It’s been years since I read one of Kathryn Lasky’s books. She’s written over one hundred books for all ages. As a librarian, I certainly recognize her Guardians of Ga’Hoole fantasy series. Years ago, I read her adult mystery series featuring book illustrator Calista Jacobs and her son, Charley. I was hooked, though, when I learned Light on Bone was called “A Georgia O’Keefe Mystery”.

Before dawn in July 1934, Georgia O’Keefe heads out from her New Mexico casita at Ghost Ranch to look for a horse’s skull she had seen in the desert. Instead, she finds vultures feeding on a man’s body. It takes Sheriff Ryan McCaffrey an hour to arrive from Santa Fe where he finds a prickly artist who insists she has no aspirations to be an amateur detective. However, she does provide an artist’s viewpoint of the desert and the death scene.

While McCaffrey questions why a man dressed as a friar has a gun in his luggage, Georgia worries because he had a map with her house marked with an X and her initials. The man’s death is the first in a string of tragedies that throw McCaffrey and O’Keefe together.

Georgia observes unfaithful spouses, celebrities such as the Lindberghs at the ranch, and suspects molestation and a poisoning. Both McCaffrey and O’Keefe contact authorities when they suspect German spies and espionage in this pre-WWII mystery.

This is one of those “rabbit hole” books for me, as it sent me looking for the truth behind some of the events in the book. There was a great deal of truth, and Lasky does cover some of it in her notes. Light on Bone is a fascinating story that combines art and scenery with mystery. Lasky’s notes are as intriguing as the book itself as she tells about Georgia O’Keefe’s life, Lindbergh and the connection to Nazism, the story of Nazi spies in the U.S. in the 1930s, and mentions other historical personages. The intricately plotted mystery puts a new spin on several historical figures. Lasky’s account, seen through the eyes of Georgia O’Keefe, bring the vivid setting and descriptions to life.

Kathryn Lasky’s website is https://www.kathrynlasky.com/

Light on Bone by Kathryn Lasky. Woodhall Press, 2022. ISBN 9781954907041 (hardcover), 298p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley to review for a journal.