Splintered Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney) [Kindle Edition]

Carolyn Haines (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Described on the somewhat staid cover as "a mystery from the Mississippi Delta," Haines's third Southern cozy (first in hardcover) is heavy on the cornpone, but is saved from the totally ridiculous by a hearty leavening of laughter. Sarah Booth Delaney and her cohorts, Tinkie Richmond and Cece Dee Falcon (formerly Cecil but that's for another story) band together to save friend and horse breeder Eulalee "Lee" McBride from a first-degree murder rap. Lee has confessed to the murder of her loutish husband, Kemper Fuquar, in order to save her mixed-up 14-year-old daughter, Kip Fuquar, from the charge. The sheriff is hard-put to find a woman any woman on the outlying magnolia-scented estates who didn't have a motive to crush Kemper's skull, then sic Avenger, a temperamental show horse, on the rotter. When she's not busy being a PI, Sarah Booth stays busy playing with her red tick hound, Sweetie Pie; talking to a resident ghost, Jitty, in her antebellum mansion; reluctantly scouring the area for a date to the hunt ball; baby-sitting for a willful Kip; and reading Kinky Friedman books. Sarah Booth keeps up with her friends' lipstick and nail polish colors, and even goes along with having Sweetie Pie's hair dyed brown from its graying shade. The author's long on accent, if short on clues that help elucidate the mystery. But Haines (Them Bones) keeps her sense of humor throughout, holding the reader's attention and internal laugh track right down to the last snicker. Agent, Marion Young.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Southern belle Sarah Delaney runs a private detective agency in Zinnia, MS, and remains single at 33. Longtime friend and equestrienne Eulalee "Lee" McBride confesses to murdering her abusive husband, foists her problematic teenage daughter on Sarah, and asks Sarah to dig up all the dirt that she can find about the victim. Before Sarah's research goes far, plenty of motives for murder crop up, including gambling debts, psychological abuse, and possible adultery. This third series entry marks Haines's hardcover debut, and while not totally convincing, it certainly offers welcome escape through small-town characterization, gossip, and an opinionated plantation ghost.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 552 KB
• Publisher: Dell; Reprint edition (December 18, 2007)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0012SMGOM
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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 Good Entry, October 25, 2003

By 

Louis M. Perdue (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

I enjoyed this third entry in the Mississippi Delta mystery series. I was happy to see that Jitty played a smaller role in this episode as I find the main character, Sarah Booth Delaney, and her cohorts interesting enough without the added benefit of the ghost (that trick also works better, I think, in the Nancy Atherton series, Aunt Dimity, and in the Mignon F. Ballard series with angel Augusta Goodnight). And in this book, I found Jitty especially irritating as she was basically a one-note song, continually harping on her desire for Sarah Booth to get married and have children.
In this book, a friend of Sarah Booth's, Lee, confesses to the murder of her husband, a particularly loathsome man with quite a few enemies. She asks Sarah to dig up evidence that the man deserved to die, intending to play on the jury's sympathy in order to escape punishment. Sarah Booth quickly realizes that Lee is lying and she sets out to solve the crime.
There are plenty of laughs and some excitement along the way to make the book enjoyable. The one complaint I do have is that she sort of stumbled onto solving the mystery and I usually find that somewhat disappointing.
Will definitely pick up the next book in the series, Crossed Bones.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sarah Booth and the DG's of the horsey set., April 8, 2002

By 

Moe811 (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Splintered Bones (Hardcover)

Sarah Booth gets a phone call from her old friend Lee. She is in jail after confessing to the murder of her husband. Apparently, he needed killing. She doesn't want a lawyer, but she does want Sarah to take care of her wild 14 year old daughter Kip. Lee owns a very successful horse farm, and her husband was gambling away all the horses and profits. He's even sold her best stallion to the hated Carol Beth, even though Lee owned all the horses outright. Shortly before, he sold Kip's beloved horse, Mrs. Peel out from under her. Clearly he deserved to die, but Sarah Booth knows that Lee did not kill him. Who is she covering for?

Sarah Booth and Aunt Jitty( the ghostly nurse of her ggggrandmother) are hysterical as are Sarah's best friends Tink and CeCe. Together, and with the help of the other Daddy's girls the mystery developes quickly. I couldn't put this book down and didn't until I finished the last page.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unique humorous mystery, March 3, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Splintered Bones (Hardcover)

In Zinnia, Mississippi the old code of the south still reigns supreme. "Daddy's Girls", those females who grow up the daughter of a rich man and learn all they can to marry a wealthy man are in plentiful supply. Sara Booth Delaney started life as a "Daddy's Girl" but when her parents died in a freak accident, she had to grow up in a hurry. Although she wants to keep the family estate of Dahlia House, she wants to pay off the family promissory notes by using her salary as a private detective.

Her partner in the agency is Binky, an intelligent Daddy's Girl (oxymoron?) with their office being Dahlia House haunted by Jiltty, the ghost of Sara's great-great grandmother's nanny. Sara's latest case is heartbreaking as Lee McBride confesses to the murder of her abusive husband Kemper but nobody believes she did it. Although the prime suspect is Lee's daughter, there are a lot of other people who wished him dead. Sara Booth has plenty of suspects with viable motives but the one thing she lacks is what she desperately needs: proof.

Carolyn Haines is a colorful and creative writer who captures the atmosphere of the old south (or at least one aspect of it) to perfection. The heroine's interactions with the ghost are hilarious and add comic relief to a very fast paced, angst-laden plot. SPLINTERED BONES is a unique mystery that will be enjoyed by those fans wanting something different in their mystery reading material.

Harriet Klausner