It’s Christmas time and Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends are thrilled to be spending it in the city of Tupelo, just a few hours’ drive away from their own hometown of Zinnia, Mississippi. The birthplace of Elvis Presley has decided to add a slate of wintertime festivities to match its annual summer celebration of…
Ideas come to writers in the craziest way. This is the “seed of the story” for my latest Sarah Booth adventure. I woke up one morning thinking about the Edgar Allan Poe short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I hadn’t read it in many years, but I found my Poe anthology and sat down for a…
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…
‘Tis the season for a blazing hearth, a warming cup of cocoa, and a merry dose of murder! Get in the holiday spirit and enter for a chance to win our holiday basket, complete with a festive foursome of our favorite winter mysteries and snacks to enjoy by the fire. The books included are:…
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…
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! Christmas is just around the corner and Sarah Booth and Tinkie are preparing for a festive holiday season.…
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…
