The Devil's Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney #21) by Carolyn Haines

The Devil's Bones

(Sarah Booth Delaney #21)

by Carolyn Haines

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published July 21st 2020 by Minotaur Books (first published May 12th 2020)

Goodreads synopsis: 

Spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney tackles a thorny murder while away on a girls' weekend.

Sarah Booth and Cece are in Lucedale, Mississippi, where the newly-pregnant Tinkie is treating her friends to a girls' weekend at the fabulous new Bexley B&B. The facials, organics, food, and fitness coaches are supposed to be phenomenal, but Tinkie's primary aim is to attend the Sunrise Easter Services at the incredible Palestinian Gardens, a miniature Holy Land that spreads over 20 acres and has recreations of all parts of Jerusalem—and to speak with the Biblical scholar, gardener, and creator of the Palestinian Garden Daniel Reynolds.

After waking up at the crack of dawn for the service the three friends wander around the gardens, taking in the wonder of entire cities in miniature and the acres of the Holy Land, with the River Jordan winding through it all. The day is brightening when the find themselves at the Mount of Olives—with a dead body.

Daniel identifies the dead man as local lawyer Perry Slay, who was well known for his sly and underhanded dealings, and had plenty of people out for his blood. When Erick Ward, a local pharmacist, is arrested, Sarah Booth takes the case.

As the bodies pile up like a pillar of salt and the suspect list grows as long as the River Jordan, Sarah Booth, Cece, and Tinkie must resurrect the truth before their own lives—and that of Tinkie's unborn child—are endangered.

***

4 stars

This is the twenty-first book in the Sarah Booth Delaney series by Carolyn Haines.

There were a lot of deaths in this book and in a way I felt like that was a bit of overkill. Every time you turned around someone else was dying. The setting, however, was pretty unique and worked well with the plot. I liked the characters a lot and the dynamics between the main cast was nice.

I enjoyed the read but felt like it was a bit overwhelming at times. Just when you could wrap your head around one death, there was another one. I kept getting the victims confused. The one through line is that Eric, the pharmacist was the one who was getting framed for the deaths. That made things a bit easier but a whole lot convoluted.

I will definitely want to read more books in this series since the cast was so good. 

If you want to read a good cozy mystery, definitely check this one out. You won’t be disappointed.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.