Bonefire of the Vanities

April 30, 2012
In Haines’s charming 12th mystery featuring Zinnia, Miss., PI Sarah Booth Delaney (after 2011’s Bones of a Feather), Sarah Booth and her partner, Tinkie Bellcase Richmond, investigate wealthy Marjorie Littlefield’s involvement in the mysterious Heart’s Desire secret society. One of the services the society claims to provide is contact with the dead, something Sarah Booth is intimately familiar with, since family “haint” Jitty interacts with her in the guise of fictional detectives like Nancy Drew and Jessica Fletcher. Sarah Booth and Tinkie pose as Marjorie’s maids at the society’s secure resort, where they must deal with a snooty butler, a hostile head chef, a strong-minded feline, and the concerns of their respective sweethearts, even before the bodies start to fall. Meanwhile, Marjorie tries to discover whether her son was responsible for her daughter’s death. A somewhat convoluted and contrived plot won’t bother cozy fans. Agent: Marian Young, the Young Agency.