Bone Appétit (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Carolyn Haines (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries | Publication Date: June 22, 2010

In the midst of a cook-off at a posh spa, southern PI Sarah Booth Delaney gets embroiled in a juicy murder in the latest mystery from Carolyn Haines

 

For many years Jitty, Dahlia House’s resident ghost, has dreamed that Sarah Booth Delaney would have a child to inherit the family’s ancestral home. Sarah Booth has always had reservations about being a parent. There was her work as an actress and PI, taking care of the house, not to mention finding the right man. But when Jitty’s dream finally looks like it’s going to come true, Sarah Booth is crushed when it doesn’t. Depressed, unable to act or investigate, Sarah Booth finally allows her best friend to whisk her away for a luxurious weekend vacation at a special spa and cooking school.

The pampering and food go a long way toward making her feel like her old self, but there’s another welcome distraction—there’s a beauty contest/cook-off going on to find the spa’s next spokesperson, and watching the drama really takes her mind off of her woes. Sarah finds the backbiting to be great fun—until the heated competition boils over, the top contender is poisoned, and the prime suspect hires Sarah Booth to clear her name.

Between swimsuit competitions and soufflés, Sarah Booth Delaney and her best friend and partner, Tinkie, must find out which of the ambitious young ladies is to blame in Bone Appetit, the latest in Carolyn Haines’s delightfully Southern cozy mystery series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Distinctive characters and a clever cooking background make Haines's 10th Sarah Booth Delaney mystery (after 2009's Greedy Bones) the best yet in this Southern cozy series. Sarah Booth, who's seeking solace after a miscarriage, and her best friend and fellow PI, Tinkie Bellecase Richmond, come to Greenwood, Miss., to attend classes at the Viking Cooking School, but soon get involved in a beauty contest/cook-off and mayhem. The trouble begins when contestant Karrie Kompton bites into a chocolate-covered cockroach. Next, Babs Lafitte falls to the stage and goes into convulsions. After Brook Oniada suffers fatal burns during her flaming baton routine and Janet Menton dies after eating poisoned pastry, suspicion falls on Janet's roommate, Hedy Lamarr Blackledge, who hires Sarah and Tinkie to clear her name. Sarah's ever-entertaining ghost companion, Jitty, provides support as Sarah winds up finding the crazed beauty contest gone bad a blessing in disguise.
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From Booklist

Deeply depressed by the loss of her unborn child, Sarah Booth Delaney agrees to leave her plantation home, Dahlia House, and attend the Viking Cooking School with her best friend, Tinkie, in an effort to begin to heal. They arrive at the beginning of the Miss Viking Beauty Contest and Spokesperson Competition and add the pageant events to their schedule. But the pageant is disrupted when contestants are killed. Hedy Lamarr Blackledge, a contestant considered the prime suspect in the murders, asks Sarah and Tinkie, owners of the Delaney Detective Agency, to investigate. When Sarah hesitates to accept the case, Tinkie manipulates her into agreeing, a decision that leads to grave consequences. Assisted by Dahlia House’s resident ghost, Jitty, Sarah is drawn into the case and begins to recover from her loss. Details of life in the South, beauty pageants, and cooking are woven throughout the story, which will appeal to readers who enjoyed Sarah Shankman’s She Walks in Beauty (1992), also set at a beauty pageant. --Sue OBrien

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031259464X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312594640
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Haines is the author of eighteen novels, including the acclaimed Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series. She was honored with the prestigious 2009 Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence. Haines was also 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award. Born and raised in Mississippi, she now lives in Alabama on a farm with more dogs, cats, and horses than she can possibly keep track of!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable entry, June 26, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bone Appétit (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Their last case still haunts the Delta detecting duet (see Greedy Bones) as private detectives Sarah Booth Delaney miscarried and Tinkie Richmond's husband almost died. The pair needs pampering and massaging so they head off to the ritzy Alluvian Hotel for a weekend getaway and to attend a cooking gala.

Viking sponsors a cook off, but two of the contestants die from poisoning and a third lapses into a coma. Police Chief Jansen suspects Hedy Lamarr Blackledge is killing off the competition, but the visiting sleuths think otherwise and begin an inquiry abetted by Jitty the ghost appearing in several performing roles while their respective mates plead with them for an investigative timeout.

This is an enjoyable entry that fans of the series will enjoy though it reads in many ways like the last case with a near death experience. The story line is fast-paced as the two women investigate while Jitty provides clues and comic relief. Action-packed, Bone Appetit is a fun paranormal whodunit; just don't eat the food.

Harriet Klausner

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A dissenter, July 14, 2010

By 

Minnie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bone Appétit (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I guess I'm the only one who found this book virtually unreadable. I used to like this series a lot. I started getting turned off when Sarah Booth made the virtually unheard of leap from local actress to B'way star to Hollywood starlet. In Hollywood, she manages to snag the one and only faithful, albeit ludicrously named, Hollywood hunk Graf Milieu who is quite solicitous of her career needs ("Do you want to return to Broadway Sarah Booth?").

But Sarah Boooth has not yet reached the pinnacle--in the last pages of this novel, she becomes God, or close enough. What next???

I think Ms. Haines has lost her way with this series and has taken what was a good cozy into the realm of an improbable and laughable fantasy-mystery.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Book, June 25, 2010

By 

Sylvia (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bone Appétit (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I have been waiting for another Sarah Booth mystery and I was not disappointed. Bone Appetit had all the qualities I look for in a cozy: suspense, love, female friendship, dogs, and was a darn good read besides. Because of a past tragedy, Sarah Booth had to be dragged into this adventure but she didn't let her personal feelings stop her from helping others and solving the mystery. Ms. Haines' books are among the few that I must get the week they are purchased. Her descriptions of the Mississippi Delta and some of it's citizens are wonderful.