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Bonefire Of The Vanities (2012)

by Carolyn Haines(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0312641877 (ISBN13: 9780312641870)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Minotaur Books

series

Sarah Booth Delaney

review 1: Marjorie Littlefield - an immensely wealthy, older woman - is haunted by the death of her daughter Mariam many years ago. Marjorie is especially troubled because she suspects her son Chasley may have drowned his sister. Thus, Marjorie plans to leave her fortune to her cat Pluto. Desperate to ask Mariam what really happened on the day she died Marjorie has fallen under the influence of Brandy and Sherry Westin - a mother-daughter duo who hold seances. During these Sherry supposedly contacts spirits of the dead. To hold these spiritual encounters the Westins run a kind of spa/psychic retreat/business conference where their rich clients are held almost incommunicado with the outside world. Enter Sarah Booth and Tinkie, private detectives who are hired to check out the Westin... mores and protect Marjorie from being fleeced. They pose as Marjorie's maids to get into the retreat, and big trouble ensues. People at the retreat die and disappear under suspicious circumstances, and almost everyone there behaves oddly. Plenty for the gals to investigate. Meanwhile, Sarah Booth and Tinkie are under pressure in their private lives because Sarah's fiance (Graf) and Tinkie's husband (Oscar) object to their dangerous line of work. It's an interesting premise but the book is disappointing. The characters are not well-rounded and not believable, and some of the regulars in the series are hardly present at all. In addition, the story is filled with unlikely plot contrivances: wealthy guests remain at a retreat where people are being murdered left and right; a stiff elderly butler and an obnoxious young cook engage in sado-masochistic sex; Marjorie allows Chasley - who she dislikes and distrusts - to stay in her suite; Graf and Oscar disguise themselves to lend a hand in the investigation, and so on. One big problem with the story is that the Westins are a shrewd team. They could - in two seconds - google Sarah Booth, Tinkie, Graf, and Oscar to discover they're all imposters. Also the motives for the crimes are murky and the solution is unlikely. Finally, the end of the book strains credulity to breaking point.One mildly amusing touch is Sarah Booth's personal 'haint'(ghost) Jitty - who shows up periodically impersonating a variety of private detectives from books and movies. I've read several books in this series that were pretty good, but this isn't one of them.
review 2: This is book 12 of 14 in the Sarah Booth Delaney Detective Mystery series by Carolyn Haines. Sarah Booth and her friend, Tinkie, are hired to check into the well being of wealthy heiress, Marjorie Littlefield. Marjorie has entered into a cult like organization called Heart's Desire. Heart's Desire is a compound being run by con women, Sherry and Brandy Westin under the guise of making the world a better place and being a medium for the dead. Sarah Booth and Tinkie infiltrate the compound as maids to Marjorie Littlefield. Marjorie is there to try and connect to he deceased daughter, Miriam. She wants to find out once and for all during a seance if her son, Chasley, murdered his sister, Miriam. Heart's Desire has some strange rules, people like Palk the head butler and Yumi the chef and things that take place within its walls. One of the kitchen help, Amanda, sudden turns up dead down in the basement. Another guest is found murdered in the mud bath in the spa. Sarah Booth and Tinkie want to solve the murders as well as protect Marjorie. There are many twists and turns in this story that keep going all the way until the very end. It will shock you. less

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