No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state—or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash. But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

Private investigation isn't on the list of a southern belle's most desirable accomplishments—but it's saved Sarah Booth Delaney's Delta homestead. Now all she has to cope with is its bossy antebellum ghost who is determined to save Sarah—from spinsterhood. Then comes the perfect social occasion: Lawrence Ambrose's dinner party... Ambrose, once a famous man of southern letters, is planning a comeback: a delicious tell-all with a bitchy ex-model as his "biographer." As he taunts his dinner guests with the news that his book will blow the lid off Zinnia's darkest secrets, it becomes plain that each and every guest has a secret—and wants Ambrose to keep it. When the morning-after mess includes a bloody corpse and the manuscript of the biography disappears, Sarah Booth goes digging for answers. But many who hold them are six feet under—or soon will be—and if she doesn't tread carefully, she could join them any day now...

She may be a Mississippi belle, but Sarah Booth Delaney is no pampered daddy's girl. Unwed and over thirty, Sarah has her own set of problems—like coping with regular hauntings by her great-great-grandmother's nanny, a busybody of a ghost who's set on marrying her off to the first suitor who comes calling. But when an old friend is in trouble, Sarah Booth doesn't hesitate to get involved. Splintered Bones Eulalee McBride has confessed to murdering her husband...and she wants Sarah to dig up the dirt on the violent scalawag to prove he got what he deserved. Sarah Booth suspects that her friend is lying through her pearly whites...but why? There ' s certainly no lack of suspects in Zinnia, Mississippi, including Bud Lynch, a horse trainer who arouses killer lust in the town's women. As Sarah Booth begins to put together the pieces of the case, a killer is preparing to strike again. And this time it could send one late-blooming southern sleuth into an early grave.

This entry in Carolyn Haines' best-selling "Bones" series finds Sarah Booth Delaney, a southern belle with a penchant for amateur sleuthing, back on the case. When black pianist Ivory Keys is murdered, Zinnia, Mississippi, divides along racial lines. The prime suspect is Scott Hampton, Key's protege, who is rich and white. Sarah is hired to prove Scott's innocence, but to do so, she'll have to navigate some treacherous waters.

The southern Delta has never been more exhilarating, evocative, and wickedly funny than in the mysteries of Carolyn Haines. Now she takes readers on another rollicking ride across the Mississippi cotton fields and into the glamour of New Orleans…as P.I. Sarah Booth Delaney follows a winding trail of murder and deception into a world where ghosts make fashion statements—and where one person’s miracle is another person’s mayhem. The leaves of the calendar may be shedding faster than the sycamores on her family’s decaying Mississippi plantation, but thirty-something southern belle Sarah Booth Delaney isn’t ready to sing the blues. Not when she’s got a thriving detective agency and the outspoken, outrageously attired ghost of her great-great-grandmother’s nanny to keep her on her toes. But the matchmaking phantom may have the last word on motherhood when Sarah Booth takes on the controversial case of an accused baby killer. Although Doreen Mallory’s been arrested for feeding sleeping pills to her ten-week-old daughter, no one could accuse her of lacking faith. A healer who, tragically, couldn’t save her own baby girl, born with multiple birth defects, Doreen has her own crosses to bear. While the local law seems convinced of Doreen’s guilt, Sarah Booth isn’t so sure. But why is Doreen reluctant to talk about the men in her life? Like the televangelist who stands to lose a lot more than his flock. Or the married politician with family ties to the Mob. Either of them could be little Rebekah’s father; either of them could also be her killer. With Halloween approaching and her own personal life up for grabs, Sarah Booth could use a little faith healing herself. Torn between a married sheriff and an old flame who’s literally sweeping her off her feet, she’d better be prepared for the fallout of her most unpopular case yet. Justice may not stand a ghost of a chance as a decades-old secret explodes, unleashing a storm of fury on Sarah Booth and all those she loves. Witty, suspenseful, and featuring a cast of memorable characters, Hallowed Bones is a riveting tale of faith, murder, and maternal love. It is Carolyn Haines’s most accomplished novel yet. From the Hardcover edition.

