A Sidra Smart Mystery Series

Sidra Smart, fifty years old, is not your ordinary P.I. A recently divorced preacher’s wife, Sid knows next to nothing about running the private-detective business she’s inherited from her brother. But her first client bursts in with vague flashbacks of a grisly thirty-year-old murder. In Dance on His Grave, Sid plunges into a surreal world of passion, deception, and murder. The story takes place in and around Orange, Texas, in the borderlands where Texas and Louisiana meet, a region filled with colorful characters, good food, and dark secrets. “. . . a strong start to the Sidra Smart mystery series. . . . This well-written page-turner will keep the reader entertained throughout.” – Christy Tillery French “Move over Stephanie Plum and Annie Darling . . . there’s a new sassy sleuth on the scene! With atmospheric descriptions of rural East Texas and character-driven plots, [Smith] has a real knack for crafting a quality thriller.” – Chick Lit Café

Rookie P.I. Sidra Smart thinks she knows where she’s headed. But when Sid’s second case requires that she clear the name of a dead man, she finds herself confounded by clues that lead no-where. She will have to face a baffling series of crimes, a burned-out office, the disappearance of a local preacher’s wife, and the recurring suspicion that answers lurk in the alligator-infested bayous and murky swamps of the Texas/Louisiana border region. To boot, Sid moves into a ghost-active house and discovers that the past, with tales going back to the Civil War and a spectral hotel-keeper’s journal, might hold the key to the lives of those trapped in an unholy web of deception that spans decades. In this exciting mystery, Sid finds herself crawling through more than one window, fighting off paramours, and generally establishing herself as a feisty, stubborn female P.I. willing to try ‘most anything to fight injustice in and around the colorful town of Orange. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sylvia Dickey Smith is the author of the Sidra Smart mystery series and an award-winning World War II homefront novel, A War of Her Own. She lives in Georgetown, Texas.

Sidra Smart's search for an elusive pirate schooner stirs up a bayou bonanza of treasure hunters, smugglers, and the spirits of the infamous Jean Lafitte and his pirate queen, Mary Anne Radcliff. New P.I. Sid Smart, ex-preacher's wife, is back for another puzzling case, as she tackles the strange tale of Boo Murphy, who has just been accused of murder. When Boo tells a tale of stumbling on the Hotspur, Lafitte's privateering schooner, half-buried in a Texas swamp, most everyone is convinced she's not telling the whole truth. As Sidra searches for both the schooner and evidence to clear her client, she begins to suspect that her trusted mentor and friend George Léger is involved in something fishy as well. What would she do without the help of companions Aunt Annie and Slider, her faithful mongrel pooch? The dangerous investigation takes Sidra from the small town of Orange, Texas, out into the nearby bayous. Interwoven families and feuding neighbors muddy the clues, swirling from past to present, as elusive as a spectral schooner. Will the answer be found in the legend of Lafitte and the voluptuous, swashbuckling Mary Anne Radcliff, sailing through the adventures of this third Sidra Smart mystery? SYLVIA DICKEY SMITH is the author of the Sidra Smart mystery series and an award-winning World War II homefront novel, A War of Her Own. She lives in Georgetown, Texas. "Move over Stephanie Plum and Annie Darling. There's a new sassy sleuth on the scene and boy, is she a firecracker!" – Chick Lit Cafe

In this fourth Sidra Smart mystery, Sid takes a bumpy road trip with her Aunt Annie. In the meantime, Boo Murphy – an old swamp-rat who prefers to spend time in her pirogue, hunting and fishing, to spending time with people – is pulled into a strange world when she discovers a deserted brush-hut deep in the bayou. The discovery leads Boo deeper and deeper into a clandestine effort to resurrect a cultural site for the Atakapa-Ishak natives. But are the leaders legit, or do they have other self-serving passions? In The Swamp Whisperer, Boo has to rely on her wits and swamp wisdom, as she and her cousin Sasha are pulled into an maelstrom of backwater mayhem. The story takes place in the bayou borderlands where Texas and Louisiana meet, a region filled with colorful characters, good food, and dark secrets. "If you've never read a Sylvia Dickey Smith novel before, this one will bring you into the fold. Her love of Southeast Texas comes through in her descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the swamp. Crammed with plot twists, lush atmosphere, and memorable characters, Smith's talent shines in this rollicking mystery. We don't get many protagonists like Boo in crime fiction - but we should!" – Chick Lit Café