Light on Bone

Author of over 100 YA and children’s books, Lasky’s (“Guardians of Ga’Hoole” series) latest is a whodunit for grownups starring artist Georgia O’Keeffe. In the early 1930s, on the brink of great fame but struggling with her mental health, O’Keeffe starts spending part of the year in New Mexico, far away from her agent/husband’s public philandering in New York. Her peaceful respite is disrupted, however, when looking in the desert for skulls to paint, she discovers a dead priest who has a map with her house marked on it. Narrator Nancy Peterson gives O’Keeffe a wry manner, expertly evoking her quirky personality, while also creating authentic voices for Lasky’s other intriguing characters, including Sheriff Ryan McCaffrey, with whom O’Keeffe enjoys a delightful repartee; some shady German shopkeepers; and the local Indigenous residents, many of whom work at a vacation resort for the rich and famous. Peterson slows her pace to allow listeners to experience the beautiful, sometimes eerie, desert landscape, through O’Keeffe’s eyes.