Callahan Banks Mystery

"Here's a new kind of sleuth with an ecological bent and an unlikely sidekick, a sometimes tense, sometimes funny murder mystery with a touch of romance." - P.B. Parris, author of Waltzing in the Attic and His Arms are Full of Broken Things Callahan Banks returns to her beloved Timicau Island near Charleston, South Carolina, to settle her mother's estate. Her grief is compounded by Pepper Dade's plans to develop the island and destroy the only home she's ever known. When the body of a bikini-clad blonde washes up on the beach, Callahan is pulled into a web of intrigue that has her questioning all she thought she knew about her own life. Struggling to resist her attraction to Pepper, Callahan suspects he may be involved in the death of the blonde. She ignores her misgivings until nine-year-old, freckle-faced Harry Applegate, her sidekick, disappears. Now Callahan must muster all her skills as a naturalist and tracker to find the little boy before it's too late.

"An indomitable protagonist, a quirky supporting case, and plenty of Southern charm make this mystery a treat." -Kirkus "McDevitt's standout follow up to Just Holler Bloody Murder expertly blends romance and mystery..." -BookLife, Editor's Pick "...a great piece of 'chick-lit' as well as a mystery story." -Readers' Favorite "[A] wonderfully layered story that brings together a fun cast of Southern characters... hard to put down." -San Francisco Book Review "...lyrical and poetic...(A) wonderfully evocative novel..." -IndieReader Perfect for fans of Danielle Collins and Aloha Alibi's Murder Mystery Book Club and Jasmine Webb's Charlotte Gibson Mysteries series. Ferociously independent biology professor, Callahan Banks, is thirty-two years old, six months pregnant, and happily single living in the wilds of her childhood home on Timicau Island, South Carolina. But there are complications. The baby's father, a wealthy forty-two-year-old bachelor, Pepper Dade, owns the island and is determined to marry her and raise their child together. When nine-year-old triplets relocate to the island and stumble upon the body of a stranger wrapped in barbed wire and drowned in a tidal creek, the hodgepodge cast of island inhabitants are thrown into a tizzy. From FaLa Jo Digsby, the four-time divorcee who sold Avon from her motorcycle, to Teelia Moultrie, a newly divorced single mother competing for Pepper's affections, to Chalmers Redpath, a reclusive obstetrician drawing suspicion for his curious architectural eccentricities-everyone on the island seems to have something to hide. When two more bodies are found, tensions on the island reach a fever pitch. Callahan's due date is nearing. Pepper is growing more frantic, and Teelia is waiting in the wings. Worse yet, the ever-observant Callahan is starting to suspect that the murderer may be one of the island's own. Will she keep fighting for her freedom or marry a man she may be learning to love? And can she and her young sidekick, Harry Applegate, the bright outlier in the triplet gang, find the murderer in time?