Christmas comes to Zinnia, Mississippi—Sarah Booth Delaney must solve a case as the holiday approaches, in this new cozy mystery from Carolyn Haines.Christmas is just around the corner and Sarah Booth and Tinkie are preparing for a festive holiday season. After a turbulent season of solving cases, they’re ready for some holiday cheer. Sarah Booth and Sheriff Coleman Peters have finally gotten … finally gotten together, and this is the first holiday they’re celebrating as a couple. Sarah Booth busies herself with decking the halls and daydreaming about romantic Christmas nights with Coleman.
Then her friend Cece Dee Falcon shows up needing Sarah Booth’s help—right now. She shows Sarah Booth a box that was delivered by courier and left at Cece’s front porch. It contains a lock of hair, a photograph of a pretty young woman, very pregnant, and a note demanding ransom for the return of the teen. Cece reveals that this is her cousin’s daughter, Eve Falcon, and that she’d lost touch with this part of her family years ago. Eve and Cece had been close, until the family had a terrible falling out, and banished Cece from their lives. The countdown begins as the kidnapper pushes for payment—or else, he threatens, Eve will meet her maker. It’s up to Sarah Booth and her friends to find the girl before something terrible happens on what should be the merriest day of the year.
Carolyn Haines’s trademark humor and lovable characters are back, in a heartwarming Christmas story that will enchant and delight readers looking for a suspenseful mystery wrapped in joyful holiday merriment.
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A Gift of Bones revisits the denizens of Zinnia with a poignancy I particularly enjoyed. Perhaps that was due in part to the spirit of Christmas that permeates the antics of Sarah Booth and her sleuthing partner, Tinkie. But perhaps the greater part was due to the self-forgiveness that both Sarah Booth and CeCe discover as the mystery unfolds. And a mystery it is, well-crafted and solidly delivered. Carolyn Haines makes every moment of action and every line of dialogue count.
Tinkie comes into her own in Gift of Bones, more an equal than sidekick to the inimitable Sarah Booth. For this reader, Tinkie’s yearning for a child, skillfully woven throughout the series, is representative of the longing so many of us feel for that one ‘something’ that may never be. We each come to resolution or acceptance in our own way.
A fan of Coleman since early days, I’ve sighed through Sarah Booth’s various loves and flirtations over the course of this series. Therefore, the reunion of these two heretofore star-crossed lovers was a very satisfying reward for my patience.
As always, I was appalled by the villain’s intentions and grateful that Ms. Haines never requires readers of the series to experience those intentions graphically. I found a Gift of Bones more insightful and a bit less zany than previous offerings in this line but still infused with the lively madcap escapades that Sarah Booth fans have come to love.
I recommend this book without reservation. Never one to reread a book, I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself reopening the cover of a Gift of Bones early next December.
It takes a very special kind of talent to write a truly good book (period), but especially to write a charming Christmas book infused with both suspense and humor. But Carolyn Haines does it so well and with such flare in “A Gift of Bones,” a mystery with a kidnapping, a ghost, danger, love, and a host of adventures by an often outrageous but always intriguing cast of Southern characters. Which is to say, Carolyn Haines is at it again. She has a knack for combining the zany with the serious in a way that absolutely works well in “A Gift of Bones.” This is the nineteenth book in the Sarah Booth Delaney cozy mystery series, and these stories just get better and better.
In plenty of time for Christmas, “A Gift of Bones” is sure to delight.
While “A Gift of Bones” doesn’t go on sale until Oct. 16, 2018, I was lucky enough to receive an Advanced Readers Copy. But please don’t think that influenced me in this review because I’m always happy to purchase Carolyn Haines’ books, have shelves of them to prove that, and it would take more than an ARC to bribe me.
But let’s talk about the story in “A Gift of Bones.” In characteristic Haines style, the tension builds quickly. Sarah Booth Delaney, Southern Belle detective, and her dog, Sweetie Pie, in a family house decked for Christmas, are peacefully waiting for her love, Coleman (the local sheriff) to arrive. But her plans for a cozy, sexy evening are disrupted when Madame Tomeeka, a psychic and a friend, arrives to share her anxiety with Sarah Booth over a dream of a missing baby. Not just any baby, but “The little baby Jesus was gone” from a Christmas crèche in the dream, which foreshadows the coming action.
Soon enough, CeCe, another friend, arrives with a photo of her pretty and very pregnant cousin Eve. Someone has kidnapped Eve, who is due to give birth on Christmas Eve. The kidnappers want $130,000 in ransom.
When CeCe asks for Sarah Booth’s help in saving Eve, she quickly agrees. CeCe makes Sarah Booth promise not to tell Coleman because the kidnappers said not to bring in the law or they would hurt Eve, and Coleman is the local sheriff. Sarah agrees, though she knows this will create conflict between her and Coleman.
From there, Sarah Booth enlists her Zinnia, Mississippi detective agency partner, Tinkie, an official Daddy’s Girl and fellow Southern Belle and they set out to find Eve. Along the way they encounter (among others) a lascivious banker, his mean-spirited, shrewd wife, Eve’s cold-hearted, half-crazed mother, a determined single mother, and a kind landlady who lets them into Eve’s cottage.
Inside Eve’s neat, obviously beloved home, they find an older photo of “Just two little babies, one in each arm, swaddled tightly. Newborns.” And clutched among the babes is an ugly doll. They also learn a dark-haired man was stalking Eve. From there, the suspense, the mystery, the charm and the sheer fun of it all builds.
Carolyn Haines knows how to weave mystery, page-turning suspense, romance, and sly humor into her plot, but the true bonus is how well she writes. Her sentences flow with words and descriptions which are smooth and often rather sensual. For example, Coleman sweeps into Sarah Booth’s house “on a wave of cold air and the smell of cut pine and wood smoke.” She also has a delightfully astute way of expressing philosophy. “Hurl yourself at love. …Don’t hold back. Just leap at it with all the faith you can muster.”
So hurl yourself at “Gift of Bones,” with its mystery, romance, suspense, and pure delight Southern charm.
This story is a great blend of mystery, romance and Christmas magic. This time the case is personal for private eyes Sarah Booth and Tinkie when their good friend Cece has received a message demanding ransom for her pregnant cousin. Sarah Booth is conflicted since Cece insists that no authorities are brought in to help yet Sarah Booth’s boyfriend, Coleman, is the county sheriff. Sarah now has to walk the tightrope between honoring her friend’s wish and not lying to Coleman.
Filled with southern flavor this story adds plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. This is book 19 in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries yet each book has its own voice and this could easily be read as a stand alone. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
sarah booth and tinky and crew… hahahaha!! and a fabulous story all the way around. so quintessentially southern.
Really enjoyed the characters and the plot but didn’t understand the significance of the title.
I eagerly opened this book to find out what happened with the personal cliffhanger I remembered from the previous book. Nothing, nothing until 45%. Perhaps I mis-remembered and Tinkie’s personal craziness from the last story had been resolved. This was the sole reason I was so interested in getting a copy of this book. Tinkie has new craziness in this book which is sort of understandable, but odd. She needs good therapist and despite it mentioned more than once that she has a good relationship with her husband, perhaps that’s not true.
Back to what we do have here. The story line, despite having babies as a big component (as it has been increasing all along in the series), has a different take from the preceding baby story lines and there were plenty of twists and turns.
I liked how Sarah Booth’s personal life seems to be hashing itself out as well. Only one mention of her womb and thumb as I recall.
I’m still just giving this story an OK rating. As I mentioned in my review of Charmed Bones, I’m getting really tired of the baby obsession that’s become prevalent in this series.
I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.