The solution shared in this answer on StackOverflow works for me:
function get_book_post_type_template($single_template) {
global $post;
if ($post->post_type == 'books') {
$single_template = dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/themefiles/single-books.php';
}
return $single_template;
}
add_filter( "single_template", "get_book_post_type_template" ) ;