Sarah Booth Delaney is heartbroken: her fiancé Graf Milieu has decided to move to Hollywood permanently, leaving their relationship in shambles. Sarah Booth has a perfect distraction, however, in the form of the Black and Orange Halloween ball her best friends are throwing in New Orleans. Sarah Booth plans to dance the night away to the swinging tunes of her old flame Scott Hampton's blues band. But just as the party gets going, Scott receives a mysterious message that threatens his life and the lives of his bandmates. Sarah Booth knows that a new case is just what she needs to take her mind off her failed relationship with Graf, and she's ready to help Scott investigate. And then the message turns from threat to reality when the bartender from Scott's club is gunned down in a drive-by. Enlisting Sheriff Coleman Peters and the rest of her friends from Zinnia, Mississippi, Sarah Booth is caught in a race against the clock as she tries to stop a killer from striking again. With a twist around every corner, Sarah Booth's zany adventures will delight readers in Carolyn Haines's latest Southern cozy, Bone to Be Wild . “Delightful…[a] satisfying beignet of a mystsery.” ― Publishers Weekly on Booty Bones “Entertaining.” ― Booklist on Booty Bones “If you enjoy mysteries with rich Southern settings, fascinating history, and quirky characters, you'll devour this one quicker than a plate full of buttermilk biscuits.” ― Mystery Scene Magazine on Smarty Bones “We have to admit being hooked by the title, but even urbane Tom Wolfe would get a kick out of this delightfully fun 12th installment of Haines' Southern mystery series.” ― New York Post on Bonefire of the Vanities Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of the Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series and a number of other books in mystery and crime, including the Pluto's Snitch paranormal-historical mystery series, and Trouble, the black cat detective romantic suspense books. She is the recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writing and the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence. She is a former journalist, bartender, photographer, farmhand, and college professor and lives on a farm where she works with rescue cats, dogs, and horses. Bone to be Wild By Carolyn Haines St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2015 Carolyn Haines All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-04614-7 CHAPTER 1 From my observation point two floors above the central ballroom, I watch the dancers in their elegant ball gowns shimmying to the throb of Scott Hampton's lead guitar. It's a kaleidoscopic scene filled with the decadence of the French court, updated by two and a half centuries. Cece Dee Falcon, journalist, ball director, and friend has done herself proud with this year's Black and Orange Ball. She's raised thousands of dollars for charity, and proven once again that a Mississippi Delta girl knows how to host a party! Wealthy people from across the Southeast have gathered in the City that Care Forgot for Halloween night to party and donate to a worthy cause. Women Growing Strong (WGS) is the beneficiary of this year's ball. Cece always picks something dear to her heart. This educational program to help battered women find jobs and gain independence from abusers is a good one. New Orleans is a city that celebrates the past and present with equal graciousness. The Marble Ballroom of the elegant Treillage Hotel is a wonder of floating staircases and columns sculpted with vines. Cece has used every inch of the place to showcase her patrons, the donors who contributed large sums to WGS. The sumptuousness of the event rivals Oscar night in Hollywood. Designer gowns and jewelry worth millions adorn the women who are here to see and be seen. There is nothing like a no-holds-barred fashion competition to draw out the wealthy socialites for a night of rivalry and frivolity. The ballroom fairly crackles with energy. Floral arrangements of lehuas and wallpeles, flown in from Hawaii late last night, festoon tables, their unique orange blossoms mixed with black tulips, black roses, and black hyacinths. Pots of the newly created Black Velvet petunias are at the center of every table. The petunias also serve as boutonnieres for the men. And Scott Hampton's band is the perfect blend of dance music and wailing blues that makes people want to rub belly buttons and forget that intimacy and attraction often come at a heavy price. The sexual charge of the music touches even me, and I'm half dead from emotional trauma. The wee hours of All Saints' Day, the time when the veil between the living and dead is thinnest, has slipped over us. I feel like Cinderella as the bell tolls midnight. My magic has run out, and my carriage will revert to a pumpkin. It's time to go home. I want nothing more than my bed and the blessed forgetfulness of sleep. Unfortunately, I can't leave. My friends are relying on me to be here. And what would I go home to? My fiancé—well, ex-fiancé—is in the air