When a local girl is found dead in a cotton field and her lover stands accused of the crime, southern belle and fearless P.I. Sarah Booth Delaney is hired by the suspect's brother to expose the real killer, a dangerous assignment that pits her against the rich and powerful.

Displaced from its New Orleans venue, a red-hot touring production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is opening right in the heart of Zinnia, and featuring hunky star Graf Mileau! Sarah Booth, who had her own brief stint with Mileau himself, is less than thrilled. Graf is now linked with his costar, Renata Troviola, a dyed-in-the-wool diva who plans to ride Graf's coattails all the way to Hollywood. But Renata's trip to the top comes to a screeching halt on the play's second night when someone laces her lipstick with cyanide. It seems Renata was stirring up plenty of drama behind the scenes, making enemies galore: her long-suffering makeup artist, an extremely harsh critic, an angry audience member. . .even boy toy Graf had a motive. But the most damning evidence points to Sarah. Now, to save her reputation, Sarah reckons she'll have to bring the curtain down on a mystery with more twists and turns than the Old Muddy. . .

Southern gal Sarah Booth Delaney packs up her hound dog and her P.I. business and sets off for Hollywood to take a shot at stardom. No stranger to acting, she aces the screen test for a racy remake of the movie Body Heat alongside leading man Graf Miliau. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and why not? Graf has already starred in one of Sarah’s previous affairs and is well on his way to landing a big part in the sequel. Thrilled as Sarah is, her dream come true comes at a price. She has to leave behind her family’s ancestral home in Mississippi, her closest friends, and the possibility of settling down with her longtime love to film on location in Costa Rica. And it’s not long before rivalries flare, mysterious accidents occur, and this leading lady finds herself in some steamy tabloids without turning up in a single frame of film. Carolyn Haines’s Wishbones takes the sultry romance and colorful friendships of this delightfully Southern series and heads out west for a mystery that is as thrilling off camera as it is on.

Sarah Booth Delaney, a Southern belle known for abiding by tradition only when it suits her, is no stranger to drama. A talented actress and a P.I., she's chosen to pursue a career in Hollywood when she hears that her best friend's husband is suddenly on his deathbed back home in Mississippi—-and he's not the only one. The vicious illness begins with burning fevers and delirium, quickly plunging its victims into a coma. The Centers for Disease Control is on the scene, but they can't find a cure for it or the boll weevils that are decimating Sunflower County's cotton crop. With patients in quarantine and the whole town in crisis, Sarah drops everything to stop the outbreak and save the only place she's ever been able to call home. From feuding scientists to ailing locals, there is no shortage of bad blood coursing through the little town of Zinnia, Mississippi, as Carolyn Haines' often steamy and always charming series turns equally intense in Greedy Bones.

In the midst of a cook-off at a posh spa, southern PI Sarah Booth Delaney gets embroiled in a juicy murder in the latest mystery from Carolyn Haines For many years Jitty, Dahlia House’s resident ghost, has dreamed that Sarah Booth Delaney would have a child to inherit the family’s ancestral home. Sarah Booth has always had reservations about being a parent. There was her work as an actress and PI, taking care of the house, not to mention finding the right man. But when Jitty’s dream finally looks like it’s going to come true, Sarah Booth is crushed when it doesn’t. Depressed, unable to act or investigate, Sarah Booth finally allows her best friend to whisk her away for a luxurious weekend vacation at a special spa and cooking school. The pampering and food go a long way toward making her feel like her old self, but there’s another welcome distraction—there’s a beauty contest/cook-off going on to find the spa’s next spokesperson, and watching the drama really takes her mind off of her woes. Sarah finds the backbiting to be great fun—until the heated competition boils over, the top contender is poisoned, and the prime suspect hires Sarah Booth to clear her name. Between swimsuit competitions and soufflés, Sarah Booth Delaney and her best friend and partner, Tinkie, must find out which of the ambitious young ladies is to blame in Bone Appetit, the latest in Carolyn Haines’s delightfully Southern cozy mystery series.

