Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
44th out of 293 books
—
981 voters
Them Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney #1)
by
Carolyn Haines (Goodreads Author)
If only I hadn't kidnapped the dog...but the ransom paid the mortgage....Now I seem to be a private eye....I shouldn't have listened to that ghost....
Meet Sarah Booth Delaney...an unconventional Southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi...if it doesn't make her the deadest.
No self-respecting lady w...more
Meet Sarah Booth Delaney...an unconventional Southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi...if it doesn't make her the deadest.
No self-respecting lady w...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
November 2nd 1999
by Bantam
(first published January 1st 1999)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,914)
This was a fun read! Decent writing, the story moved along at a nice pace. Sarah Booth Delaney falls somewhere in between Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone. She's not as much of an acident prone scatterbrain as Stephanie Plum, and not as dull as the mostly business Milhone. If you are a fan of either of those series, as I am, you should like this one. Amusing characters, interesting plot full of twists, a little romance and a ghost... sounds like a good read, does...more
I continue my project of reading a mystery set in every state. The
other requirement is that it be by an author I haven't read before. I
chose the first in Carolyn Haines' series set in the Mississippi
Delta, THEM BONES. What an enjoyable book, and it also reinforced my
understanding that every region of our country (and our world) has its
beauty and those who love it, even if that place sounds like hell on
earth to me! (I don't like heat and humidity.) Actually, THEM BONES is
set about this time of ye...more
other requirement is that it be by an author I haven't read before. I
chose the first in Carolyn Haines' series set in the Mississippi
Delta, THEM BONES. What an enjoyable book, and it also reinforced my
understanding that every region of our country (and our world) has its
beauty and those who love it, even if that place sounds like hell on
earth to me! (I don't like heat and humidity.) Actually, THEM BONES is
set about this time of ye...more
view all 5 comments
Set in Mississippi (in the delta area), the author makes wonderful use of setting. Sarah Booth Delaney lives in Dahlia House, her family's plantation home, but is having cash flow problems and is behind in paying her mortgage. Not to mention she's unmarried and over 30.
With the help of her great-great-grandmother's nanny's ghost, she concocts a scheme to ransom her friend's dog, Chablis, for money. Somehow, after Sarah Booth becomes the go between between her friend and "the kidnapper", she gets...more
With the help of her great-great-grandmother's nanny's ghost, she concocts a scheme to ransom her friend's dog, Chablis, for money. Somehow, after Sarah Booth becomes the go between between her friend and "the kidnapper", she gets...more
"I wondered if any other Delaney woman had combined theft and baking."
This is Sarah Booth Delaney. Poor Sarah was unwed, unemployed, over 30, flat broke and fixing to lose the family plantation. Whats a girl to do? Well Jitty, Sarah's great-great grandmothers nanny (who just so happens to be a ghost) had plenty of ideas. She needed to marry a man who was well off and fast!
I really enjoyed this book. Carolyn Haines has some great characters that made this a really fun read. I found myself laugh...more
This is Sarah Booth Delaney. Poor Sarah was unwed, unemployed, over 30, flat broke and fixing to lose the family plantation. Whats a girl to do? Well Jitty, Sarah's great-great grandmothers nanny (who just so happens to be a ghost) had plenty of ideas. She needed to marry a man who was well off and fast!
