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Search tags: Carolyn-Haines
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review 2020-11-24 02:54
The Devil's Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney, #21)
The Devil's Bones - Carolyn Haines

Not one of the best ones by a long shot.  The story meandered, felt disjointed - something that was not helped by the secondary plot introduction - and the killer was telegraphed from the first scene they were in.

 

Normally, I love this series and I love these characters, but between the meandering and the lack of mystery behind a string of murders, there wasn't much to keep me engaged.  The author also seemed more melancholy and wistful than usual, with less of the humour I enjoy so much.

 

All together, it resulted in a poor showing for book #21.  Hopefully #22 regains the series stride.

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review 2019-10-10 07:32
Game of Bones (Sara Booth Delaney, #20)
Game of Bones - Carolyn Haines

After 19 really solid, enjoyable books, this one tanked for me.  It's still ok, hence my 3 stars, but comparatively speaking, nowhere near as good as the book that came before it.

 

Contributing to my general disappointment was the feeling that Haines just never got a handle on the plot.  It's a really interesting one about Indian burial mounds, archeology and curses, but it never gelled and in fact went somewhat around the bend in terms of incredulity, character angst, and abuse of dues ex machina.  The series has always had a light touch of the paranormal in Jitty, the ghost that haunts Sarah Booth, but the author charges past the lightly paranormal line, and blazes right into unbelievable miracles, and then she throws in some science fiction just to really stomp on any believability the plot may have had going for it.

 

I didn't hate it, and it's not generally bad; it's just not anywhere near as complex and interesting an instalment as previous books have been.  Everyone gets a phone-it-in in a long running series, and it took Haines 20 books before she cashed hers in.  I'm confident that should there be a 21, it will be back to the high standards of previous books.

 

I read this book for Halloween Bingo's New Release square.

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review 2018-12-12 08:40
A Gift of Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney, #19)
A Gift of Bones - Carolyn Haines

My first Christmas mystery of the season, and it's from one of my favorite series.  It was pretty good.

 

My personal observation about long-lasting series is that authors have a tendency to go bigger and bigger with each book.  Usually it's the plots that try to outdo each other, but sometimes, as in this case, it's a certain theme, or themes.  The Sarah Booth Delaney series has a very strong underlying theme centered on the power of love, family and friendship, and these themes have become more ... urgent?  as the series has progressed.

 

I'm not complaining - I love this series - but while I enjoyed the book thoroughly as I was reading it, it felt a tiny bit saccharide afterwards.  

 

Oh, and in this one the plot was definitely out there.  And way too overly labyrinthine.  I'm not sure it really worked, to be honest.

 

But I love the characters whole heartedly, and Zinnia Mississippi comes alive.  It might have been a 3.5 star read, but I've been quietly stewing for years about the Coleman story line, and it's finally come good in this book - that bumped it 1/2 star.  Overall, a solid read, that went by fast.

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text 2018-11-21 08:40
24 Festive Tasks: Diwali, Task #4
Vinegar Girl: A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare) - Anne Tyler
Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding - Rhys Bowen
Ham Bones - Carolyn Haines
Dark Road to Darjeeling - Deanna Raybourn
Sleeping With Anemone - Kate Collins

Task #4:  During Diwali, people pray to the goddess Lakhshmi, who is typically depicted as a beautiful young woman holding a lotus flower.  Find 5 books on your shelves (either physical or virtual) whose covers show a young woman holding a flower and share their cover images.

 

93 pages of book covers later, it turns out I actually had 5 books with women holding flowers on their covers.  After seeing the struggles others have had, I was delightfully surprised.  Though I would have been even more delighted had I not had to look through 93 pages to find them.

 

 

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review 2018-05-20 06:08
Charmed Bones (Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery, #18)
Charmed Bones - Carolyn Haines

They can't all be winners, but man, this one was extra-disappointing.

 

I don't care for romance for the sake of romance, but I do enjoy a good sub-plot, if the characters have chemistry and it's well written.  Many books ago, Sarah Booth had an almost-romance with a character, and I was hooked on their dynamic, and bummed when it didn't work.  Then after many, many books and many other romantic interests, I finally got my wish; sadly the joy was dinged by one of the most badly edited stories I've seen on paper in a long time (not being a reader of self-published books).

 

This could have been an amazing story: witches, spells, poisonings, there's-something-in-the-woods, huge claw marks on doors, old houses with secret rooms and tunnels, and my favorite romantic interest back in the saddle.  But if this story wasn't rushed to press, it was definitely neglected by management; major re-writes took place and nobody followed up with proofing to check for continuity.  The results include characters who explicitly remain behind only to suddenly be participating in conversation, and Sarah Booth commenting on kicking the bad guy, giving him a limp, when she never actually kicked him.  Unfortunately, these are just the two I remember - there were others, including a scene where characters change mid-paragraph).

 

Continuity errors aside, the plotting was a little bit of a mess too: too much going on and not tightly enough written, so the reader really has no hope of following events.  To be fair, Sarah Booth struggled too, so maybe this was deliberate and I just don't care for the device.  I also don't care for the plot twist at the end; it's the second time in as many books where it's been used, and it leaves me feeling played.

 

If not for the characters, whom I love (although I'm over Tinky and her baby angst), and the familiar landscape of Zinnia, the rating for this would be so much lower.  It's obvious that Haines didn't phone this in: nobody just phones in a plot as convoluted as this, but her editors and Minotaur screwed her and her readers by printing this half-finished effort.  And that's tragic; Haines is worlds better than this and after 17 books, readers deserve better.

 

Here's hoping #19 reflects previous efforts, and 18 is just an aberration.

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