When PI Sarah Booth Delaney and her partner and best friend, Tinkie, take on Monica and Eleanor Levert as clients, they don’t have much hope of solving the case. The wealthy heiresses of Briarcliff in Natchez, Mississippi, claim that a family necklace worth four million dollars has been stolen, and they think that they can hurry the insurance payout if a reputable PI investigates. Sarah Booth has her doubts, and not just about the payout. All of the evidence suggests that the sisters might be committing fraud. But when they have just started scratching the surface on the sordid past of the Levert family and the blood money that all of their wealth was founded upon, Monica goes missing. The police suspect that the heiresses are playing more games, and Eleanor isn’t doing anything to make them think any different. But how can she? If she says or does anything besides pass on the insurance money to the kidnappers, they’ll kill Monica. With a family history that runs deep and dark and a twisting plot where no one is exactly what they seem, Sarah Booth and Tinkie are the Levert sisters' best and only hope in Bones of a Feather, the latest in Carolyn Haines sparkling Southern mystery series.

Despite the wishes of her overprotective fiancé, Sarah Booth Delaney can't give up her detective work, no matter how dangerous it becomes. It's too much a part of her. On this case, avoiding danger might be impossible—she's on the trail of a porn-star-turned-psychic operating from a haunted estate on the edge of town. Medium Sherry Cameron promises to reunite grieving family members with their dearly departed, but it seems vaguely suspicious that Sherry will only accept emotionally vulnerable and tremendously wealthy clients. Aging billionaire Marjorie Littlefield fits the profile perfectly—her daughter died in a tragic accident as a young girl, she's been estranged from her son for decades, and she's planning to leave her considerable inheritance to her cat. Convinced she's uncovered a scheme to separate a lonely woman from her fortune, Sarah Booth talks her way onto the estate as a maid, where she finds Marjorie and several other wealthy eccentrics ready to commune with the dead. Between chores, Sarah Booth explores the estate, mingles with the other staff…and finds a few dead bodies. But which guest or staff member might be the killer? Even Jitty, Sarah Booth's personal haint, won't tell until Sarah Booth has uncovered all of Sherry's well-kept secrets. With spooks and charlatans around every corner, Sarah Booth is the only PI in the southlands who can put an end to this elaborate scam in Bonefire of the Vanities, the charming twelfth entry in Carolyn Haines' sparkling series.

Professor Olive Twist has come to Zinnia, Mississippi to study a mysterious grave wherein lies the Lady in Red, a perfectly preserved and stunningly beautiful but unnamed and unclaimed body. Olive claims she can not only identify the corpse, she can also prove the woman's scandalous role in the nation's history. Olive takes it a step too far, though, when she starts connecting elite Zinnia families with the same scandal. Dander up, Zinnia's society ladies know only one way to handle Olive: they call on the private investigative services of Sarah Booth Delaney. But Olive's real agenda is clear as Mississippi mud, and when Sarah Booth discovers a present-day dead body, she knows there's more than just family pride and Southern heritage at stake. If she can't find the murderer and fast, it might just be Sarah Booth's life on the line next. Carolyn Haines pulls out all the stops in Smarty Bones, the next charming, sassy, Southern-fried Sarah Booth Delaney mystery.

From award-winning author Carolyn Haines comes Shorty Bones, a charming story starring feisty Southern belle and private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. Sarah Booth just wants to help her fiancé recover from a leg wound in peace...until, that is, an ex-porn star declares that she's being stalked, and Sarah Booth suddenly finds herself in the midst of a wild case with no idea what to believe or whom to trust.

