of their own. Had Seamus tried to blackmail someone? Why do people keep disappearing and reappearing at Flanagan's? And why does Fergus Flanagan return abruptly from his odyssey in Florida? What is he hiding? And who puts foxglove in his tea? Clarice and Miss Letty's search for answers leads them to a convent in Cork, a tinker camp on the Beara Peninsula, and Athlone, home of two of their boarders. All in all they consult T.D. Doyle, the representative for Bray; an Anglican vicar; and a tabloid journalist.

Blurb for The Bonnie, Bonnie Bone This fourth installment of the Clarice Campion/Miss Letty series finds Clarice, her husband Otis, and their permanent guest, former Silent Screen star, Miss Letitia Lorraine, acting as exchange caretakers/B&B hosts in a Scottish castle which sits on an island in the tidal Firth of Lorn. Otis, drilling through the castle wall in search of a leak, discovers two skeletons. One dates from the 1970s; the other from the 1930s. The older skeleton bears a gruesome relic: a third leg growing from its abdomen. A vestigial twin. Did the aristocratic family try to hide this deformity? How many people were privy to this deception? Surely not Earl Randall; they like him. The ninety-year-old Dowager Countess, not so much. Clarice and Miss Letty dig into the archives to try to identify the skeleton. They are assisted by their children, twins Kitty and Pat, at Edinburgh University for a Semester Abroad; the kids' Scottish friend, Mac; six B&B guests from Virginia; and B&B employee Heather, clued in by her news-gathering Gran. Their explorations lead them to a tunnel from the castle, under the firth, to another island. Originally an escape hatch in times of siege, they discover a hidden room fitted up as a dormitory or hospital ward. And what about that gap in the earldom for over a hundred years? The village of Killnish, so picture postcard perfect-as though trying too hard to be Scottish-puzzles them, since it looks as if it grew up overnight. And why are there no graves in the churchyard before 1940? Finally Clarice confronts a killer in the tunnel, but is saved by her B&Bers (she's not dumb enough to enter the tunnel alone!). All must scramble for their lives as the tunnel collapses and water from the firth rushes in.