It’s time for another generous sprinkling of Salt.

"Salt" — the nickname for the resourceful (and fictional) Atlanta Police Department homicide detective Sarah Alt — is back in another locally-set, thrill-ride of a novel from Trudy Nan Boyce. "Old Bones," which goes on sale next Tuesday, starts out with an emergency scanner call about a reported shooting in Woodruff Park, where a group of Spelman College students are holding a "Take Back the Night" rally. From there it takes off to become yet another fascinating exploration of crime, race relations, workplace politics and everything else that makes Atlanta such a complicated and compelling place to live.

It's a subject that Boyce — a real-life, retired APD officer who'll be at the Georgia Center for the Book at the Decatur Library at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 23 — can't help but be familiar with.

We first met “Salt” a year ago in Boyce’s debut novel, “Out of the Blues.” The Atlanta-set thriller crackled with the affectionate authenticity of an author who knew her stuff.

“By the time she retired from the Atlanta Police Department in 2008, Boyce, 69, had spent some three decades as a beat cop (including in Carver Homes, once among the city’s toughest public-housing projects), a homicide detective, a senior hostage negotiator and more.

In conversation, she’s as likely as anyone else you know to tell the occasional workplace story —- that time she dealt with a guy who was holding a gun to his head on the Downtown Connector, the murder she helped crack when a prostitute told her about a “bad encounter” she’d had with a client who turned out to have killed someone else —- only hers don’t make your eyes glaze over from boredom.”

Boyce's work has been hailed by the likes of bestselling authors Lisa Gardner and Joseph Wambaugh, as well as publishing industry bibles Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. Her Decatur Library appearance will include a Q&A and signing. For additional information, visit www.georgiacenterforthebook.org.