Sarah Booth Delaney's fiancé, Graf Milieu, has become depressed while recovering from a severe leg injury, but Sarah Booth knows just how to help him heal. She's arranged a romantic getaway for the two of them at a lovely beach cottage on Dauphin Island off the Gulf Coast. On the first day of their island adventure, they take a historical tour led by Angela Trotter, a young woman well-versed in local lore, including rumors of pirate treasure hidden somewhere on the island. In fact, Angela confides to Sarah Booth and Graf that her father, a sailor and treasure hunter, was murdered just when he thought he was closing in on the treasure. Angela's convinced that the wrong man was imprisoned for her father's murder, and she manages to persuade Sarah Booth to take the case. And Sarah Booth soon realizes that there's much more going on than meets the eye. With untold amounts of treasure offering plenty of motive for murder and a fiancé falling deeper into depression, Sarah Booth's peaceful island vacation is quickly spinning out of control. In Booty Bones, Carolyn Haines will once again delight readers with her trademark blend of clever plotting, witty prose, and Southern charm.

Christmas is six days away—and Sarah Booth Delaney has her hands full! To honor a group of international investors, Shaw, Mississippi, resurrects the old custom of drifting miniature, lighted Christmas floats down Silver Bayou. The Italian delegation from Venice may bring much-needed new jobs and commercial opportunities to this small, struggling Delta town. Among the investors is notorious womanizer, Enzo Aceto. Handsome, witty, and eager for new conquests, Enzo meets his match in Tinkie Bellcase Richmond. She, too, is an accomplished flirt, and a partner in Delaney Detective Agency. Enzo disappears. Rumors of murder are buzzing. Suspicion falls on Tinkie’s husband, Oscar, whose jealousy created a scene at a social event. A body spotted bobbing behind the last Christmas float makes the joyous holiday celebration take on a much darker tone. Tinkie and Oscar flee Sunflower County. Sarah Booth must determine what happened to Enzo, or her partner’s and Oscar’s holiday will end in multiple felony charges. From paid shoppers to canine and feline assistant sleuths, “Bones on the Bayou” brings the Zinnia gang together to solve the mystery—and save Christmas.

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' latest Southern cozy, Bone to Be Wild.

Beloved author Carolyn Haines returns to Zinnia, Mississippi, with this compelling story. Southern-belle-turned-PI Sarah Booth Delaney is unenthusiastic at best when her friends rope her into attending a health food and lifestyle seminar. Priya Karsan, an internationally known activist, is in Zinnia for a lecture. But the lecture takes a turn for the deadly when there's a body discovered in the venue's kitchen. As Sarah Booth and her partner at the Delaney Detective Agency, Tinkie Richmond, tackle the case, Sarah Booth quickly realizes there's a lot more to Priya and her activism than meets the eye.

Jingle Bones, an e-original Christmas story featuring Mississippi PI Sarah Booth Delaney, offers all the Southern charm and zany adventure Carolyn Haines' fans have come to expect—and more. Sarah Booth just wants the perfect Christmas holiday. Even with the dissolution of her engagement, she refuses to lose her Christmas spirit. But when Theodora Prince—an ex classmate and current Pastor's wife—comes calling with a year-old case and cash upfront, Sarah Booth must find the truth about the boys who ruined last year's Christmas pageant in time to stop them from doing it again.

Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends are still recovering from the attack on Scott Hampton's blues club in Zinnia, Missippia, and Sarah Booth herself is still overcoming her grief at ending things with her fiancé. One bitterly cold night at her family's ancestral home in Zinnia, Sarah Booth hears what sounds like a kitten as she passes the front door. She opens the door to find a newborn baby in a basket on her front porch - with bloody footsteps leading up to the door and back down the driveway. As soon as she steps outside, a loud engine guns and a dark colored vehicle takes off. It's too far away for Sarah Booth to get a good look, and besides, the baby is now her first priority. After rushing the baby to the hospital and calling the police, Sarah Booth and Tinkie Richmond, her partner at the Delaney Detective Agency, know they need to do everything they can to find the baby's mother...even if they are starting to fall in love with the baby themselves. But as she tracks the baby's mother, Sarah Booth soon begins to suspect the woman might be in danger; in fact, she might be running for her own life. And following in the woman's footsteps, Sarah Booth might be next.

