Covenant Hall

March 16, 2009
In Wall's poignant ninth Bay Tanner mystery (after 2008's The Mercy Oak
), the Hilton Head, S.C., PI faces two daunting challenges: finding a bone marrow donor for young leukemia patient Kimmie Eastman by locating the long-lost sisters of Kimmie's African-American mother, Joline Eastman, and tracking down Julia Simpson, a half-sister Bay first learns about from reading the will of her dying father, retired judge Talbot Simpson. What Bay doesn't expect is the lack of cooperation from Joline's relatives and old friends when confronted with Kimmie's plight—or the fierce resistance from Julia's guardian to Bay's request to meet her half-sister. As Bay copes with her father's imminent demise, she must also confront her fears about marrying her police sergeant fiancé, Red Tanner, her late husband's brother. While the pace can be slow at times, series fans are sure to cheer Bay's efforts to make peace with the past.

March 15, 2009
Private investigator Bay Tanner takes an urgent case that can only be solved by unearthing buried secrets.

Joline Eastman's daughter Kimmie is dying of leukemia, and so far no bone marrow match has been found. So Joline asks Bay to find some long-estranged family members who might help. For some reason, however, she refuses to talk about Kimmie's father, who would seem the most likely match, and her current husband is strangely reluctant to have Bay search for other family members. In addition, Bay has her own problems. As her beloved father, retired Judge Talbot Simpson, lies in the hospital with worsening heart problems, she discovers the obituary he wrote for himself. Shockingly, the obituary reveals that Bay has a sister. Her father's longtime companion Lavinia Smalls is obviously hiding something from Bay, but with Kimmie at death's door, Bay has to let it go. Luckily, her strained relationship with her brother-in-law Red, who's also her fianc, improves when he quits the police force and Bay hires him as an investigator in hope of uncovering some of the many long-hidden secrets of the South Carolina lowlands. While Bay winkles out the relatives she hopes can be a donor for Kimmie, she coincidentally finds the sister she never knew existed, along with a tale of misunderstanding and tragedy.

The latest case for Bay (The Mercy Oak, 2008, etc.) is tense, introspective and hard to put down.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2009
In her ninth adventure, Bay Tanner must locate the estranged sisters of her client, Joline Eastman. Jolines teenage daughter has leukemia, and she will die if she doesnt receive a bone-marrow transplant (hence the need to find the sisters). Meanwhile, Bay must also deal with the rapidly failing health of her father and decide whether she is going to commit to her fianc'. Walls Low-Country Carolina setting and her strong female protagonist continue to make this a satisfying series, worthy of recommendation to fans of Julia Spencer-Fleming.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)