Joe Cane Dakin takes his family on a business trip to New Orleans. Seven-year old Calliope "Calley" Carroll Dakin and her mother and brother are dealt a devastating blow when Joe Cane is murdered, hacked up and stuffed into a trunk. Calley and her mother, Roberta Ann, suffer a further violent shock when they discover that they were left out of their father's will entirely, and are now destitute. Leaving her young son, Ford, in the care of Mamadee, her mother-from-hell, Roberta Ann takes Calley into exile with her to Pensacola Beach where they work at a tourist boarding house.

Calley communicates with departed spirits, and although she allows that what they say "ain't worth hearing," they do tell her long hidden secrets of scheming and deceit. As she grows up, she gains a clearer picture of family relationships and what they mean to her life.   

A Southern gothic revolving around murder, madness, corruption, and various kinds of discrimination,  Candles Burning is a finely-crafted novel that I couldn't put down. While ghosts appear fairly frequently, it's not exactly a ghost story, and, yes, there are horrible elements, but it's not exactly a horror story either.  The well-honed skill of Tabitha King gives us characters well worth remembering. It's definitely one of the best novels I have read this year.