CHAPTER 1 There’s nothing like springtime in the Deep South, especially lower Mississippi. The counties warmed by the coastal breezes off the Gulf of Mexico spring to life with a palette that takes my breath away. When it comes to the season of showy flowers, the southernmost counties are floozies with a celebrated taste for…
Describe the first time you pictured Sarah Booth Delaney in your head? Carolyn Haines: I had just finished a two-book contract and I was thinking about what I would write next. It was an incredibly spring day. Right outside the window the Chinese fringe tree and the cross vines were in full bloom. Sitting at…
In A Gift of Bones, Christmas comes to Zinnia, Mississippi and Sarah Booth Delaney must solve a case as the holiday approaches, in this new cozy mystery Carolyn Haines. Take a visual tour through A Gift of Bones with GIFnotes! I know I’ve reviewed earlier books in the Sarah Booth Delaney series and told you how much fun…
Christmas comes to Zinnia, Mississippi, and Sarah Booth Delaney must solve a case as the holiday approaches in A Gift of Bones by Carolyn Haines—take a visual tour with GIFnotes! Christmas is just around the corner, and Sarah Booth and Tinkie are preparing for a festive holiday season. After a turbulent season of solving cases… They’re…
Almost two decades ago, I was sitting at my computer looking out the window at my horses grazing in the pasture. The dogs were sleeping, and the cats were plotting anarchy, but I had bigger problems. I’d finished my last book contract, and I was in that delicious place where I could write anything I…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, Carolyn Haines’s 18th Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery combines with Jessica Knoll’s sophomore effort to highlight an amazing week of…
Charmed Bones by Carolyn Haines is the 18th book in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery series. We meet Sarah Booth in her home, the very grand Dalia House in Zinnia, Mississippi. She is cuddled up on the couch with her dog, Sweetie Pie, and her black cat, Pluto. All three are enjoying Sarah Booth’s favorite movie,…
What do you do when a group of witches comes to town and puts everyone on edge? Have them whip up some witches’ brew like this week’s Pick Your Poison—where we create a cocktail inspired by a recently published mystery, thriller, or crime novel—the “Warmed Bones” cocktail, inspired by Carolyn Haines’s 18th Sarah Booth Delaney…
Charmed Bones by Carolyn Haines is the 18th book in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery series. Zinnia, Mississippi, is rife with quirky characters, but the arrival of three sister witches―and their intention to open a Wiccan boarding school―sets the small town on its ear. And bodies begin to accumulate as a result. Faith, Hope, and Charity…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week is all about variety, as we get ghosts, psychological suspense, true crime, and more! See what else this week…
