As Sarah Booth sees it, Easter weekend is a time to celebrate life in all its many forms. So when the newly-pregnant Tinkie invites her and Cece on a girls’ trip to Lucedale, Mississippi to celebrate that spring has officially sprung, Sarah Booth can’t resist. Plans include facials, food, and a trip to the incredible Garden of Bones—a miniature Holy Land with recreations of all parts of the Middle East—for their Sunrise Easter Services led by biblical scholar, gardener, and creator of the Gardens Daniel Reynolds.
Unfortunately for Sarah Booth and the gang, someone doesn’t seem appreciate this season of new life. Easter morning has just dawned when the trio find themselves at the Mount of Olives—with a dead body at their feet.
Reynolds identifies the dead man as local lawyer Perry Slay, who was well known for his sly and underhanded dealings. Perry had rubbed plenty of people the wrong way, and now it looks like someone has rubbed him out…
Release Date: Jul 21, 2020
Series: Sarah Booth Delaney
Book: 21
Publisher: Macmillan
Imprint: Minotaur Books
Price: $13.99
The Devil’s Bones is the twenty-first book in Carolyn Haines’ Sarah Booth Delaney series. You read that right, the 21st . This was my first book in this series and I was a bit shocked that there were so many before it. While this can be read as a standalone I could tell that there was a lot of background information on the characters that I was obviously missing. It did take me a few chapters just to get into the story since I was new to the series, but once I figured out who everyone was and how they all related to each other I was hooked.
It is a fun and light whodunit mystery set in the south. By the end of the book I already felt like I personally knew the characters and I will definitely be going back to the start of the series and reading these books. I love a good murder mystery series, especially ones with strong female leads.
This book follows three quirky females: Sarah, Cece, and Tinkie. Sarah and Cece are visiting their pregnant friend Tinkie in Lucedale, Mississippi where Tinkie is treating them to a girls’ weekend at an uber exclusive bed and breakfast. It is supposed to be a fun girls’ weekend filled with your typical activities like going to the spa and eating good food, but because we are in the deep south one of the main attractions is the miniature Holy Land where all of Jerusalem is recreated – this is what Tinkie is most excited for. The friends attend the service at the church and are exploring the attraction when they stumble upon a dead body. Soon there are more and more dead bodies and a local pharmacist in jail. It seems as if the local police are not competent enough for this case and decides to take it on to help clear the pharmacist’s name.
I really enjoyed reading this book, there were parts where I actually laughed out loud, the humor in the conversations and thoughts the character’s have is really witty. It is also not easy to guess whom the culprit was, although at the end you will realize there were many subtle clues along the way that the author threw in. One minor thing I would have liked was a little bit of romance in the book, which was missing. Usually when I read cozy mysteries there is an underlying romance going on, maybe this was explored in the previous books. It is not a huge thing, but I like a bit of romance to cut through some of the gritty crime.
I recommend this book for those who want a classic southern whodunit.
~ Harshita
Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo | Google Play