Rating: 4.5 ⭐️

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries is my first dive into the writings of Sara Bourgeois but I just love what she’s accomplishing here with her characters, location and overall mystical aesthetic.

Skulls and Sunset is one of the best books in the series so far, combining the all the great elements of the series and the haunting emotional aspects of the story into one beautifully crafted tale of motherhood and obsessive love. 

This novel moves Claire’s powers and abilities forward as well as resolves a previous storyline about that huge dark mysterious creature that’s seen flying over the desert in the past story.

But the anchor of this tale is the human being who has lost her life. One we meet briefly and yet immediately becomes someone we know and identify with. Amelia Sanders, so happy and bright. 

That’s what is so impressive about this author is her capacity to make a character have such impact on the reader and story in such a short time. Like Amelia does. We are heavily invested in Claire’s investigation and want to know what happened.

 

It’s a heartbreaking mystery, with absorbing side stories to go along with it. And the ending is just as it should be, poignant and moving. 

I love this series and story. It’s not a standalone. Each builds upon the previous one .

Highly recommended! Excellent read!

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

 Book 7 of 8: The Haunted Ranch Mysteries 

Blurb 

Everyone in Perdido Springs was looking up when Amelia Sanders died.

A total solar eclipse has turned the little desert town into a tourist destination, and Claire Caldwell just wants to survive the weekend without someone asking if her ranch does birthday parties. But when the moon covers the sun, Claire sees things the darkness reveals… creatures, pathways, and the outline of something vast moving through a world layered on top of her own.

Then the light returns. Amelia is dead outside the bar. The sheriff calls it a scorpion sting. Her friends call it impossible. A massive owl that shouldn’t exist keeps circling a house on the edge of town. And Claire is starting to realize that the murder and the owl might have nothing to do with each other, which means she has two problems, not one.

April 20, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

198 pages

Book 7 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries