A GARLAND OF BONES by Carolyn Haines

It’s Christmas time and Sarah Booth Delaney and her best friend and partner in the Delaney Detective Agency, are headed to Columbus, MS, to celebrate the local festivities there. They are accompanied by their friends Oscar, Cece, Jaytee, Harold, Millie, and of course Sarah Booth’s hot lawman boyfriend, Coleman Peters. However, their Christmas celebration is marred by a series of random accidents affecting some of the less monogamous residents of Columbus. Sarah Booth can’t help but ask questions, but she intends to stay out of it until the Delaney Detective Agency is officially hired. Can Sarah Booth and Tinkie uncover the culprit before someone dies?

A GARLAND OF BONES is the 22nd book in the Sarah Booth Delaney series. New readers to the series may find the beginning a little bit confusing as Carolyn Haines has a large cast of characters who are part of Sarah Booth’s group of friends. However, once you get a chapter or two into the story, new readers will be able to sort out the various personalities and begin to enjoy the camaraderie the friends have developed.

Sarah Booth and her friends are a lot of fun! I love their interactions and close friendships, particularly contrasted against some of the less savory folks they meet in Columbus. I’m not a fan of plots featuring characters who cheat, but Carolyn Haines made this work quite well for the storyline. Tinkie and Sarah Booth are determined to seek out justice and save lives, even if they don’t agree with the life choices made by their client or the folks they are hoping to save from a would-be killer.

The Christmas festivities in Columbus are a lot of fun too! Despite the accidents (like the shocking karaoke scenario), I love the creativity and merriment of the town during the Christmas holiday. The references to Tennessee Williams and the history of the town add a nice Southern touch as well.

A GARLAND OF BONES is an entertaining Christmas cozy mystery guaranteed to keep you guessing about who the real culprit is. With nasty suspects aplenty, A GARLAND OF BONES has multiple red herrings. Oh, and did I mention there’s also a ghost? Carolyn Haines has crafted a well developed plotline full of Christmas cheer amidst the nastiness of gossip, jealousy, and danger.

Spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney tackles a string of strange accidents while celebrating the holiday season in Carolyn Haines's cozy A Garland of Bones

Sarah Booth has traded in hosting this Christmas season for a road trip with her besties. Each little Delta town has a special Christmas activity, and Sarah Booth’s bff and detective partner, Tinkie, has arranged to rent a limo for the gang and drive to Columbus, MS, to stay in a B&B. Visions of Christmas shopping, parade floats, and romantic rendezvous are already dancing in their heads.

But Christmas cheer soon turns to Christmas fear when, at one event after another, people keep getting hurt. Christmas karaoke gets ugly when one singer’s microphone gives her an electric shock. A party during a historic home tour ends with a fall down the stairs for one of Columbus’s most disreputable “players.” And when the woman who hires Sarah Booth to find the villain behind the so-called accidents is nearly killed with an arrow during a holiday mumming, Sarah Booth knows something more sinister is at work.

The Christmas bells are ringing hauntingly in Columbus this year, and Sarah Booth and Tinkie—with a little help from hunky Sheriff Coleman Peters, of course—are determined to catch the wrong-doers and ensure they receive nothing but coal in their stockings.