Buried Bones (Random House Large Print) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Carolyn Haines (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2003 | Series: Random House Large Print

Private investigation isn't on the list of a southern belle's most desirable accomplishments--but it's saved Sarah Booth Delaney's Delta homestead. Now all she has to cope with is its bossy antebellum ghost who is determined to save Sarah--from spinsterhood. Then comes the perfect social occasion: Lawrence Ambrose's dinner party...

Buried Bones

Ambrose, once a famous man of southern letters, is planning a comeback: a delicious tell-all with a bitchy ex-model as his "biographer." As he taunts his dinner guests with the news that his book will blow the lid off Zinnia's darkest secrets, it becomes plain that each and every guest has a secret--and wants Ambrose to keep it. When the morning-after mess includes a bloody corpse and the manuscript of the biography disappears, Sarah Booth goes digging for answers. But many who hold them are six feet under--or soon will be--and if she doesn't tread carefully, she could join them any day now...


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A feistier southern belle you couldn't hope to find. Pull up a chair on the porch of Dahlia House and pour yourself a mint julep. You're going to want to set a spell."
-- Rick Riordan, Edgar Award-winning author of The Widower's Two-Step

"A writer of exceptional talent."
-- The Milwaukee Journal


Don't miss Sarah Booth Delaney's debut As The Mississippi Delta's First Southern Belle P.I.

Them Bones
A Mystery Guild
Alternate Selection

"Wonderful!"
-- Nancy Pickard, author of The Whole Truth

"A page-turning, laugh-out-loud read--I couldn't put it down."
-- Deborah Crombie, author of Kissed a Sad Goodbye

Available from Bantam Books


From the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Private investigation isn't on the list of a southern belle's most desirable accomplishments--but it's saved Sarah Booth Delaney's Delta homestead. Now all she has to cope with is its bossy antebellum ghost who is determined to save Sarah--from spinsterhood. Then comes the perfect social occasion: Lawrence Ambrose's dinner party...

Buried Bones

Ambrose, once a famous man of southern letters, is planning a comeback: a delicious tell-all with a bitchy ex-model as his "biographer." As he taunts his dinner guests with the news that his book will blow the lid off Zinnia's darkest secrets, it becomes plain that each and every guest has a secret--and wants Ambrose to keep it. When the morning-after mess includes a bloody corpse and the manuscript of the biography disappears, Sarah Booth goes digging for answers. But many who hold them are six feet under--or soon will be--and if she doesn't tread carefully, she could join them any day now...


From the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375432701
• ISBN-13: 978-0375432705
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,854,792 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

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keep Up The Good Work, Ms Haines!, November 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Buried Bones (Mass Market Paperback)

Once again, Carolyn Haines has delivered a thoroughly entertaining and intelligent mystery. The novel's main character, Sarah Booth Delaney, is a real steel magnolia. The author's take on "Daddy's Girls" and the Southern culture that she and her main characters are part of, makes these mystery novels richer in theme as well as content. If you haven't read the first installment of this series, be sure to check it out. I have read that the author has a three book contract with her publisher, but hope this will not deter her from continuing her Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series. The descriptions of the main character, Sarah Booth, and her day-to-day dealings with trying to keep her old family plantation, her Southern way of life, deal with her great granny's nanny's ghost, plus continue her PI work, are witty and enthralling. Please keep up the good work, Ms. Haines and take comfort in the fact that even a Yankee woman (with Southern roots) loves your mysteries.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crazy characters and a great mystery in the deep South, November 24, 2000

By 

Moe811 (New York USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buried Bones (Mass Market Paperback)

Carolyn Haines' second Sarah Booth Delaney novel is as hilarious as the first. A mystery from a famous author's past seems to be the cause of his death and Sarah Booth is hired to find out who killed him. The resident ghost Jitty is not as essential to the story as in the previous novel, but she is just as funny. This is a definite must read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This author creates a great sense of life in the Miss. Delta, May 7, 2004

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Buried Bones (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is in the category of "mysteries with literary merit" -- it's well-written, with lively, vivid characters and realistic dialogue, in addition to a good mystery plot. I would actually give it 4 1/2 stars if that were an option. The plot is just a little bit too tangled and complex, and it reminded me a little bit too much of the previous book in the series (scandals from the past causing problems in the present).

The plot involves a once-famous all-around artist-celebrity who is writing a tell-all book. Needless to say, he quickly ends up dead. Who killed him, and why? The motive is obvious -- he was about to reveal something that someone wanted to remain hidden -- but there are a lot of secrets about a lot of people likely to come out if this book is published, so the list of suspects is rather long, and the motive seems to lie in something that happened in 1940. Sarah Booth Delaney, former Southern upper class girl with a long pedigree and now impoverished orphan turned private investigator (of financial necessity), sets about trying to find out who the killer is -- and it may be someone she knows well and trusts.

This is the third book by Haines that I'm reading -- she makes me want to go visit the Mississippi Delta (where this series is set). I almost except to find Sarah Booth Delaney, the ghost Jitty, and the old plantation Dahlia House waiting for me -- not to mention a hound dog on the porch.