Wishbones

May 26, 2008
Sarah Booth Delaney heads for Hollywood in Haines's entertaining eighth cozy to feature the Zinnia, Miss., PI (after 2007's Ham Bones
). Lucky enough to be cast as the female lead in the remake of the movie Body Heat
, Sarah Booth is reunited with her onscreen and offscreen lover, Graf Milieu, but she also becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a woman whose body is found near her and Graf's rented home. When the cast travels to Costa Rica for filming on location, Sarah Booth discovers her family ghost has followed her. A second ghost, which resembles the director's deceased wife and appears before someone suffers serious injury, adds to the paranormal mischief. The chemistry sizzles between Graf and Sarah Booth as she sets out to discover exactly who's trying to sabotage the film.

June 1, 2008
Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney, Haines popular series lead, returns to solve another crime. This time, though, she is not supposed to be solving crimes; she is supposed to be off in Costa Rica, starring in a remake of the steamy movie Body Heat. Her costar, Graf Mileau, is also a former love interest, and Sarah figures shell have a nice adventure, making a movie and rekindling an old romance. What she gets instead is a murder, a series of suspicious incidents, and a lot of people depending on her to unmask a killer. Fans of the Delaney mysteries will settle right in, but newcomers to the series may be a bit put off by the flimsiness of the premise: the idea of a private investigator picked to star in a high-profile movie seems a little forced, perhaps too obviously a gimmick, a way to take the hero to unfamiliar climes. Still, the book is lively, as always, and Sarah remains a likable protagonist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)