BONES OF A FEATHER: A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery - Carolyn Haines

From the back of the book: A missing four-million-dollar necklace makes for high stakes for PI Sarah Booth Delaney when its wealthy owner is also snatched up in the latest charming southern mystery from Carolyn Haines.

When PI Sarah Booth Delaney takes on Monica and Eleanor Levert as clients, she doesn't have much hope of solving the case. The wealthy heiresses of Briarcliff in Natchez, MS, claim that a necklace worth four million dollars has been stolen, and they think that they can hurry the insurance payout if a reputable PI investigates. Sarah Booth has her doubts, and not just about the payout. All of hte evidence suggest the sister might be committing fraud.

Then, just when she begins to scratch the surface of the Levert family's sordid past and the blood money that their wealth was founded upon, Monica goes missing. The police suspect that the heiresses are still playing, and Eleanor isn't doing anything to make them think any different. But how can she? If she says or does anything besides pass on the insurance money to the kidnappers, they'll kill Monica.

With a family history that runs deep and dark and a twisting plot where no one is exactly what they seem. Sarah Booth is the Levert sisters' best and only hope in the latest in Carolyn Haines sparkling southern mystery series.

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Oh, how I love this series!! Sarah Booth and Tinkie are some of my favorite ladies in the book world. Smart, funny, resourceful and feisty. They take on the stolen insurance case for the Leverts even though they've promised their significant others that they will be more careful with their cases. It seems innocuous enough at the beginning, but everything begins to escalate with the abduction of one of the sisters.

There is a serious Gothic texture to this, the eleventh outing for Sarah Booth and Tinkie. I love Southern humor, Southern mystery and Southern Gothic. BONES OF A FEATHER has all three to the nth degree!!

BONES OF A FEATHER comes out on 21 June, do yourself a favor and buy this fine addition to the series.

Five sparkly Southern diamonds......

CROSSED BONES: Mississippi Delta Mystery #4 - Carolyn Haines, narr Kate Forbes

From the back of the BOCD: Best-selling novelist Carolyn Haines has earned a devoted following with her acclaimed "Bones" mystery series. In CROSSED BONES Southern belle and amateur sleuth Sarah Booth Delaney finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation with undertones of racism.

Zinnia, Mississippi divides along color lines when prominent black pianist Ivory Keys is stabbed to death in his own nightclub. The prime suspect is Scott Hampton, Keys' rich and white protege. Sarah is hired to prove Scott's innocence, but to do so, she'll have to navigate some treacherous waters. And she'll also have to do it while juggling three potential love interests.

Colorfully capturing the distinct appeal of Mississippi Delta country, Haines delivers a tale that Kirkus Reviews says "couldn't be more Southern if it were packaged with grits." Narrator Kate Forbes' down-home performance is the perfect complement to this lively mystery.

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CROSSED BONES is now my favorite of the Mississippi Delta Mystery series. Granted it's darker than the ones I've listened to previously, but it still maintained the touches of humor and had the wonderfully written characters, especially Sarah Booth, Jitty, and Tinky who have become friends I've grown to love and look forward to hanging with each visit.

Another part that made it such a great listen is the blues music that threads throughout. I don't know when I started listening to and loving the blues, but it's been a huge part of my music collection (and part of what brought DH and I together). So that added magic to the listening of this book, too.

In the description from the back of the audibook, it says that this is an amateur sleuth mystery. I disagree. Sarah Booth and Tinky have moved way beyond amateur. They are proven private investigators with a fairly solid track record. And they get paid! Not amateurs any longer. If the series requires a label, it's a suspense mystery with humor tucked in.

Five not amateur anymore beans.....

BONES TO PICK: Book 6 Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery - Carolyn Haines, narr Kate Forbes

From the back of the BOCD: Mississippi native Carolyn Haines writes spicy mysteries teeming with all the eccentricities of Southern society. BONES TO PICK continues the adventures of sassy PI Sarah Booth Delaney.

Quentin McGee, author of a sensational expose, has been murdered, and her lover Allison has been charged with the crime. Sarah is hired to find the real culprit, but the investigation won't be easy. Quentin has so many enemies, including her own family and all those rich, powerful people mentioned in her book. As scandal brews, the suspect list continues to grow, and Sarah fears that the killer isn't finished yet.

Haines' Southern Belle mystery, together with a spirited narration frm Kate Forbes, draws listeners right into the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Haines' CROSSED BONES is also available from RecordedBooks.

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Hawt Dayum! This is such a good series. And I've only read two of them! Now there's a whole lot that's happened between book one, THEM BONES (my review), and book 6, so I will be going back to catch up. I meant to read the series in order, but this one popped up on my wishlist on RecordedBooks and I couldn't wait to spend time with Sarah Booth and her buddy Tinkie and the rest of the crowd.

I adore Sarah Booth. She calls it as she sees it, recognizes a bitch when she sees one and is ready to help a friend whether the friend realizes she needs help or not.

Sarah Booth and Tinkie are hired to find the killer of a local girl who wrote a scathing tell-all book about her community of wealthy high society folk. Everyone is a suspect and it's up to Sarah Booth and Tinkie to find the real killer. Things start to accelerate and my jaw dropped when the killer was revealed.

I do love Sarah Booth, but my favorite character in this book was Tinkie. She has some emotional turmoil of her own to get through and wants to get through it on her own, but she still is out there with Sarah Booth investigating. And she is so funny and I kept wanting to reach in the book and hug her. She and Sarah Booth are women I admire, tough and sweet and I always imagine them wearing a strand or two of pearls. And are willing to call a bitch a bitch.

Five Southern sweet tea diamonds.....and a big ol' string of pearls.....

THEM BONES: A Mystery from the Mississippi Delta - Carolyn Haines

From the back of the book: If only I hadn't kidnapped the dog...but the ransom paid the mortgage....Now I seem to be a private eye....I shouldn't have listened to that ghost....

Meet Sarah Booth Delaney...an unconventional Southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi...if it doesn't make her the deadest.No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state—or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

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I had so much fun reading this book. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find this series. Sarah Booth Delaney is a Daddy's Girl, a group of privileged young ladies whose only real goal in life was to marry well and live a life of leisure. Sarah Booth jumped that ship and went to New York after college (Catching the male was an entire course of study for Delta girls and Ole Miss was the preferred hunting ground) to become an actress. That didn't pan out so well and she came home to Zinnia Mississippi to save her home, Dahlia House, which she is about to lose to the bank if she can't find the money. She kidnaps her friend Tinkie's dog and 'rescues' it for the reward. Tinkie hires her as a person she can trust to keep a secret and use her intelligence to find out why Garrett Hamilton the Fifth is in town. All kinds of secrets, lies and long ago murders and deaths come to the surface.

I love getting the inside look at the use of feminine wiles, the gallantry of men, how to make an entrance, how to make an exit, conversational skills to include how to cloak an insult with a sweet smile. One of my favorites: "Oh Kincaid, you look lovely tonight. But how do you get your eyeliner so straight when you don't cast a reflection in the mirror?"

The conversations are great fun and I love Sarah Booth's moxie, think Scarlett O'Hara without the bitchy 'tude.

Five Southern moxie beans....