Greedy Bones (A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery)
by Carolyn Haines
Published by St. Martin's Minotaur
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Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair
When readers last visited Sara Booth Delaney, she and some of the other regular characters went out of the country for a film shoot. That book, Wishbones, was filled with the mad-capped adventures readers expect, but was really out of its element. Greedy Bones, the eighth book with Sarah Booth Delaney, brings readers right back to the heart of the Delta region. The plot is centered on two issues that matter deeply to most long-time Delta residents: land and family.
Although this book finds Sarah Booth back home in Mississippi, it gives readers a much different book than is usual for this series. It is much darker than the previous books, in part I think, because it deals with a sort of fear that rests just below the surface of many peoples’ minds. The plot could be the headlines in any paper on any given day. It’s that real–and that scary.
Tink, Sarah’s dear friend and partner, is faced with the possibility that her husband Oscar may die from an unknown illness. As he and three others from the community lay near death in the isolation unit of the hospital, Sarah Booth starts to nose around the business dealings and personal lives of the Carlisle family. The old Carlisle Plantation was the last place the four victims were known to be before falling ill. Before long she is into a world of super weevils and genetically engineered cotton. Is it possible that these cotton plants and their super weevils are somehow responsible for the illness? And was it done intentionally?
While Sara Booth struggles to solve the case and comfort her friend, this book also brings some important changes to her life. She finally comes to terms with some things in her past that help her move forward with her life, but not before she suffers some more.
This book is an interesting turn for Haines. In a series that is generally filled with light and fluffy moments as Sarah navigates life as a daddy’s girl (DG) in a small Mississippi community, Greedy Bones is none of that–and that makes it a better book.
Armchair Interviews says: Excellent 5-star read from Carolyn Haines.
Author’s Web site: http://www.CarolynHaines.com