Joy
to the Bones: A
Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery
Book by
Carolyn Haines
Book 31
of this series (and the last)
Available
on Amazon in Hardback, Kindle, and Audio
This title will be released on October 27, 2026.
Review by Joan Leotta
Holiday season in Zinnia, Mississippi, a bayou country bayou
country town, takes on new and rather scary dimensions for private investigator
Sarah Booth Delaney. What at first presents as a small, mostly document hunting
job, to determine ownership of the DeLonge Mansion turns into a murder case. Of
course the abandoned property with seemingly no one left alive to claim ownership,
in the swampland near Zinnia, looks the part of a haunted house, but what truly
haunts our intrepid protagonist is the discovery that her parents’ deaths
twenty years earlier were not accidental, and even worse, her best friend
Tinkie Richmond, Sarah Booth’s boyfriend, Coleman Peters, Sherrif of Sunflower
County, and even Sara Booth’s friendly “haint” (southern for ghost), Jitty, all
knew that it was a murder and to protect Sara Booth had not told her.
Sarah Booth is stung
to the core, feeling betrayed by those closest to her, and decides to cut ties
with all three of them, a decision that leaves her feeling depressed and very
very alone. The path to forgiving them for holding back information from her to
save her from pain, leads her to discover new things about relationships and
puts readers on track with the contemporary mysteries and gives the
characters—all of them—a rounding out and depth of personality that made me arrive
at a very positive opinion of all of them—put me firmly on their side. In
addition, the author, while tracking Sarah Booth’s line of reasoning catches up
first-time readers like myself with the place of this novel’s action in the
life of our protagonist. Fortunately, she comes to her senses about discarding her living
and the dead (Jitty) friends who love her and want to help her, she enlists
their help in finding out more about her parents’ murders and also works with
Coleman Peters on the contemporary murders that occur on the grounds of the mansion.
Once the affirmation of the strength of the friendships is nailed down, the
plot moves along smartly.
Threats to Sarah Booth add sizzle to the plot which simmers
along like a low country crawfish boil. Seems that an old nemesis, Gertrude
Stromm, might be a part of the past murder and may also be implicated in the
current mansion-related murders. Haines is masterful in her use of dialog to
build suspense and keep the book moving along smartly.
In spite of the series having been around for a while (30
other books!) this was my first encounter with Sarah Booth and her crew. Haines
had a deft hand at description and also uses incidents and character
interaction to reveal that Sarah Booth’s feisty, intellect that helps her
friends love her and makes readers trust what she observes, inspects, and analyzes
in situations of all sorts. In short, it’s easy to begin to think of Sarah
Booth as a friend and the book as an encounter described over a lunch (albeit
lengthy). Would Sarah Booth want to befriend someone old like me? Well, one of
her close circle is well over a hundred years old. For example, I found myself
shouting at Sarah Booth not to go to the old mansion alone—and sure enough she
finds a dead body there-and sure enough the mystery of ownership is entangled
with forces that threaten her safety. Jitty tries to warn her—but Jitty’s
messages are coded and can be misinterpreted-.
In fact, those parts of the haint’s character, that no one
except Sarah Booth can see and talk to Jitty and the haint’s use of code to
communicate were two factors I did not like about the book. But once I decided
to accept these elements, I was able to appreciate how Haine use them to
advance the story and I allowed myself to become immersed in the solving of
these two cases—the mansion murders and ownership issues and the murder of
Sarah Booth’s Parents. In fact, I became so immersed, I stayed up all night
reading. Haines is a master of pacing. Although I own a raft of bookmarks, I
was reluctant to put one anyplace in the book. I just kept reading!
With a
few suggestive lines at a happily -ever-after, (perhaps orange blossoms and
even a law degree) for Sarah Booth, Haines leaves Sarah Booth with this
mystery. Joy to the Bones is the last time we will open a book that carries us
through another of Sarah Booth Delaney’s bayou adventures. Although we readers will not be able to continue
to watch future happenings for these characters, just as life often whisks us
away from close contact with people we meet, I wish them well. And of course,
for anyone who misses Sarah Booth, it is always possible to reread the earlier
mysteries, starting with the first in the series, Them Bones,
published in November 1999. And although the time period for readers’
lives covers several decades, Haines says that the time elapsed for Sarah Booth
is under three years. Fans of the series will definitely want to read this last
installment, and for others, who like me, have not read it before, Joy to the
Bones is a great little holiday mystery and a fun read that can be enjoyed on
its own.
For
more information on Caroyn Haines’ future writing plans, check out the
interview with her that will also appear on Kevin’s blog.
Joan Leotta ©2026
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