Book ~ "Hallowed Bones" (2004) Carolyn Haines

From Goodreads ~ The leaves of the calendar may be shedding faster than the sycamores on her family’s decaying Mississippi plantation but thirty-something southern belle Sarah Booth Delaney isn’t ready to sing the blues. Not when she’s got a thriving detective agency and the outspoken, outrageously attired ghost of her great-great-grandmother’s nanny to keep her on her toes. But the matchmaking phantom may have the last word on motherhood when Sarah Booth takes on the controversial case of an accused baby killer.

Although Doreen Mallory’s been arrested for feeding sleeping pills to her ten-week-old daughter, no one could accuse her of lacking faith. A healer who, tragically, couldn’t save her own baby girl, born with multiple birth defects, Doreen has her own crosses to bear. While the local law seems convinced of Doreen’s guilt, Sarah Booth isn’t so sure. But why is Doreen reluctant to talk about the men in her life? Like the televangelist who stands to lose a lot more than his flock. Or the married politician with family ties to the Mob. Either of them could be little Rebekah’s father; either of them could also be her killer.

With Halloween approaching and her own personal life up for grabs, Sarah Booth could use a little faith healing herself. Torn between a married sheriff and an old flame who’s literally sweeping her off her feet, she’d better be prepared for the fallout of her most unpopular case yet. Justice may not stand a ghost of a chance as a decades-old secret explodes, unleashing a storm of fury on Sarah Booth and all those she loves.

Sarah Booth Delaney is single, in her thirties, the last of her line, living in her family's plantation and is a private detective. Doreen is a faith healer in New Orleans. When her 10-week-old baby dies and it's determined she was murdered, Doreen is arrested. The police officer in charge assumes she did it so does very little investigating. A nun friend of Doreen's hires Sarah to investigate to find the real killer.

This is the fifth in the Sarah Booth Delaney series (there are currently 26 books in the series) ... it works as a stand alone as there is enough background provided but it's helpful if you've read the previous ones. It is written in first person perspective in Sarah's voice. As a head's up, there is swearing.

I recently read the first four and liked them enough to keep going with the series. I gave up on this one, though, about 65% into it. All the storylines were ridiculous and I'd had enough so I skipped ahead to the end to see the "whodunnit". 

Sarah is still torn between two men ... Coleman, the local married police sheriff who is in love with her but staying with his wife because she's pregnant, and Hamilton, who she met in the first book and has barely had any contact with him but he suddenly reappears from Paris and wants a future with her. 

At a fancy ball, two well-dressed society women get into adumb physical fight ... really?! Sarah's not a very responsible pet owner ... she has a dog she lets run free, even when she's out of town for days at a time. Coleman has his wife's best friend working for him and she is extremely rude to and about Sarah and Coleman doesn't discipline her. Sarah has a friend who may have cancer and rather than let the doctors take care of it, she instead puts her faith in Doreen to heal her. 

Sarah's mother's last name was Booth and her father's last name was Delaney and I think it's weird everyone calls her "Sarah Booth" rather than just "Sarah". It's odd that Jitty, the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, "lives" with her. Jitty is still really annoying ... she's very negative and always putting Sarah down and nagging her about being single and childless. I'm tired about hearing about Sarah's womb.

I think I have to take a break from this series for a while. 

Book ~ "Crossed Bones" (2003) Carolyn Haines

From Goodreads ~ Sarah Booth Delaney is no ordinary P.I. A born-and-bred Mississippi belle, she struggles to hold on to her family’s plantation and keeps up a running conversation with the ghost of her great-great-grandmother’s nanny, a busybody who decks herself out in a stunning new outfit every day - and schemes to save Sarah Booth from spinsterhood. Not one to wait around for a white knight, Sarah takes on the kind of cases no one else will touch. Like trying to exonerate a man accused of murdering Sunflower County’s most popular musician.

