Hush My Mouth: A Southern Fried Mystery

At the start of Pickens’s absorbing fourth Southern Fried mystery (after 2007’s Hog Wild ), smalltown South Carolina lawyer Avery Andrews agrees to help Fran French find Fran’s adopted sister, Neanna Lyles. When Neanna is found dead, an apparent suicide, Fran suspects foul play. Avery learns that Neanna, who was depressed over her grandmother’s recent death, had found a scrapbook chronicling the unsolved murder of her mother, Wenda, complete with a terrifying photograph of Wenda’s corpse. Later, the haunting photo without the scrapbook turns up in Neanna’s car. The arrival of a group of young “ghosters” trying to hit it big in supernatural reality TV complicates the investigation. Pickens weaves together the murder cases and the paranormal whimsy of the ghost hunters with her distinctive Southern flair. (Feb.)