Booty Bones

March 31, 2014
Haines’s delightful 14th Sarah Booth Delaney mystery (after 2013’s Smarty Bones) takes PI Sarah Booth and her fiancé, film actor Graf Milieu, to Dauphin Island, Ala., where she hopes that they can work on wedding plans while Graf recovers from a gunshot wound to his leg. On a tour of the small barrier island, a stranger, Angela Trotter, asks Sarah Booth to investigate her father’s brutal murder. Angela thinks the wrong man is serving a life sentence for the crime. Graf, preoccupied with his physical therapy, has become emotionally distant, so having a project is just the thing for Sarah Booth, an appealing Southern belle with a good head on her shoulders. Figuring out who really killed Angela’s father, reconnecting with Graf, and maybe recovering pirate treasure keeps Sarah Booth hopping in this highly satisfying beignet of a mystery. Agent: Marian Young, Young Agency.

May 1, 2014
Sarah Booth Delaney is helping her fianc', Graf, recover from a gunshot wound during a week's vacation on Dauphin Island off the Gulf Coast. Graf does not seem to want much from her, though, as he keeps asking for time to consider his future acting jobs and their marriage. A local woman asks Sarah for help finding out who really murdered her father (she believes the man in prison for the crime is innocent). The case looks airtight, but early on, client Angela is threatened. Throughout the investigation, Sarah is visited often by family haunt Jitty, in various guises, offering her typically confusing advice. A scratched spyglass, a tragic legend, and a whole lot of greed come together, all while a hurricane threatens to hit the area. The domestic issues with Graf and Sarah and the many scenes with Jitty move in surprising directions, but these side trips slow down the plot throughout an otherwise entertaining mystery. Fans of G. A. McKevett may also enjoy this series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)