Rock-a-Bye Bones

March 21, 2016
The appearance of a newborn baby girl on private eye Sarah Booth Delaney’s doorstep early one morning kicks off Haines’s busy 16th cozy set in Zinnia, Miss. (after 2015’s Bone to Be Wild). Sarah’s fellow detective, Tinkie Richmond, offers to care for the baby until the mother is found, but the search for the mother becomes a search for a killer as well after the young man who delivered the baby to Sarah turns up murdered. Meanwhile, Tinkie names the baby Libby and buys her clothes and equipment worthy of a princess. Predictably, Sarah is concerned about what Tinkie’s response will be when—and if—Libby’s mother is located. Sarah’s three suitors are soon involved in the excitement, and her ghostly friend, Jitty, keeps reminding her that she isn’t getting younger. Is it possible Sarah will finally choose one of her beaux? Readers will worry whether Sarah and company can survive all the trouble they get into. It’s a huge relief when they do. Agent: Marian Young, Young Agency.

March 15, 2016
A Mississippi detective must dig down deep into the roots of a town when a newborn is left on her doorstep even though her business partner may want to keep the baby for herself. Sarah Booth Delaney already has plenty to deal with between taking care of her family home, Dahlia House, and attending to its pesky, preachy resident ghost, Jitty, who's been on her to attach the Delaney name to something other than a detective agency. Now Sarah Booth has doubled her load by volunteering to cook Thanksgiving dinner for a large group of friends. Before she can get to the store to score some canned pumpkin for the pies she was supposed to make from scratch, she's pulled into something altogether bigger than her cooking disasters: caring for a baby. Sarah Booth calls in Tinkie, her partner in crime and business, to help investigate, but Tinkie is interested in just one thing: the infant. While Tinkie tries to convince Sarah Booth that it might be best if the baby's mother were never found, Sarah Booth does her darnedest to figure out what would make a mother abandon a newborn and why she'd leave the child on Sarah Booth's porch. Though her investigation gets some additional help from three men vying to win her affection, Sarah Booth's longtime adversary, Gertrude Strom, is spotted in town after skipping bail, leaving Sarah Booth trying to protect one party from danger while trying to stay out of trouble herself. As usual, Haines crams a lot into her latest cozy (Bone to Be Wild, 2015, etc.), aiming at readers with a taste for levity rather than restraint.

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May 1, 2016
When a newborn is left outside of Sarah Booth Delaney's front door, Sarah Booth, of the Delaney Detective Agency in Zinnia, Mississippi, resolves to find the infant's mother. In the meantime, hoping to dodge child services, she leaves the baby with her partner, Tinkie, and Tinkie's husband. Tinkie quickly becomes attached to the babytoo attachedleaving much of the investigation to Sarah Booth, who soon identifies the mother, a teenager and talented singer/songwriter, who disappeared a month ago. Sarah Booth races to find the teen, interviewing her family, teachers, and classmates and ultimately concluding that she is still alive but in grave danger. Complicating matters, Sarah Booth must avoid Gertrude Strom, a dangerous, mentally ill woman who is bent on hurting her. Sarah Boothwith the help of her wide circle of friends, including her family's opinionated ghost, Jittyperseveres, solving the crime. This humorous cozy will appeal to fans of Kathryn R. Wall's Bay Tanner books, another southern mystery series with an independent, strong-willed female detective.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)