The South's answer to a feminine Sherlock Holmes, the
marvelous and smart Sarah Booth Delaney, is on the trial of
another fun and fascinating mystery in SMARTY BONES, the
thirteen installment of the Sarah Booth Delaney
Mysteries
written by Carolyn Haines.
There is some foolish afoot when Professor Olive Twist has
come to Zinnia, Mississippi and plans to stir up a passel
of trouble involving the beloved but mysterious "Lady In
Red." But Sarah Booth, her partner and best friend TInkie
Bellcase Richmond, and a few of their close friends are not
going to put up with the scandal Twist is trying to expose,
and they immediately become suspicious of this blunt and
sneaky know-it-all. And when her young personal assistant
turns up poisoned by a cup of coffee intended for her,
Olive Twist becomes the prime murder suspect. Swearing that
she is innocent, Professor Twist hires Sarah to find out
who has an ax to grind with her, which turns out to be half
the town.
As Sarah Booth and Tinkie struggle to put all the pieces of
this puzzle together, they are forced to investigate a
firebombing, a couple of kidnappings, and a century's old
mystery that just might involve the assassination of
President Abraham Lincoln. You can't say life is ever dull
in Zinnia.
Carolyn Haines continues her charming mystery series with
SMARTY BONES. She captures the heart of the South in her
tales, without portraying the characters as dull or slow --
quite the opposite. Sarah Booth and her friends are
intelligent, witty and very fast to get the gist of the
problem and jump to finding solutions. Haines colors her
tale with the quirky aspects of the South that give it the
snap and pop that readers have come to expect from this
series.
I was fascinated by the historical side note that is at the
heart of this story -- the legend of "The Lady In Red."
Haines explains in the beginning of the book that there
actually was the coffin of a mysterious lady dug up in a
field in Mississippi, and the body had been embalmed in
alcohol, preserving it perfectly.
Carolyn Haines once again shows why she is considered one
of the most beloved Southern mystery authors today with
this bright and charming novel. You can read SMARTY BONES
as a stand-alone novel, but do yourself a favor and check
out the rest of the series -- you'll be so glad you did!
Professor Olive Twist has come to Zinnia, Mississippi to
study a mysterious grave wherein lies the Lady in Red, a
perfectly preserved and stunningly beautiful but unnamed and
unclaimed body. Olive claims she can not only identify the
corpse, she can also prove the woman’s scandalous role in
the nation’s history. Olive takes it a step too far, though,
when she starts connecting elite Zinnia families with the
same scandal.
Dander up, Zinnia’s society ladies know only one way to
handle Olive: they call on the private investigative
services of Sarah Booth Delaney. But Olive’s real agenda is
clear as Mississippi mud, and when Sarah Booth discovers a
present-day dead body, she knows there’s more than just
family pride and Southern heritage at stake. If she can’t
find the murderer and fast, it might just be Sarah Booth's
life on the line next.
Carolyn Haines pulls out all the stops in Smarty Bones, the
next charming, sassy, Southern-fried Sarah Booth Delaney
mystery.
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