Blood, Ash and Bone

January 28, 2013
Tai Randolph gets mixed up in the world of fanatical collectors in Whittle’s lively third mystery featuring the Atlanta gun shop operator (after 2012’s Darker than Any Shadow), thanks to her decision to help an ex-boyfriend retrieve a missing Civil War relic—a King James Bible inscribed to General Sherman from President Lincoln. Some collectors are simply obsessed with owning valuable things, but others—such as members of the spruced-up, squeaky-clean-looking Ku Klux Klan—feed on the racist rage that saturates certain historical memorabilia. Impulsive and open-minded, Tai is the opposite of her lover, damaged and emotionally guarded security expert Trey Seaver, who dubiously watches the proceedings at a Civil War expo in Savannah, Ga., where Tai pursues her investigation. As the action shifts unpredictably and the prize turns out to be quite different than either Tai or Trey supposed, Whittle skillfully shows her characters discovering how much they can trust each other.

January 15, 2013
Tai Randolph, the cutest amateur sleuth to come along since Stephanie Plum stuck her nose in everyone's business, rouses the ire of the KKK. As she packs up souvenirs to sell at the Southeastern Civil War Expo in Savannah, the gun shop Tai Randolph inherited from her uncle gets a visit from John, the bad boy she found irresistible until he left her to snuggle with her roommate Hope. They need her, he begs, to find a Civil War Bible with an inscription from President Abraham Lincoln to Gen. Sherman on the flyleaf. If she can locate it, they'll reap upward of $1 million, and she'll get a 10 percent finder's fee. Leery that this is just another scam of John's, Tai runs it past her current boyfriend, Trey, heartthrob extraordinaire, whose police work caused him frontal lobe damage that turned him into a human lie detector. Trey, whose commando instincts and sniper training serve him well in his current job as a security specialist for the well-heeled Phoenix Enterprise, arranges to accompany Tai from Atlanta to Savannah, where she promises to be sensible in her detecting endeavors and he'll oversee protection at Reynolds Harrington's Lowcountry Classic golf tournament. Alas, sensible and Tai do not mesh. Minutes into her investigation, her former boss is murdered, she realizes that the curator of Reynolds' sister's collection of Civil War artifacts is tailing her, and the Klan brandishes all matter of weaponry to flush out that Bible. A Civil War battlefield enactment claims fresh casualties; Tai hides a gun beneath her hoop skirt at the dress ball; and poor overworked Trey gets kidnapped. Collectors, con men and cantankerous relatives will all have their say before Tai, to the relief of all, becomes sensible and heads back to Atlanta. The plot is as deftly convoluted as ever (Darker Than Any Shadow, 2012, etc.), but this time, most everything takes a back seat to Tai's rapture over Trey. And who could blame her? He's one hell of a catch.

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Starred review from February 15, 2013
Tai Randolph relishes the idea of leaving her gun shop in Atlanta (where she's been involved in too much mayhem, recounted in the first two books in this series) for a long weekend on her home turf of Savannah, where she plans to be a vendor at a Civil War expo. Even better, the ex who broke her heart two years earlier hires her to track down a Civil War Bible that's very valuable (if it's authentic), and her current boyfriend, corporate security agent Trey Seaver, comes along for a job that dovetails with her own. But after two men are murdered in their quests for Civil War items, and both Tai and Trey find themselves in danger, it's clear that someone will stop at nothing to get a particular relic. Tai's knowledge of Savannah and her reconnection with her powerful but ailing ex-con uncle, Boone, add texture to this third series entry, but its greatest asset is the exploration of the relationship between frequently foolhardy Tai and cool, collected, and brain-damaged Trey; as more secrets are revealed, the relationship reaches new depths. Whittle's snappy prose and nonstop action revolving around these fascinatingly flawed characters combine to make this series a must.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)