Wraith: A Folly Beach Halloween Mystery (A Folly Beach Mystery)

Nothing reinforces Halloween as Chris Landrum's least favorite holiday more than when he and his friend Charles Fowler stumble across a dead body swinging on a gallows in a yard filled with haunting scenes. Not only do the two senior citizens find the body, but Charles decides it's up to them to learn who put the man there, a task Charles, a self-anointed private detective, is convinced the police will be unable to solve.

The job of the two Folly Beach residents is made more difficult by an overabundance of suspects including a woman whose year-round attire includes a witch hat and dark clothing, a wheelchair-bound curmudgeon, and a macaw carrying Halloween hater, and others. Add to that, more deaths are discovered, and in case there's any doubt they're tied to Halloween, the killer leaves messages-messages branded on leather and placed on the victim's bodies. Unless the two amateur detectives stop the killer, their bodies will be next to receive branded messages.