The two men met in prison: Ivory Keys, a gifted black blues pianist, and Scott Hampton, a rich white boy turned racist. Somewhere between the two men, a spark was lit. And by the time he came out of the joint, Scott Hampton had not only renounced his racist ways, he had learned to play a blues guitar that made grown women go weak in the knees. So why did Scott plunge a steel shank into his mentor’s chest? Ivory’s widow doesn’t think he did and she’s paid Sarah Booth to prove it. No easy task, especially since the delicate racial harmony of Sunflower County is threatening to come undone under the heat of Sarah Booth’s investigation.

For a woman feeling a little heat of her own - navigating between a rich available businessman, a married lawman with a waffling heart, and the sexy bluesman who is angling to become much more than her client - this case is taking dangerous twists. A town’s slumbering passions have awakened with a jolt, a matchmaking ghost is dressed up like Jackie O, and Sarah Booth is caught between her need to know the truth and the consequences it will have on her town - and on her life.

Sarah Booth Delaney is single, in her thirties, the last of her line, living in her family's plantation and is a private detective. Ivory was an older Black man who was murdered at his blue club ... money was stolen and whoever murdered him was looking for something. Scott, a blues singer Ivory had befriended in prison, was a singer there and was arrested for his murder (was he framed?). Ivory's widow doesn't think Scott did it so hires Sarah to investigate. At first, Scott doesn't want her help but eventually welcomes it as they get to know each other. The Blacks in the town want justice for Ivory and this starts to cause racial tensions. In the meantime, Sarah has three possible suitors, though there is really only one she wants.

This is the fourth in the Sarah Booth Delaney series (there are currently 26 books in the series) ... it works as a stand alone as there is enough background provided but it's helpful if you've read the previous ones. I recently read the first three and liked them enough to keep going with the series. I thought this one was just okay. It is written in first person perspective in Sarah's voice. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Sarah's mother's last name was Booth and her father's last name was Delaney and I thought it was weird that everyone calls her "Sarah Booth" rather than just "Sarah". It's odd that Jitty, the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, "lives" with her. Jitty is still really annoying ... she's very negative and always putting Sarah down and nagging her about being single and childless. I'm tired about hearing about Sarah's womb. Nandy was a useless character who didn't really add anything for me.

Book ~ "Splintered Bones" (2000) Carolyn Haines

From Goodreads ~ She may be a Mississippi belle but Sarah Booth Delaney is no pampered daddy's girl. Unwed and over thirty, Sarah has her own set of problems - like coping with regular hauntings by her great-great-grandmother's nanny, a busybody of a ghost who's set on marrying her off to the first suitor who comes calling. But when an old friend is in trouble, Sarah Booth doesn't hesitate to get involved.

Eulalee McBride has confessed to murdering her husband ... and she wants Sarah to dig up the dirt on the violent scalawag to prove he got what he deserved. Sarah Booth suspects that her friend is lying through her pearly whites ... but why? There's certainly no lack of suspects in Zinnia, Mississippi, including Bud Lynch, a horse trainer who arouses killer lust in the town's women. As Sarah Booth begins to put together the pieces of the case, a killer is preparing to strike again. And this time it could send one late-blooming southern sleuth into an early grave.

Sarah Booth Delaney is single, in her thirties, the last of her line, living in her family's plantation and recently became a private detective. Lee, a childhood friend, was recently arrested for murdering her abusive husband and has confessed. She asks Sarah to find information about him to justify her killing him. As Sarah investigates, she starts to think that perhaps Lee is covering for someone and advises her to come clean. In the meantime, Sarah has taken in Lee's wild teenage daughter, Kip. Plus there's a ball coming up and she has to find a date.

It is written in first person perspective in Sarah's voice. This is the third in the Sarah Booth Delaney series (there are currently 26 books in the series) ... it works as a stand alone as there is enough background provided but it's helpful if you've read the previous ones. I read the first two in the last month or so and liked them enough to keep going with the series. I thought this one was okay. I liked it better than the first two ... I found the story more interesting and there weren't as many characters (I found the first two had too many characters to keep track of). 

