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Dolores Jordan: You just MADE my Day!
As the newest member of the Carolyn Haines fan
club, I have the honor of writing my first book review about her latest book
Bones of a Feather. Since I was starting with the last in a series, I found
myself apprehensive about not knowing the characters well enough to follow them
in action and understand them. What a waste of worry on my part. Haines did a
wonderful job of introducing me to Sarah Booth Delaney, Tinkie, and Jitty in a
way that I felt a sisterhood with all of them.
This “who done it” book, I
figured, would be the person least expected and I’d figure it out easily as I
normally do most mysteries. Not Carolyn Haines’s mystery. Every time I smugly
thought I’d figured it all out, she’d literally kill the character or have one
come to some sad fate that took them out of the picture. Then she made you think
that the good guys were bad and the bad guys were good. In other words, she was
always three steps (if not more) ahead of me like in a master chess game where
she clearly check- mated me.
Not only is this a page turning thriller of a
mystery, but she had lines that I, as a writer, found deliciously captivating.
For example when Sarah Booth tries to comfort the bitter Eleanor Levert, Haines
writes, “Sorrow never yields any crop except grief.” Another favorite of mine
was, “Summer in the South—a combination of beauty and brutality.” The words we
all feel as Southerners, but don’t have the magic of a wordsmith to express so
elegantly. My all time favorite was this: “Shifting clouds gave moonlight one
moment and darkness the next. Far away, thunder rumbled, and I thought of Thor,
the Norse god with a hammer pounding the sky.” As a writer, I’m jealous but very
impressed.
I cannot speak highly enough about a wonderful story, filled with
unique characters, written by an artist of the written word. This is a must
read, even if you are like me and new to the world of Sarah Booth
Delaney.