Splintered Bones

Enjoyable characters that are so well written you can picture them and relate to them. Great humor and mystery combined.

If you like mysteries, then this book is for you. Carolyn Haines writes wonderful books with wonderful characters. I always think I have the murderer figured out until the twist at the end. Ms.Haines style of writing makes you feel like you are there with Sarah Booth helping her solving the mystery. If you like this book then you need to read all of her series.

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.

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.

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