Greedy Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Carolyn Haines (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries | Publication Date: July 7, 2009

Sarah Booth Delaney, a Southern belle known for abiding by tradition only when it suits her, is no stranger to drama. A talented actress and a P.I., she’s chosen to pursue a career in Hollywood when she hears that her best friend’s husband is suddenly on his deathbed back home in Mississippi---and he's not the only one. The vicious illness begins with burning fevers and delirium, quickly plunging its victims into a coma. The Centers for Disease Control is on the scene, but they can’t find a cure for it or the boll weevils that are decimating Sunflower County’s cotton crop. With patients in quarantine and the whole town in crisis, Sarah drops everything to stop the outbreak and save the only place she’s ever been able to call home.

From feuding scientists to ailing locals, there is no shortage of bad blood coursing through the little town of Zinnia, Mississippi, as Carolyn Haines’s often steamy and always charming series turns equally intense in Greedy Bones.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Haines's bone-rattling ninth puzzler (after 2008's Wishbones), Sarah Booth Delaney returns to Zinnia, Miss., and her ancestral home, Dahlia House, after the eruption there of a mysterious illness so scary agents from Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control must be called in. Tinkie Richmond, Sarah's best friend and PI partner, fears her husband, Oscar, is dying after a visit to the nearby cursed Carlisle cotton plantation infected with mutant boll weevils and a strange mold. Sounds like a horror movie, but it's no laughing matter as Sarah Booth sets aside her Hollywood honey, Graf Milieu, to help her former love interest, Sheriff Coleman Peters, solve a perplexing case that will eventually claim victims by such causes as shooting and hanging. Lending spectral advice is Jitty, Dahlia House's wonderfully wise haint, one of the best features of this light paranormal mystery series infused with Southern charm. (July)
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Review

Praise for Carolyn Haines

“Wishbones is reminiscent in many ways of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, only fresher, with a bit more of an edge and none of the pretentiousness. Light, breezy, and just plain fun. Call Haines the queen of cozies.”
­---Providence Journal-Bulletin

“Haines’s warmth, wit, and authenticity come through in her characters. . . . Wishbones is a story about the bonds of friendship and the strength of Southern women and is also a good, old-fashioned, fast-moving whodunit.”
--Mobile Register

“Entertaining . . . The chemistry sizzles between Graf and Sarah Booth.”
---Publishers Weekly on Wishbones

“Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood! Non-Southerners will find the madcap adventure an informative peek into an alien culture.”
---Kirkus Reviews on Bones to Pick

“Funny, ingenious . . . and delightful.”
---The Dallas Morning News on Splintered Bones

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031237710X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312377106
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #841,965 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

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She's Done It Again, July 24, 2009

By 

M. Ellis "magnoliamansions" (Gulf Coast, Alabama) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Greedy Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Master Storyteller Carolyn Haines has done it again. The Sarah Booth Delaney mysteries set in the Mississippi Delta just get better and better. After a fling in Hollywood, Sarah Booth is back again on the rich black soil of the Delta, only to find friends seriously ill from some strange malady that seems to come only from a nearby plantation. Haines characters are totally endearing, including the beloved haint who lives in her family home. The humor sprinkled among the pages is delightful. The plot is fast and furious and fabulous. How this writer manages to plant so many red herrings, produce unexpected twists, and keep the reader up all night trying to find the answer is pure genius.
It may come as a surprise to some, but Mississippians can not only read, can they ever write! Carolyn Haines has that inborn talent that carries this tradition of excellent story telling to the top of the class. She crafts her characters well, and she knows the land of which she writes. Grab yourself a glass of sweet tea, or adult beverage of your choice, pull up the big rocker on the front porch of the plantation home and enjoy. Don't miss this one. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sarah Booth and the ladies of Zinnia's further adventures, August 31, 2009

By 

Maryland Reader "marylandreadr" (MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greedy Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This is the latest of the Sarah Booth Delaney series. About the series, Sarah Booth returned to her Zinnia roots after trying to launch herself as an actress in New York City. Desperate to save her old ancestral home and find a niche for herself in Zinnia, Sarah Booth becomes an unintentional private detective.

While the series requires the suspension of disbelief (it comes complete with a resident "haint" -- Sarah Booth's personal ghost at the house), the books are fast paced, tremendous fun with a full roster of recurring characters and friends from Zinnia. Similar to a cozy, but Sarah Booth is more likely to found drinking Jack Daniels than tea.

In this installment, Sarah Booth Delaney returns to Zinnia after her foray to Hollywood to find multiple people, including her friend and partner's husband, seriously ill and hospitalized with an unknown ailment. The only thing in common--all had been at a local plantation with remarkably well-developed cotton plants.

The sick are getting sicker and time is running out. Sarah Booth and her friends must find out the source of this mysterious ailment before more fall.

This was a great, fun, fast read and I highly recommend the series. However, if you haven't yet read any of the others, this might not be the best introduction to the series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible book, April 10, 2011

By 

Alpha - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greedy Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Thus book was such a disappointment, that I will never buy another book by this writer. It is unnecessarily gory, a contived unbelievable plot and an absurd ending. It is not worthy of one star. I own several books in this series and the latest one is the worst, although a couple others wrer disappointing. I will not waste any more money on this writer.