Customer Reviews

Them Bones

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sara Booth Delaney is the type of character that you know you're going to like as soon as you begin reading this book. She's returned to Mississippi to try to save the old family plantation, but without success. Her only companion in the big old house is the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, Jitty. Jitty is a kick, and the bane of Sarah Booth's existence, though of course, only Sarah Booth can see her. Another complication is the Delaney women's penchants for madness and mysterious "womb" disorders - which can be interpreted anyway you like - and which seem to be well-known in the community. Know only that Sarah Booth's biological clock is ticking very loudly.

Sarah Booth decides on dognapping as the quickest way to raise money, holding her best friend's dog for ransom. Problems ensue when this same friend asks her to investigate an older murder, stirring up things that probably should have been best be left alone. There's also the complication of her attraction to two different men - one who wants to marry her and get her out of her financial difficulties, and one who may have been a murderer and seems to be just passing through her life.

This was a very enjoyable book - well-written, sexy, and funny. The Deep South setting is interesting, and Ms. Haines describes that society with amusement and affection, and makes it an integral part of the story. If you're a fan of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, you'll like this book. The storylines and characters are different but there are some basic similarities - an amusing woman who thinks she sees herself clearly yet who can't really understand her own appeal, a surfeit of handsome and sexy men, and uniquely amusing secondary characters.

I wasn't too sure I was going to like this book--many of the mysteries I have read try too hard to be cute or funny, and I thought perhaps the idea of the ghost was just another one, but this book was truly a hoot! And the ghost Jitty's conversations with Sarah Booth had me laughing out loud. The characters were fully developed and the actual mystery was just that for me, almost to the end before I figured it out. Sarah Booth Delaney and Jitty are welcome on my reading list any time.

The book has so much literary merit, that it could be placed among the novels. However, the excellent mystery plot also wins it a place among the mysteries.

Haines creates characters who are memorable and vivid and places them in the Mississippi Delta town of Zinnia (I'm kind of reminded of the movie "In the Heat of the Night"). Sarah Booth is living in the ancestral home -- she is an orphan and an only child, the last of the Delaneys -- but is about to lose it, because she is destitute despite her social credentials. Her only company at Dahlia House - the antebellum house -- is the ghost of a slave, who appears in a variety of outfits and "encourages" Sarah to get to work reproducing.

In an attempt to earn some money, Sarah takes on the task of trying to get to the truth of a scandal from 20 years ago in which first a leading citizen and then the leading citizen's wife die in some very questionable accidents. THe two young offspring are whispered to have something to do with it, and Sarah's client wants to find out if Hamilton the Fifth is as bad as rumors have it. Hamilton the Fifth is a romantic interest worthy of Evanovich -- and did I mention the book is often funny?

Sarah is stirring up some dangerous memories and some deaths start to follow.

I really loved this book and can hardly wait to read the next in this series and discover what happens to Sarah.

I decided to try this series based on the reviews of other readers and am glad I did. I too thought this might turn out to be another attempt at the zany humor so many try, but few accomplish (Janet Evanovich and Nancy Bartholomew being the few exceptions). The conversations between Jitty and Sarah Booth are funny at times, but what I like the most is being able to not only feel Sarah Booth's love for her home, which goes deeper than just a place to live, but also that there probably really is a Zinnia with people just like that. I read someone comparing Sarah Booth to Sharon McCone and, I agree -- a softer cousin maybe. The second in the series is just as good and I'm looking forward to reading the 3rd.

I liked this book, but I don't feel like I have to absolutely get something else from Ms. Haines.

This book is strong on characterization, setting and weak on plot. I liked Sarah, I adored Jitty. "Them Bones" is well-written, provides a unique atmosphere and represents a strange cross between social commentary and a mystery. The social commentary part is the more interesting of the two. What Daddy's girls are brought up to be, the struggle between individuality and tradition in the suffocating grip of fixed gender roles, and the sordid details of people's lives coming to light from under the glamorous, glossy surface of society living are far more interesting than the unlikely criminals we are treated to in this novel.

I am a reader. I read at least three books a week and you can imagine what a joy it is for me to find something new and refreshing in a book! Especially a mystery! The characters are wonderful, and so is Jitty, the ghost, who has a knack for annoying, being helpful, entertaining, and coming up with the right idea when needed. She is also quite a snappy dresser! I laughed outloud several times. The bonus was, I did not figure out 'who dunnit' right away. An all around great book. I just orded the second mystery, 'Buried Bones' and I do not believe I will be disapointed.

I've gotten so tired of stereotypical characters that I opened up THEM BONES with a cynical eye. By the end of the first chapter, my cynicism faded in the midst of laughter and a yearning to know just what this wonderful character was going to do next. I found THEM BONES to be a real treat and can't wait to read more from this author.

Having read a number of Carolyn Haines's books, I expected to like this one-- but I didn't expect to like it so much! I was drawn in by the totally human characters. The mystery kept me guessing, and didn't play out like so many that come to a connived conclusion. Just loved this book, now to get the next!

I'm hooked. Until 2 weeks ago, I'd never read Ms Haines. Now I'm a devoted fan. Her mysteries are simply delicious reading. As someone who's lived in and around the area, I find her characterizations dead-on accurate, and her locale descriptions evocative enough to lure me back. Whoever thought I'd miss kudzu? Sarah Booth Delaney is a pure delight, and someone I'd love to sit down and have a glass of Jack with... I hope this series never ends! It'd be like losing a good friend.

Carolyn Haines can "turn a phrase". She also has that wonderful Southern voice for humor, sacrasm, creating REAL people, and keeping the reader up all night trying to find out what happens next. This is Haines at her best, and she's very good.