Author Karen White describes her latest book as something akin to calling an old friend. And her readers will have the chance to talk to those friends as well as the author who crafted those characters during a Jan. 10 luncheon at the Northeast Georgia History Center in Gainesville.

“I would never say a book is easier to write, but I know the characters a lot more this time around,” White said.

The author of 20 novels will visit the History Center to talk about her newest novel, “The Guests on South Battery,” the fifth book in the Tradd Street mystery series. White said she plans to give some inside scoops that wouldn’t normally be shared on her part.

“I love to engage with the audience and will share details and information about the series that isn’t really out there,” she said.

“The Guests on South Battery” picks up on the picturesque streets of Charleston, S.C., after the female protagonist Melanie has given birth to twins and is married to the love of her life, Jack Trenholm, according to the back cover of the book. As her maternity leave ends, Melanie returns to work as a Realtor and finds a new client eager to sell her recently inherited home on South Battery. Despite her stroke of luck, the woman who has been visited by ghosts — but not for more than a year — can’t deny spirits have started to appear to her again. And while she knows nothing good can come from unearthing the past, some secrets refuse to stay buried.

Readers may dive into “The Guests on South Battery” by picking up a copy and meeting its author at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 322 Academy St. NE in Gainesville.

Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at www.negahc.org. Proceeds will benefit the History Center, said Glen Kyle, executive director of the History Center.

“We just want folks to leave with the satisfaction that they helped the History Center,” he said.

White hopes to satisfy her wide variety of her readers at the event.

“I’ve gotten fan letters that range from high school students to married men to older women who can’t wait for the next novel,” she said. “I don’t really have a goal demographic because my goal is to write a great book, so I just ask myself what I would want to read and start from there.”

The Tradd Street series is considered a mystery, but White believes it falls under “grit lit,” or Southern women’s fiction genre.

White includes her personal ties to the South and the Southern way of life in her novels despite growing up in London, England. She say she comes from a long line of Southerners who have passed down the richness of the culture to her.

White also weaves in her childhood obsession with ghost stories.

She explained her obsession started with her father reading “True Ghost Stories” books to her, It was boosted by her grandmother’s accounts of ghostly interactions.

“I kind of grew up with (ghost stories) as a natural part of life,” White said.

Her knowledge and representation of Southern culture in her books led to White’s invitation to Gainesville.

“The board of directors thought she was a very diverse speaker, so we wanted to hold an event at the History Center with her as the guest speaker,” Kyle said. “While she will discuss the history of Charleston, South Carolina, in her new novel, we will have an exhibit with information on various houses around Gainesville and those who lived in them.”

Part of the exhibit includes eight to 10 text panels with information on the old homes in Gainesville and their previous owners.

“We also want (the visitors) to take away the importance of the sense of place and the appreciation that buildings have their own soul, sort of speak.”

To register a seat at the luncheon, visit www.negahc.org. For more information about White, visit karen-white.com.