Book Review: Buried Bones

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Buried Bones     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Carolyn Haines
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth   Supernatural   Cozy
Series: Southern Belle Mysteries
Bantam, Nov 2000, $5.99, 368 pp.

She stole her friend's Yorkie and then pretended to find the dog in order to establish her credentials as a top rate private investigator. The case paid so well that Sarah Booth Delaney was able to save Dahlia House, her Mississippi family home from a forced sale. The house has been in the Delaney family for generations and comes with its own resident ghost Jittey, an ancestor's nanny.

Sarah's reputation as a detective has become very strong at least in the small Mississippi Delta town. Thus, it is not surprising when the lover of now deceased Lawrence Ambrose hires Sarah to uncover the identity of the individual who killed him. Sarah's new client believes the town's malicious vamp, Brianna, killed Ambrose. Sarah thinks otherwise especially since the victim publicly announced that he was writing a tell-all biography where many of the townsfolk’s secrets are revealed. Sarah is up to her eyeballs in suspects and can only hope that she finds the murderer before she becomes corpse number two.

BURIED BONES is a par excellence regional mystery that is loaded with local color, atmosphere, and describes the lifestyle of a small post antebellum southern town. The likable characters are well drawn, especially the heroine, who refuses to conform to tradition and roots. The ghost is a delightful player whose soliloquies and overall advice leaves the audience laughing. No one can guess the killer's identity until Carolyn Haines shakes the bones enough to allow the audience to know who did it. That shocker adds zest to a great paranormal mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner