Customer Reviews

Buried Bones (Random House Large Print)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

She stole her friend's Yorkie and then pretended to find the dog in order to establish her credentials as a top-rate private investigator. The case paid so well that Sarah Booth Delaney was able to save Dahlia House, her Mississippi family home from a forced sale. The house has been in the Delaney family for generations and comes with its own resident ghost Jittey, an ancestor's nanny.

Sarah's reputation as a detective has become very strong at least in the small Mississippi Delta town. Thus, it is not surprising when the lover of now-deceased Lawrence Ambrose hires Sarah to uncover the identity of the individual who killed him. Sarah's new client believes the town's malicious vamp, Brianna, killed Ambrose. Sarah thinks otherwise especially since the victim publicly announced that he was writing a tell-all biography where many of the townsfolk's secrets are revealed. Sarah is up to her eyeballs in suspects and can only hope that she finds the murderer before she becomes corpse number two.

BURIED BONES is a par excellence regional mystery that is loaded with local color, atmosphere, and describes the lifestyle of a small post antebellum southern town. The likable characters are well drawn, especially the heroine, who refuses to conform to tradition and roots. The ghost is a delightful player whose soliloquies and overall advice leaves the audience laughing. No one can guess the killer's identity until Carolyn Haines shakes the bones enough to allow the audience to know who did it. That shocker adds zest to a great paranormal mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Lawrence Ambrose is a writer and supporter of the arts who, on the eve of having his "tell all" published, pledges it will divulge the innermost secrets of various people he knows/has known. Of course, the morning after making this dinner party announcement, he if found murdered...

The storyline is an interesting one and the book possesses literary merit; however, I would have liked more on Mr. Ambrose's character (and his life) and a little less on Sarah Booth's daily thoughts and meanderings--I mean how fascinated can one character be with the color of people's eyes (and they're all blue)? How many times and ways can the reader be told that S.B. is a fallen-from-grace, once wealthy daddy's girl/deb who is now having to make her own way? And that ubiquitous Jitty "character", who does nothing to advance the storyline, definitely needs a rest. She exists solely, I guess, to serve as comic relief and foil to Saran Booth.

The other townspeople in this small Mississippi enclave are, for the most part, fairly interesting and we get to know several of them pretty well. This is the second book in the series I have read and despite my mumblings and grumblings above, I will read another. Ms. Haines is a gifted writer--of that there is no doubt. However, it is difficult not to get the impression she--how can I put this--"dumbs down" her talent to appeal to a wider based audience.

I always like books set in the south. If you are from the south you "get it". Not that you have to be southern to like these books, but, if you are from the south you will love them.

This is one of two new mystery writers I have found in the last year. I love both writters. Caroline Haines books are a great read and have all the charm of the south. I have found myself purchasing the next in the series before I finish the one I am reading so I do not have to wait. The other mystery writer I am loving is Donna Andrews. Her Meg Lawson series is the other series I have been reading. I have read all her books and am waiting for the next. In my search to find a new author, Caroline Haines was my answer. Hope all of you enjoy both these authors books as I have!

This series is always a fun brain teaser. It is a good mix of fun and mayhem. Sarah Booth and her ghost are a hoot.

Excellent Series! I love reading about the deep south, Sarah Delaney and all her friends.. always on pins and needles to see if she and the Sheriff are ever going to get together!!

Carolyn Haines can write! I loved the characters and the story was part charming, part thrilling. I couldn't put it down.