Love hurts… In Zinnia a criminal Cupid turns into a case for Delaney Detective AgencyGods, goddesses, slaves, centurions—all are gathered at Tinkie Richmond’s elegant home to celebrate the holiday for love. The costume Valentine’s party is the hot ticket in the Mississippi Delta. But Tinkie’s title of Queen Bee of Delta Society becomes jeopardized when her Valentine’s guests are all robbed. There’s nothing for it but that Tinkie and Sarah Booth Delaney find out what happened to the very handsome Cupid (who failed to appear at the party) and where the short, hairy, Pan-like Cupid (who crashed the party) came from. Certainly not Central Casting. As Sarah Booth and Tinkie begin to unravel the secrets of the God of Love, they find themselves in danger and with a lot more at stake than some stolen goods.

EVEN THE DEAD WANT REVENGE! Cliburn Plantation is a ruin. Cursed by a voodoo priestess because of the cruelty of Ezekiel Cliburn, it’s home to the ghosts of Haitian mourners, slaves, river pirates, and tragedy. When Jitty, the resident ghost of Dahlia House and Sarah Booth Delaney’s nemesis and friend, asks for help, Sarah Booth takes on the nether world in this creepy Halloween tale. Jitty’s husband, who was killed in the Civil War, has disappeared from the Great Beyond. He’s on a mission of revenge that will get him banished from the heavenly world, unless Sarah Booth can stop him. On All Hallow’s Eve, when the veil between living and dead is thinnest, Sarah Booth travels to the old plantation to halt a showdown between Coker and the last living heir of the Cliburn family. When Coker and Thom Cliburn face off on the dusty road that fronts the slave quarters of the old plantation, can Sarah Booth save Jitty’s man? Can she survive an encounter no living person should ever see?

Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends are celebrating New Year's Eve at the party of the year, a smashing Winter Garden party at the Prince Albert Hotel. It's a dazzling success...until Frangelica "Sister" McFee walks through the door. Sarah Booth knew Sister in college, before Sister became a bestselling author and moved to New York, and fame and fortune don't seem to have tempered her arrogance and cruelty. Sister's latest book is a memoir about the death of her mother and brother many years ago. Now, a film about the book is in the works, and a film crew has descended upon Zinnia, Mississippi, to tell the complete tale. The film crew soon realizes there may be more to the story than meets the eye—or is told in Sister's memoir—and they hire Sarah Booth to discover the absolute truth about those deaths so many years ago. But Sarah Booth quickly realizes that someone is desperate to keep the truth hidden and will go to any lengths necessary to protect a long-held secret. Carolyn Haines' next Sarah Booth Delaney novel, Sticks and Bones, is sure to delight series fans and newcomers alike.

The next charming mystery from Carolyn Haines featuring spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. Private detective Sarah Booth Delaney doesn't quite know what to expect when she's urgently called to a school board meeting for Sunflower County, Mississippi. But she certainly wasn't expecting this: three Wiccan sisters are in the midst of a showdown with the Board of Education. They want to open a Wiccan school in Zinnia, Mississippi, and the conservative town vows to do anything necessary to stop them from opening their school. Sarah Booth and her partner in the detective agency, Tinkie Bellcase, are quickly enlisted to investigate the Wiccan sisters' real reasons for coming to town. Sarah Booth learns the sisters have rented a manor house and land from a reclusive local artist, Trevor Musgrove. But the case takes on a far more serious tone when Trevor Musgrove is found dead, and all evidence seems to point directly at the witch sisters.

