Carolyn Haines is not only a bestselling author but a kindred spirit. Along with her amazing career and long-running mystery series (31 titles), she runs an animal rescue called Good Fortune Farm Rescue).
I see that Joy to the Bones is the final book in the amazing Sarah Booth Delaney series. Thirty-one books is an amazing run, but I’m disappointed there won’t be any more. How do you feel about wrapping up the series? Is it bittersweet?
This was a very tough decision. I’ve invested so much of my time – and heart – in these characters. They are my friends. When life got dicey, I could escape to Zinnia and see what my pals were up to. But from the first book, I knew what the last story would be. Sarah Booth will investigate who killed her parents. It is the one mystery she must solve to go on with her life unimpeded by a sense of injustice. I’m getting older. I have watched several close friends struggle with illness and die. I feel great and healthy, but nothing is guaranteed. And I owed it to Sarah Booth and the gang to end this properly.
The series has been described as “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya sisterhood.” Sarah Booth has the same feisty charm as Stephanie Plum, but are there any differences?
I think Sarah Booth is much more connected to the land and history of the Mississippi Delta. She carries the joy and shame of that history. Like me, she loves her homeland but she is not blind to the problems. And I think that gives her a deep, deep connection to history, culture, and a need for justice. There’s a darker, more serious thread in the stories though I tried hard to be comedic and funny.
A reviewer said Jitty is a “resident ghost turned spiritual guide.” There’s something about the South that lends itself to ghostly apparitions and supernatural tales. Did you know from the start that Jitty would always play such an important part in the series?
I was sitting at my computer one day, watching my horses graze in the pasture and knowing that I had to come up with a good story that would sell – so I could feed the herd, the dogs, the cats, and myself! Stories usually come to me with a visual clip where I explore who and what I’m seeing in the clip. But this was aural. I heard Sarah Booth and Jitty arguing. Jitty was giving her the dickens! Who are these people? I began writing the dialogue as they talked. I saw Jitty in her velveteen hot-pants from the 1970s and I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. It wasn’t until an hour later that I realized Jitty was dead
The Mississippi Delta plays such an integral part of your book. Have you always lived in the South? You’ve nailed the setting perfectly. You once described it as a “land of stark contrasts and strange beauty.”
I grew up in the pine barrens, a much poorer area of Mississippi. Lucedale is in the Southwest corner closer to the Gulf coast. I visited the Delta in college and was in awe. When I was a young reporter, I went into the state prison at Parchman – 22,000 acres of cotton–undercover to do a story about prison conditions there. My little town had a few wealthy people, but the Delta! Wow! It was rich or poor. Very rich. Not much middle ground. And remember, I wrote the first book in 1999. No internet, no cable TV in many places. The South was still an isolated area not greatly influenced by the larger world.
Your love of animals is legendary. How did Good Fortune Farm Refuge come about? I see that you have horses as well as dogs and cats.
When I bought my little farm, I immediately began to fill it with stray animals. Dogs, cats, horses. If I could afford to vet and feed it, I took it in. My friend Aleta Boudreaux suggested starting a 501c3, which allows folks to donate to a charity. I’ve pretty much done the farm work myself with help from Aleta and a few other friends
How did your early career as a journalist help with fiction writing?
I saw and did things most people will never do. I also learned an acute sense of the power of motivation. Why did someone rob a store? What’s the personal story behind “just the facts, ma’am.” Motivation is everything in fiction. I also learned to write every day, to meet deadlines, to be professional, to take criticism and edits and actually use them to improve a story. It was invaluable.
Did you always know you’d write mysteries? With a supernatural twist?
I’ve always loved scary stories and mysteries. I grew up on Nancy Drew, Poe, Sherlock, Christie, Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson and so many more. I sense the emotions of the past. And I have also seen a few ghosts. I know that sounds crazy, but just go with me here. I live in a world where words are magic. Stories can heal or harm. Is is so unrealistic that I see energy that was once such a part of a place? And just so you know, I have a list of people I’m going to haunt!
Where can fans catch up with you? I’m sure you’re celebrating the launch of Joy to the Bones.
I have a book signing in Mobile at the Haunted Bookshop Oct.24 at 5 p.m. and I’ll be signing at the library in Columbus, MS the first week of November.But you can keep up with me by subscribing to my newsletter on my website. I’m also on Facebook. I’m working on a supernatural thriller with a touch of fantasy with Daryl Marcus, a writer I’ve known for a while. It’s a big, fun, complicated story idea. I have so many ideas and stories I want to tell. I feel like Dorothy looking at the hourglass! Eeek! I’d better get up and get moving.
Thanks so much for giving us a sneak peek into your fascinating life, and I’m sending a donation to your rescue.
JOY TO THE BONES by Carolyn Haines
In this final installment of the series, sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney is up against her biggest—and most personal—mystery yet.
Still reeling from the discovery that her parents’ deaths, decades ago, might not have been an accident, Private Investigator Sarah Booth Delaney doesn’t know who to believe anymore. Her best friend and business partner, Tinkie, purposefully kept her in the dark; her lover, Coleman, intentionally lied to her; and her meddlesome ghost-turned-spiritual-guide, Jitty, kept more secrets than she can count. Now, even the people Sarah Booth once trusted more than anything are suspect.
Armed with new knowledge about her parents’ car crash, Sarah Booth sets out to solve her biggest case yet: her parents’ murder. And she’s prepared to do it alone if she has to.
But the Mississippi Delta doesn’t pause for anyone, not even Sarah Booth. While trying to untangle the truth about her parents’ fate, Sarah Booth gets roped into investigating the DeLonge Mansion, a magnificent old house with seemingly no one left alive to claim it. With the return of her nemesis, Gertrude Stromm, looming over her head—and the pieces of her failed relationships still scattered around her—Sarah Booth has her work cut out for her this holiday season.
Mystery Paranormal [ St. Martin’s Press, On Sale: October 27, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781250377692 / eISBN: 9781250377708 ]
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About Carolyn Haines
Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of over 80 published books, including the long-running Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series. DOGGONE BONES is the newest in the series. Haines is also the founder of Good Fortune Farm Refuge, a “retirement home” for (currently) 7 dogs, 12 cats, and 2 horses. A lifelong animal rescuer, she loves caring for the animals and writing books. You can learn more about her and subscribe to her newsletter on her website.
Sarah Booth Delaney
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About Mary Kennedy
Mary Kennedy is a licensed psychologist and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries. She’s written nearly fifty novels and has four million copies in print. Her first thirty-five books were young adult novels published by Scholastic nationwide and in several countries. She lives in the northeast with an eccentric cat. She’s tried unsuccessfully to psychoanalyze him but she remains optimistic.
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