Review by Booklist Review
Christmas has come again to the Mississippi Delta. Tinkie Bellcase Richmond, co-owner with Sarah Booth Delaney of a private investigation firm, treats her closest friends to a road trip to Columbus, Mississippi. Looking forward to the week of celebration and shopping, they plunge into the festivities, beginning with a holiday karaoke night. Just before Sarah Booth is to take the stage, the mike shorts, nearly electrocuting the previous singer. The next day, the tree-lighting ceremony is interrupted when cement is poured into a Cadillac convertible. The group's B & B hostess assures them it's just a prank staged by a group of society women. But when the host at a gala party at a historic mansion tumbles--or was pushed?--down the stairs, his wife hires Tinkie and Sarah Booth to get to the bottom of the mayhem. They use their own skills and those of their friends, along with subtle direction from Jiffy, the Delaney family "haint" (a specifically southern variety of ghost) to get matters sorted. Fans of Carolyn Hart's Bailey Ruth Raeburn and Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity series will enjoy meeting another supernatural being seen only by the heroine.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Haines's sprightly 22nd Sarah Booth Delaney mystery (after Devil's Bones) finds private investigator Sarah Booth and friends, including "one big burning hunk of lawman love--Coleman Peters," heading from Zinnia, Miss., to the Delta town of Columbus, where they plan to spend a merry Christmas holiday. Once safely ensconced in their cute bed-and-breakfast, the crew stop at the home of Clarissa Olson, one of several well-to-do Columbus residents to open their houses to visitors during the holidays. Clarissa wastes no time in hiring Sarah Booth and her detecting partner, Tinkie Richmond, to figure out who has been perpetrating pranks directed at Clarissa and her friends. When the pranks become dangerous, and the town busybody goes missing, Sarah Booth and Tinkie are forced to dig into "all the dirty little secrets of Columbus society," including murder. Meanwhile, Sarah Booth and company do their best to enjoy their vacation. Haines once again delivers entertaining cozy fare. Agent: Marian Young, Young Agency. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A road trip for informal but professional detective friends mixes business with pleasure when some dangerous pranks require investigation into the local spurned-woman scene. Sarah Booth Delaney is taking a pre-Christmas break from her beloved ancestral home, Dahlia House, to travel from Zinnia, Mississippi, to the river town of Columbus, Mississippi. Tinkie Richmond, her friend and partner in the Delaney Detective Agency, and her husband, Oscar, have organized a trip to the town's boutique B & B for their whole gang, including Sarah Booth and her boyfriend, Sheriff Coleman Peters, and their friends Cece, Jaytee, Harold, and Millie. Though Sarah Booth means the trip to be a break from her detective work, especially because Tinkie's too pregnant to be very active, the women soon find themselves embroiled in a new case. Local femme fatale Clarissa Olson has been implicated in some not-so-harmless pranks, like filling her friend Bricey Presley's new Cadillac to the brim with cement. Clarissa's a real piece of work, but Sarah Booth and Tinkie are used to handling even the most high-maintenance cases with their signature Southern charm and sass. The trouble in Clarissa's crew apparently stems from the womanizing ways of Bart Crenshaw, who gave Bricey the Caddie, and Sarah Booth confirms that the case has something to do cheating men when her resident haint, Jitty, follows her to Columbus to reenact all the best love-'em-and-leave-'em film lines. Although it's unclear whether Coleman's Columbus law enforcement counterpart, Jerry Goode, is on the up and up, Coleman himself is on call to rescue Sarah Booth and Tinkie from trouble, unless they rescue themselves first. A Southern charmer who's not quite as clever as she and her author assume. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