Christmas comes to Zinnia, Mississippi―Sarah Booth Delaney must solve a case as the holiday approaches, in this new cozy mystery from Carolyn Haines. 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 ready for some holiday cheer. Sarah Booth and Sheriff Coleman Peters have finally gotten together, and this is the first holiday they’re celebrating as a couple. Sarah Booth busies herself with decking the halls and daydreaming about romantic Christmas nights with Coleman. Then her friend Cece Dee Falcon shows up needing Sarah Booth’s help―right now. She shows Sarah Booth a box that was delivered by courier and left at Cece’s front porch. It contains a lock of hair, a photograph of a pretty young woman, very pregnant, and a note demanding ransom for the return of the teen. Cece reveals that this is her cousin’s daughter, Eve Falcon, and that she’d lost touch with this part of her family years ago. Eve and Cece had been close, until the family had a terrible falling out, and banished Cece from their lives. The countdown begins as the kidnapper pushes for payment―or else, he threatens, Eve will meet her maker. It’s up to Sarah Booth and her friends to find the girl before something terrible happens on what should be the merriest day of the year. Carolyn Haines’s trademark humor and lovable characters are back, in a heartwarming Christmas story that will enchant and delight readers looking for a suspenseful mystery wrapped in joyful holiday merriment.

The next charming mystery from Carolyn Haines featuring spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. When a ritually murdered corpse is discovered at the new-found Native-American temple site smack in the middle of Sunflower County, Mississippi, the archaeology crew on the dig is immediately under suspicion—with particular focus on its handsome, flirtatious leader, Dr. Frank Hafner. So when Sheriff Coleman Peters closes in on him, Hafner does the only logical thing: he hires the Delaney Detective Agency to clear his name. Rumors swirl around Mount Salla, the burial mound created centuries before by the local Native tribes, and no one is sure what the site contains—bones, pottery, treasures, or a curse—but the victims start to add up. Sarah Booth and her partner, Tinkie, have too many likely suspects to whittle down the list. It's a race against time once Sarah Booth's resident ghost, Jitty, in the guise of various Native American warrior women, points to the waxing of the coming Crow Moon as the time of maximum danger. Death and mystery cloak the site, and Sarah Booth isn't sure who to trust or what to believe. But she won't rest until she's dug up the truth.

Spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney tackles a thorny murder while away on a girls' weekend. Sarah Booth and Cece are in Lucedale, Mississippi, where the newly-pregnant Tinkie is treating her friends to a girls' weekend at the fabulous new Bexley B&B. The facials, organics, food, and fitness coaches are supposed to be phenomenal, but Tinkie's primary aim is to attend the Sunrise Easter Services at the incredible Palestinian Gardens, a miniature Holy Land that spreads over 20 acres and has recreations of all parts of Jerusalem—and to speak with the Biblical scholar, gardener, and creator of the Palestinian Garden Daniel Reynolds. After waking up at the crack of dawn for the service the three friends wander around the gardens, taking in the wonder of entire cities in miniature and the acres of the Holy Land, with the River Jordan winding through it all. The day is brightening when the find themselves at the Mount of Olives—with a dead body. Daniel identifies the dead man as local lawyer Perry Slay, who was well known for his sly and underhanded dealings, and had plenty of people out for his blood. When Erick Ward, a local pharmacist, is arrested, Sarah Booth takes the case. As the bodies pile up like a pillar of salt and the suspect list grows as long as the River Jordan, Sarah Booth, Cece, and Tinkie must resurrect the truth before their own lives—and that of Tinkie's unborn child—are endangered.

In Carolyn Haines' Enchanted Bones, PI Sarah Booth Delaney comes to the rescue in a short mystery set in Zinnia, Mississippi, that will delight fans and new readers alike. A lost little girl is just about the last thing Private Investigator Sarah Booth Delaney expects to see while horseback riding one evening in the woods, and her concern deepens when she reads the note pinned to the girl's it says she is cursed, and has consequently been abandoned. Filled with concern for the child, Sarah Booth gets to work tracing her origins. The quest takes her and her partner, Tinkie, to a small nomadic community on the Mississippi River, where the answers to their questions lie. Sarah Booth must tread carefully, however, for danger awaits her there as well.