I really enjoyed this book. Carolyn Haines has some great characters that made this a really fun read. I found myself laugh...more
I started with the first book in this series and I am glad that I did. Sara Booth Delaney has proven to be a very enjoyable character and I look forward to reading more of her adventures. She is over 30, unwed, unemployed, broke, and about to lose the family plantation. In order to save face and the family home, she comes up with a scheme to kidnap one of her fellow "Daddy's Girls" dog, Chablis for a ransom that could buy her some time with the creditors. I didn't much care for her plan, but I h...more
Sarah Booth.. of Zinnia Mississippi’s aristocracy, though her parents were unorthodox… with a mother who worked on getting people to care… raised around ‘Daddy’s Girl’ , girls who would someday be women of wiles, knowing how to wield their feminine power… and though Sarah knew the rules, she opted out… after her parent’s accidental death, she finishes college, tries (and fails) to become a star in New York, and returns home (at age 33) to Dahlia House … to her roots… but she’s about to lose her...more
I had so much fun reading this book. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find this series. Sarah Booth Delaney is a Daddy's Girl, a group of privileged young ladies whose only real goal in life was to marry well and live a life of leisure. Sarah Booth jumped that ship and went to New York after college (Catching the male was an entire course of study for Delta girls and Ole Miss was the preferred hunting ground) to become an actress. That didn't pan out so well and she came home to Zinnia...more
1 like · like · see review
When I read this:
"Women in my family have a penchant for madness and mysterious "womb" disorders. It's never been clear to me whether one is the result of the other, or if both maladies are a curse upon the Delaney women for acts of desperation, usually associated with a man more deeply involved with either a bottle or a gun than a female."
I KNEW I was going to enjoy this book.
I did. Our herione Sarah Booth Delaney is a Daddy's Girl rebel. Raised in the deep south by a family of wealth and priv...more
"Women in my family have a penchant for madness and mysterious "womb" disorders. It's never been clear to me whether one is the result of the other, or if both maladies are a curse upon the Delaney women for acts of desperation, usually associated with a man more deeply involved with either a bottle or a gun than a female."
I KNEW I was going to enjoy this book.
I did. Our herione Sarah Booth Delaney is a Daddy's Girl rebel. Raised in the deep south by a family of wealth and priv...more
A friend of mine recommended this book as I was looking for something fun to read. This book was definitely fun. Set in the Mississippi Delta, the main character, Sarah Booth Delaney, is ornery and head-strong--everything Southern belles aren't supposed to be. Some knowledge of southern culture helps understand the background I think, but is not required to enjoy Haines' wit or sarcasm. As a first book in a series, I think Haines does a nice job developing the main characters as well as the plot...more
Sarah Booth Delaney, much like Scarlett O'Hara, is desperate to save her family home, Dahlia House. The bank is knocking at the door everyday, so she and the resident ghost, Jitty, cook up a plan involving dog-napping. She's so successful, she's hired by Tinkie Bellcase Richmond to delve into the Garrett family secrets to unearth what happened almost two decades ago. The return of the mysterious Hamilton Garrett the fifth has many women in Zinnia, Mississippi very curious. This was a fun souther...more
This was a tremendously fun book. It's a murder mystery, not much gore, and big on personality. The characters are varied, and the women in particular stand out, although the male characters blurred a little for me.
The high point of the book is definitely the protagonist, Sarah Booth. The author does a great job of making her an individual without condemning the society that raised her. She consistently uses the elements of southern gentility that suit her and rejects the rest to genuine and amu...more
The high point of the book is definitely the protagonist, Sarah Booth. The author does a great job of making her an individual without condemning the society that raised her. She consistently uses the elements of southern gentility that suit her and rejects the rest to genuine and amu...more
I started the series last year with the ‘Bone Appetite’. I wasn’t aware that it was the tenth book of Sarah Booth Delaney’s series. So I decided to go back to the first book where Sarah Booth’s life as a P.I started.
Them Bones is a fun cozy mystery with a hint of paranormal in it. The character, Sarah Booth is unwed, unemployed, broke and hunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother’s nanny, Jitty. It started with her decision to kidnapped Tinkie’s dog in an exchange for ransom – a despera...more
Them Bones is a fun cozy mystery with a hint of paranormal in it. The character, Sarah Booth is unwed, unemployed, broke and hunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother’s nanny, Jitty. It started with her decision to kidnapped Tinkie’s dog in an exchange for ransom – a despera...more
I feel that I should put this book in the category of guilty pleasures. I know in my heart that it is not the kind of book that a woman about to celebrate her mumble-mumble birthday should be spending her time reading, and, yet, frankly, it was a joy to read! Sort of a Fifty Shades of Grey without all that nasty BDSM. There was a bit of hot and heavy sex but it was more alluded to than explicit, which is only proper in a story about a genteelly-bred Southern woman.
