Sarah Booth Delaney is a southern belle and fallen daddy's girl who has no job or husband and north of thirty, and at the start of the series, finds herself about to lose the family's plantation, Dahlia House, located in the fictional town of Zinnia, Mississippi, which is located in the Mississippi Delta. She is also an orphan, the last in the line of Delaney's and an only child; with her social credentials, she still has no money. She goes from southern belle and former daddy's girl to a private detective, very unladylike territory for Sarah to be in. She has not done like most ladies do and get married and have kids; she has tried to be her own person, to stand on her own two feet, not rely on a man to get her out of her bad situations. Becoming a private investigator is what winds up saving the family plantation.
On the plantation is the ghost of her great-great grandmother's nanny and former…show more content… The characterization and setting have also drawn praise; readers have felt like they get whisked away to Zinnia, Mississippi every time they read a book from the series. Fans of the Stephanie Plum series will enjoy these books too. One reviewer found the striving to be an individual and break away from fixed gender roles depicted in the book, as well as unflattering details that come to light about a society living person was more interesting than the criminals in the novel. It's been called a fun mystery with southern sass, and it features a good twist that you won't see coming. Someone has criticized the fact that some of the women in the book are alcoholics and over-eaters and seem to be air headed. Another person was critical of the fact that the book was weak on