A Garland of Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney Series #22)

by Carolyn Haines

Overview

Spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney tackles a string of strange accidents while celebrating the holiday season in Carolyn Haines's cozy A Garland of Bones

Sarah Booth has traded in hosting this Christmas season for a road trip with her besties. Each little Delta town has a special Christmas activity, and Sarah Booth’s bff and detective partner, Tinkie, has arranged to rent a limo for the gang and drive to Columbus, MS, to stay in a B&B. Visions of Christmas shopping, parade floats, and romantic rendezvous are already dancing in their heads.

But Christmas cheer soon turns to Christmas fear when, at one event after another, people keep getting hurt. Christmas karaoke gets ugly when one singer’s microphone gives her an electric shock. A party during a historic home tour ends with a fall down the stairs for one of Columbus’s most disreputable “players.” And when the woman who hires Sarah Booth to find the villain behind the so-called accidents is nearly killed with an arrow during a holiday mumming, Sarah Booth knows something more sinister is at work.

The Christmas bells are ringing hauntingly in Columbus this year, and Sarah Booth and Tinkie—with a little help from hunky Sheriff Coleman Peters, of course—are determined to catch the wrong-doers and ensure they receive nothing but coal in their stockings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250257925
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Series:	Sarah Booth Delaney Series , #22
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	687,604
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

CAROLYN HAINES is the author of the Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries. She is the recipient of both the Harper Lee Distinguished Writing Award and the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence. Born and raised in Mississippi, she now lives in Semmes, Alabama on a farm with more dogs, cats, and horses than she can possibly keep track of.

Editorial Reviews

08/10/2020

Haines’s sprightly 22nd Sarah Booth Delaney mystery (after Devil’s Bones) finds private investigator Sarah Booth and friends, including “one big burning hunk of lawman love—Coleman Peters,” heading from Zinnia, Miss., to the Delta town of Columbus, where they plan to spend a merry Christmas holiday. Once safely ensconced in their cute bed-and-breakfast, the crew stop at the home of Clarissa Olson, one of several well-to-do Columbus residents to open their houses to visitors during the holidays. Clarissa wastes no time in hiring Sarah Booth and her detecting partner, Tinkie Richmond, to figure out who has been perpetrating pranks directed at Clarissa and her friends. When the pranks become dangerous, and the town busybody goes missing, Sarah Booth and Tinkie are forced to dig into “all the dirty little secrets of Columbus society,” including murder. Meanwhile, Sarah Booth and company do their best to enjoy their vacation. Haines once again delivers entertaining cozy fare. Agent: Marian Young, Young Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Sprightly....Haines once again delivers entertaining cozy fare." —Publishers Weekly

"Fans of Carolyn Hart’s Bailey Ruth Raeburn and Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity series will enjoy." —Booklist

"A stocking stuffed with something for everyone: a friendly house-ghost, cats and dogs, a hunky romantic lead, and the requisite crime." —Kirkus Reviews on A Gift of Bones

"Haines's longtime admirers will be thrilled to spend the holidays with their favorite characters. New readers looking for an engaging story can start here." —Library Journal on A Gift of Bones

"With holiday details and a strong plot, Carolyn Haines has achieved that sweet Christmas cozy balance in A Gift of Bones." —Mystery Scene Magazine

"Distinctive characters and an atmospheric setting elevate this paranormal cozy. Series fans and newcomers alike will be satisfied." —Publishers Weekly on Game of Bones

"A dark mystery, effectively framed by its well-drawn Mississippi Delta setting." —Booklist on Game of Bones

"A sure pleaser in both the mystery and the romance department. If you like a satisfying cozy Southern whodunit, Charmed Bones fits the bill."—RT Book Reviews

“Haines shows Sarah at her madcap best back in her hometown in this clever adventure. This is a crazy cozy with a little something for everyone: paranormal doings, plenty of Evanovich zaniness, and a cast of eccentrics.”—Booklist on Bone to Be Wild

“Enjoyable…Jitty, the headstrong ghost who shares Sarah Booth’s family home, is just one of the many well-drawn characters who help bring this Southern tale to colorful life.”—Publishers Weekly on Rock-a-Bye Bones

“[Haines] delivers a riveting love story alongside the mystery, leaving her readers in hot anticipation of her next novel.”—Mississippi Magazine on Booty Bones

From the Publisher

2020-07-29
A road trip for informal but professional detective friends mixes business with pleasure when some dangerous pranks require investigation into the local spurned-woman scene.

Sarah Booth Delaney is taking a pre-Christmas break from her beloved ancestral home, Dahlia House, to travel from Zinnia, Mississippi, to the river town of Columbus, Mississippi. Tinkie Richmond, her friend and partner in the Delaney Detective Agency, and her husband, Oscar, have organized a trip to the town’s boutique B&B for their whole gang, including Sarah Booth and her boyfriend, Sheriff Coleman Peters, and their friends Cece, Jaytee, Harold, and Millie. Though Sarah Booth means the trip to be a break from her detective work, especially because Tinkie’s too pregnant to be very active, the women soon find themselves embroiled in a new case. Local femme fatale Clarissa Olson has been implicated in some not-so-harmless pranks, like filling her friend Bricey Presley's new Cadillac to the brim with cement. Clarissa’s a real piece of work, but Sarah Booth and Tinkie are used to handling even the most high-maintenance cases with their signature Southern charm and sass. The trouble in Clarissa’s crew apparently stems from the womanizing ways of Bart Crenshaw, who gave Bricey the Caddie, and Sarah Booth confirms that the case has something to do cheating men when her resident haint, Jitty, follows her to Columbus to reenact all the best love-’em-and-leave-’em film lines. Although it’s unclear whether Coleman’s Columbus law enforcement counterpart, Jerry Goode, is on the up and up, Coleman himself is on call to rescue Sarah Booth and Tinkie from trouble, unless they rescue themselves first.

A Southern charmer who’s not quite as clever as she and her author assume.

Kirkus Reviews