Sarah Booth Delaney of Zinnia,...more
Sarah Booth Delaney of Zinnia,...more
I happen to come across this series in the library one day when I saw the cover of one of the books someone had returned. The cover caught my eye and it just looked like it would be a good series. Once I started this book, I didn't want to put it down. I was putting my makeup on and drying my hair while trying to read at the same time.
I felt like I can relate to Sarah Booth, other than the stealing my friends dog for money scandal, lol. Everything in this book left me wanting to read to see wha...more
I felt like I can relate to Sarah Booth, other than the stealing my friends dog for money scandal, lol. Everything in this book left me wanting to read to see wha...more
I've seen this book on the bookstore shelves for years and always picked it up, but then put it back down again. The whole dog-napping bit seemed too stupid to me. But it's really such a very small part of the book - literally less than a chapter, and the rest of the story was quite good. I really enjoyed the characters - the author painted them very clearly - and the setting of the Mississippi Delta really came to life and added to the mystery of the story. I didn't see the end coming and was t...more
I'm not a huge cozy mystery reader, actually i'm just dabbling in this genre, so I'm rating this book compared to cozies I've read rather than on my usual reading preferences. Compared to other cozy mysteries I've read, I really enjoyed this one. The mystery was good with a good twist at the end, I didn't see it coming. However, like other cozy mysteries I've read, there is some far-fetched parts to the story which bug me but I think that is par for the cozy mystery course. The main character wa...more
Sarah Booth Delaney is about to lose her family's home. She grew up in wealth but it's long since gone. She's thirty-three and single (a crime in the South) with a wacky family history, including a family ghost, the long-since-deceased nurse of Sarah Booth's great-something-grandmother.
Now Sarah Booth's desperation leads her to walk on the darker side of the law. And straightening out that mess leads her into an even bigger one and Sarah Booth is suddenly plunged into murders that are twenty ye...more
Now Sarah Booth's desperation leads her to walk on the darker side of the law. And straightening out that mess leads her into an even bigger one and Sarah Booth is suddenly plunged into murders that are twenty ye...more
Sarah Booth Delany has returned to her home in Mississippi. After a failed career in New York, she returns to her ancestral home, Dahlia House. Also living at Dahlia House is Jitty, a ghost who was the nanny to one of Sarah Booth's ancestors.
On the verge of losing her home and desperate for money, Jitty convinces Sarah Booth to kidnap Chablis, the dog of her best friend, Tinkie. She sends Tinkie a ransom note for $5000, and Tinkie, frantic, wants Sarah Booth to deliver the money and retrieve her...more
On the verge of losing her home and desperate for money, Jitty convinces Sarah Booth to kidnap Chablis, the dog of her best friend, Tinkie. She sends Tinkie a ransom note for $5000, and Tinkie, frantic, wants Sarah Booth to deliver the money and retrieve her...more
This book was okay. I liked it enough to read the second, but I'm not so sure about committing myself to the whole series. Sarah Boothe was likable enough, but I was hoping the seeing ghosts thing applied to more than just Jitty. I didn't think the "relationship" with Hamilton seemed very believable, it was so random with no real interaction between them that I wasn't really buying into it. The mystery was interesting enough though I thought the ending was a little unfair in that they changed th...more
This is one of the two Mississippi authors I chose to read while on our trip to OLE MISS for the Texas vs Ole Miss football game. It was a fun, light murder mystery, with a DADDY'S GIRL detective who lives with a ghost in an old antebellum family plantation. She seems to be the unconventional southern belle, who bends a few traditions to uncover the mystery behind a twenty year old mystery.
Apr 15, 2013
Wendy Cantu
added it
I love cozy mysteries and this, from what I can see from other reviews, is a great book...but I'm marking this as DNF. Two reasons: 1. I couldn't, in good conscience, like a book that referred to a group as "Daddy's Girls" without a hint of sarcasm. I just...no. 2. The references to "womb" issues and disorders. I was less than 30 percent through the book and I swear it came up like three times. I don't want to read about your womb issues. I have plenty of my own, thanks! (Okay, maybe I just don'...more
Good enough to try another. I see it is shown with people who like to read the Psychic Eye Mysteries, which I enjoy, and Stephanie Plum, who bored me after a few books. This series has more characters involved, so many I got confused at times, so hopefully they will help it from becoming boring. I hope the relationship issue doesn't copy Stephanie Plum's I won't like it.
