Sarah Booth Delaney has moved back to her family home in Dahlia, Mississippi. She has established Delaney Detective Agency and is planning a big Thanksgiving dinner for her friends. A way for her to give back for all their support.

Complications are announced by the incessant ringing of her doorbell wakes her up in the wee hours of the morning. She finds a newborn baby in a basket on her front porch. What is scary is the pool of blood under the basket.

Who left the baby? Who is the mother? Whose blood was left on the porch? Why was the baby left on Sarah Booth’s porch?

Sarah Booth’s business partner, Tinkie, and Tinkie’s husband Oscar Richmond volunteer to take care of the baby while a hunt is done to find the mother. But things get a little sticky when Tinkie and Oscar fall in love with the baby. The Richmonds are so taken that the thought of giving the baby back to its mother is a thought they try to ignore.

While searching for the mother, Sarah Booth feels the girls may be in a dangerous situation. It is also discovered the baby isn’t the only thing taken from the young mother.

Another bit is the presence of Jitty, the resident ghost of Dahlia House. Jitty can be a motivator, a comfort and a pain-in-the-neck, but it is all in the name of love. Her big focus is getting Sarah Booth married and producing an heir before Sarah Booth is too old. Since there are at least two men interested in Sarah Booth, Jitty frequently nudges Sarah Booth to choose one. What makes Sarah Booth hesitant is the broken engagement she went through a short while back.

This is a fun cozy with action, danger, humour and a touch of romance…Southern style. ( )

It's not every day you find a baby on your doorstep. But that's exactly what happens to Sarah Booth Delaney in ROCK-A-BYE BONES. This book has Sarah Booth pulled in many directions. She has to find the abandoned baby's mother. And she has to keep Tinkie from bonding too hard with the newborn while she tries to find the baby's mother. She's also got a crazy bail jumper hell bent on revenge after her. Not to mention Sarah Booth has volunteered to have a traditional Thanksgiving with all the fixings for her friends at Dahlia House. If she can pull all this off, it will be a miracle. But Sarah Booth has plenty of friends, brave and loyal critters, and a few admirers in Zinnia who are all watching her back. ( )

Loved this book, as I do all the books in the series. Great characters, lots of plot twists and turns, lovable animals, and southern charm. A very good book! ( )

Still interesting, that baby in her life is probably getting closer. But the animals, they are preternaturally intelligent. Are they supernaturals in disguise? ( )

I love this series, it's always been a consistently strong one with a touch of paranormal (guardian ghost), incredibly strong female characters, and great mystery plots that avoid a lot of irritating potholes because Sarah Booth is a licensed PI so people expect her to be nosy.

But as good as Rock-a-Bye Bones is, it did get on my nerves a bit. Sarah Booth is at a cross-roads in her love life and she has an embarrassment of options going forward, but from the start of this series there has only ever been one romantic interest that I've cheered for and I am tired of waiting for it to happen. Get on with it already!

Sarah Booth's BF and partner, Tinky, has a crisis of her own too, and it's not a happy one; anyone who has read this series would see it coming, but I loved the climatic conversation between Tinky and Sarah Booth: SB spoke the truth and didn't pussy-foot around it. I love that the author isn't afraid to let her characters be rational, even as they're being emotional.

The main plot was really, really good, but the sub-plot that continues a story from a previous book was unnecessary and diminished my enjoyment. It's just a little too hollywood for my taste.

I love this series enough to work on upgrading the early paperbacks I have to hardcovers; this is one of those I just don't think I'm ever going to outgrow. ( )