Sarah's mother's last name was Booth and her father's last name was Delaney and I thought it was weird that everyone calls her "Sarah Booth" rather than just "Sarah". It was odd that Jitty, the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, "lives" with her. Jitty is really annoying ... she's very negative and always putting Sarah down and nagging her about being single and childless. I could do without Sarah's dreams and her obsession with author Kinky Friedman.

Book ~ "Buried Bones" (2000) Carolyn Haines

From Goodreads ~ Private investigation isn't on the list of a southern belle's most desirable accomplishments - but it's saved Sarah Booth Delaney's Delta homestead. Now all she has to cope with is its bossy antebellum ghost who is determined to save Sarah - from spinsterhood. Then comes the perfect social occasion: Lawrence Ambrose's dinner party. 

Ambrose, once a famous man of southern letters, is planning a comeback: a delicious tell-all with a bitchy ex-model as his "biographer." As he taunts his dinner guests with the news that his book will blow the lid off Zinnia's darkest secrets, it becomes plain that each and every guest has a secret - and wants Ambrose to keep it. When the morning-after mess includes a bloody corpse and the manuscript of the biography disappears, Sarah Booth goes digging for answers. But many who hold them are six feet under - or soon will be - and if she doesn't tread carefully, she could join them any day now.

Sarah Booth Delaney is single and living in her family's plantation. She had recently fallen into becoming a private detective but said she's writing a fiction novel as a cover so it wouldn't be suspicious when she asks questions. Lawrence, a once famous writer and artist, invites her to a dinner party he is having. He has written a manuscript about his life and during the party, he lets his guests know that he may be revealing secrets about them. When Sarah visits him the next day, she finds him dead ... it looks like he had cut his hand and bled out before he could call for help. Lawrence's long-time friend suspects he has  been murdered, though, and hires Sarah to find out who did it. Lawrence's manuscript has disappeared so there are many possibilities of who may have done it to protect themselves.

It is written in first person perspective in Sarah's voice. This is the second in the Sarah Booth Delaney series (there are currently 26 books in the series) ... it works as a stand alone as there is enough background provided but it's helpful if you've read the first one. I'd read the first one a couple weeks ago and liked it enough to keep going with the series. I thought this one was just okay. Like the first one, I found there were a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of them at times. I thought the story was convoluted and the ending farfetched and cheesy. 

The editing could have been better ... there were lots of double quotation marks missing. And Tennessee Williams was sometimes referred to as "Tom" and "Ted" ... his real name was "Thomas" so "Ted" is incorrect.

Sarah's mother's last name was Booth and her father's last name was Delaney and I thought it was weird that everyone called her "Sarah Booth" rather than just "Sarah". It was odd that Jitty, the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, "lives" with her ... I found Jitty really annoying because she's always putting Sarah down and nagging her about being single and childless. The numerous references in general about Sarah's womb were tiresome.

Book ~ "Them Bones" (1999) Carolyn Haines

From Goodreads ~ 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.

Sarah Booth Delaney is living in her family's plantation and is minutes away from losing it because she has no money and no job. Harold, a local banker, wants to marry her and, though she doesn't love him, she is considering it in order to keep her home. As she thinks about it, she decides to steal her rich friend's dog, Chablis, and hold it for ransom for $5,000 to get enough money to tide her over. When she "rescues" the dog, her friend hires her to follow up to see if a fortune teller's prediction is going to come true. Someone else hires her to check into something else and suddenly she becomes a private detective getting mixed up in some decades old accidents that may be murders and some apparently missing money.

This is the first in the Sarah Booth Delaney series (there are currently 26 books in the series, soon to be 27) and I thought it was okay (okay enough to keep going with the series). I found there were a lot of characters, though, and it was hard to remember who was who at times. It is written in first person perspective in Sarah's voice. Sarah's mother's last name was Booth and her father's last name was Delaney and I thought it was weird that everyone called her "Sarah Booth" rather than just "Sarah". I found it hard to believe that she fell in love with someone basically as soon as she met him even though he may be a murderer. The oddest thing about the story is that Jitty, the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, "lives" with her ... maybe to add some humour?