In this sequel to Make Old Bones Otis, Clarice, and Miss Letty act as exchange innkeepers at Castle Keep in St. Augustine, Florida. Castle Keep, built of timbers from a shipwreck, has a disturbing history which carries over to the present. Recently a series of break-ins by a homeless man and the sound of chains dragging in the attic complicate matters. Miss Letty and Clarice visit the original plantation site where Clarice discovers a skeleton in the icehouse. In addition, they find the burned body of the homeless man in a dragon sculpture, causing them to make connections among disparate events separated by over a century. Add to the mix a psychic, an African-American journalism student, the Donner wedding party, Florida Gators, two snobbish Southerners, father and son mural painters, an obstreperous Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Charles Dickens, and an obnoxious, but, unwittingly, helpful twelve-year-old named Beddington.