Spunky southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney tackles a string of strange accidents while celebrating the holiday season in Carolyn Haines' cozy A Garland of Bones Sarah Booth has traded in hosting this Christmas season for a road trip with her besties. Each little Delta town has a special Christmas activity, and Sarah Booth’s bff and detective partner, Tinkie, has arranged to rent a limo for the gang and drive to Columbus, MS, to stay in a B&B. Visions of Christmas shopping, parade floats, and romantic rendezvous are already dancing in their heads. But Christmas cheer soon turns to Christmas fear when, at one event after another, people keep getting hurt. Christmas karaoke gets ugly when one singer’s microphone gives her an electric shock. A party during a historic home tour ends with a fall down the stairs for one of Columbus’s most disreputable “players.” And when the woman who hires Sarah Booth to find the villain behind the so-called accidents is nearly killed with an arrow during a holiday mumming, Sarah Booth knows something more sinister is at work. The Christmas bells are ringing hauntingly in Columbus this year, and Sarah Booth and Tinkie—with a little help from hunky Sheriff Coleman Peters, of course—are determined to catch the wrong-doers and ensure they receive nothing but coal in their stockings.

Carolyn Haines' Independent Bones is the next novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. When Dr. Alala Diakos, a visiting professor of Greek literature, comes to teach at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, it doesn't take long for controversy to follow. With her fervent feminist ideals and revolutionary leanings, she quickly earns the admiration of many―and the ire of others. During a speech in the park, in which Alala tries to organize the women of Zinnia to demand equal pay, the crowd gets unruly, with men heckling the professor. And when PI Sarah Booth Delaney finds a sniper rifle and scope in the bushes, she begins to worry that there are more than fighting words at stake. Sarah Booth calls her boyfriend, Sheriff Coleman Peters, who offers the protection of the Zinnia police department, but Alala rejects him, saying she has no use for the law or men. And when a notorious domestic abuser is found dead the next day, suspicions turn to Alala herself, who was overheard bragging that she would take him down. Tensions deepen when connections are drawn between Alala and two similar, previous deaths. But Sarah Booth doesn't want to believe Alala is a murderer, and when the professor shows up at Sarah Booth’s doorstep, asking her to find the real criminal, Sarah Booth embarks on a case stretching across the Delta. Yet Alala remains at the center of it all, and Sarah Booth can’t help but wonder if the killer has been with her all along...

Carolyn Haines' Lady of Bones is the next novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. It’s Halloween season in Mississippi as Sarah Booth and the gang gather to decorate and gush over Tinkie’s new baby, Maylin. Sarah Booth is just about to refresh the cocktails when she hears a knock on the door and opens it to find a woman named Frankie, distraught at the disappearance of her daughter Christa, a young journalist. Christa had been investigating the disappearance of young women in New Orleans over a five-year period—one every year around Halloween. Now Christa herself is missing, and Frankie fears it may be connected to a cult based in the Garden District, called People of Eternity. People of Eternity are known to have far-reaching connections which Frankie worries may reach as high as law enforcement. Refusing to contact the authorities, she turns to Delaney Detective Agency as her only hope. Despite initial reservations, Sarah Booth accepts the case, which takes her on a journey to a secret underworld of beguiling cult leaders, witchcraft, and potentially human sacrifice. She’ll have to keep her wits about her if she wants to crack this case…and make it home alive.