Loved it...found a new author to follow.."unconventional southern belle, Sarah, who has a knack for uncovering the truth in the Mississippi Delta"...Jitty is one of the characters...she is a ghost from long ago... Sarah'sgr grandfather's nanny.Quick read and very entertaining..was so tired of books that were so predictable...this is NOT..many fun surprises along the way.
The first book in what appears to be a successful and popular mystery series, I thought the description of these books sounded fun: something along the lines of Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya sisterhood. Well it just didn't do it for me. Maybe the other books in the series are better...? But I got bored with this one and not sure if I'll read any more of them. There are other mystery series I like better.
I really like this book. The main character, Sarah Booth Delaney, is really relatable and fun. She is 30, never married and no kids living in the South where that is rare and she happens to solve some mysteries. If anyone is looking for a fun, easy read I would recommend this book (and the rest in the series).
Can't Wait!!!!
Loved the book!! I especially loved the interview at the end. I thought I knew who had done it but I was wrong. Fell inlove with the characters all over again. Hamilton and Sarah Booth were great. Still truely would watch this on television. Getting tired of the "reality" television. They are not all "reality" anyway.
Great characters, Carolyn...Starting another book!!!
Loved the book!! I especially loved the interview at the end. I thought I knew who had done it but I was wrong. Fell inlove with the characters all over again. Hamilton and Sarah Booth were great. Still truely would watch this on television. Getting tired of the "reality" television. They are not all "reality" anyway.
Great characters, Carolyn...Starting another book!!!
While some of the plot details strained the limits of credulity, the characters were quirky and engaging enough to keep my interest. I think I would have been happier with a clean ending instead of the set-up for a series...not sure I would bother with more of the series. But an enjoyable summer read.
This book was excellent. I rate it at 4 1/2 stars and look forward to reading more by this author.
The beginning was a little bit slow, but after the 1st 30-40 pages the pace picked up nicely and finished strong.
I really liked how well Southern culture became almost its own character.
The beginning was a little bit slow, but after the 1st 30-40 pages the pace picked up nicely and finished strong.
I really liked how well Southern culture became almost its own character.
I really enjoyed this book. I am from the South, not the SOUTH South, but South enough to appreciate some of the references in this book. It definitely gives a good atmosphere and really builds the setting, especially when it comes to Dahlia House.
The mystery in it is excellent. There were enough twists and turns in it to satisfy the 'whodunnit?' in me.
The ride along the way was pretty fun too.
It is safe to compare Sarah Booth Delaney to Stephanie Plum in the sense that they kind of fell into...more
The mystery in it is excellent. There were enough twists and turns in it to satisfy the 'whodunnit?' in me.
The ride along the way was pretty fun too.
It is safe to compare Sarah Booth Delaney to Stephanie Plum in the sense that they kind of fell into...more
Carolyn Haines has the talent to take the reader into the old South. Feeling like your walking down the street under low hanging oak trees filled with moss and the smell of the fields rich with crops! Doesn't take a rainy day to read this series of "Bones" books!!
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
A native of Mississippi, Carolyn Haines is the author of over fifty books in multiple genres. She was recently named the 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award and is the recipient of the 2009 Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence.
Haines teaches fiction writing at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. Active in animal rescue, she has twenty-one "critters" —horses, dogs and cats.
More about Carolyn Haines...
Haines teaches fiction writing at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. Active in animal rescue, she has twenty-one "critters" —horses, dogs and cats.
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Forest Gump had it wrong. Life is not a box of chocolate; it's a kaleidoscope. In the flip of a wrist, realities are shredded and the world takes on a totally new shape.”
—
5 people liked it
More quotes…