Bones of Holly is the next novel from Carolyn Haines in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. Sarah Booth and Tinkie, along with baby Maylin, are in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for Christmas this year, as judges for the annual library tree decorating contest. The other two judges are writers Sandra O’Day and Janet Malone. They’re bestselling Mississippi authors, but bitter competitors. In fact, the feud between them is the stuff of legends. For years, they’ve brawled, their sales skyrocketing with each cat fight. Sandra’s most recent true crime book documents the 1920s rum-running era of Al Capone, who built a mansion in BSL and a distribution network for his liquor. Janet’s book, scheduled to be published in January, is a fictional account of the same material—which only heightens their bitter rivalry. Sarah Booth and Tinkie are shopping with little Maylin when they see Sandra and Janet outside a bookstore, fur flying, and when Sandra vanishes from her own gala later that night, suspicion turns to Janet. Janet accuses Sandra of attempting to manipulate the media by a fake disappearance, but is it a stunt, or is something more sinister at play? Sarah Booth and Tinkie will have to dive deep into the history of Bay St. Louis, and even Al Capone himself, to get to the bottom of this case. But the trail in fact leads them back to several prominent families still residing in the area. Families who may not want their secrets known…

Private Investigator Sarah Booth Delaney and her partner Tinkie are in Sheriff Coleman Peters' office, asking Coleman about cold cases, when Elisa Redd storms in with a case her own. She wants Coleman to reopen the investigation of her missing daughter, Lydia Redd Maxell, the heiress to a large fortune who disappeared along with her friend Bethany 10 years ago, while the two of them were working as human rights organizers. Now Lydia's husband, Tope, is set to inherit the fortune, and Elisa suspects he's behind the disappearance. Armed with a pile of mysterious notes mailed to Elisa over the years, Sarah Booth and Tinkie follow an increasingly twisty trail leading all over Sunflower County, leading them to a tree and an empty grave in the county cemetery. A grave that's said to be haunted...

Delaney Detective Agency gets a taste of the spotlight when they are called to a case on a movie set in Greenville, MS, right on the Mississippi River. Marlon Brandon, heir to a wealthy and influential political family, has brought a film crew to town to film a drama about the 1927 flood that submerged a great deal of Greenville. Marlon wants the world to know the story of the flood―and the heroic role the Brandon ancestors played in rescuing dozens of local residents from drowning. Or at least that was the plan until he disappeared. If that weren't concerning enough, the situation appears even more dire when a severed foot is discovered in the Mississippi River, and clues indicate that Marlon may have fallen victim to a freak bull shark attack. But as rumors swirl around the Delta, about Marlon's motives for making the film, Sarah Booth and Tinkie have to wonder whether a shark is to blame, or an equally ferocious human offender. The show must go on, and Sarah Booth and her crew will have to investigate all manner of creatures, over land and sea, in order to solve the mystery and save the day.

Blue Christmas Bones is the next Christmas mystery in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends can’t help falling in love with Christmas this year, which they plan to spend celebrating the King of Rock n’ Roll at the annual Elvis Festival in Tupelo. The main attraction is an Elvis impersonator competition, drawing impersonators from all over the world to honor the king. But before the revelry can get underway, a priceless jewel-encrusted replica of a belt once worn by Elvis is stolen from its display case, and Sarah Booth and Tinkie are roped into one of the biggest heists in the history of Mississippi. Soon suspicious minds are lurking around every corner, with one eyewitness even claiming to have seen Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s long deceased and highly questionable manager, prowling around the festivities. Sarah Booth will have to find the devil in disguise or she might just end up singing Jailhouse Rock herself.

The next novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. After a dog belonging to local pet activist Tilly Lawson is snatched right out of her backyard in Sunflower County, MS, Sarah Booth and the Delaney Detective Agency are up to their ears in concerned pet owners. Could Tilly's work liberating abused animals have come back to bite her, or was this a random act of dognapping? Delaney Detective Agency has their work cut out for them, especially as a troublesome online pet detective agency tries nosing their way into the investigation. But as Sarah Booth and Tinkie start to sink their teeth into the mystery, they discover there's much more at play than they thought: neighborhood rivalries, questionable dog breeders, and an illegal dogfighting operation. As their digging churns up dangerous attention―and with their own beloved dogs, Sweetie Pie and Chablis, possibly next in line to be dognapped―Sarah Booth and Tinkie are in a race against time to track down the thieves and return the missing pets home.