Charlaine Harris Books in Order: Every Book Series, Her Life and Our Reviews

For about two years, nobody wanted Dead Until Dark. Charlaine Harris had already spent 13 years on two mystery series that did well but were no blockbusters. Then Ace took her novel about a telepathic waitress in northern Louisiana. It became the first of 13 Sookie Stackhouse books and, later, True Blood on TV.

Sookie is only one part of her work. Below is her full list, series by series, from the Aurora Teagarden murder mysteries to the Gunnie Rose novels. You will also find her newest book, the next one and the four books we have reviewed.

Who Is Charlaine Harris? The Author Behind Sookie Stackhouse

She was born on November 25, 1951, in Tunica, Mississippi, and grew up there, in the Delta. Her full married name is Jean Charlaine Harris Schulz.

At Rhodes College in Memphis, then called Southwestern at Memphis, she began writing plays. She took a BA in English there in 1973. In 1978 she married Hal Schulz, and they have three children. The family lived for many years in Magnolia, Arkansas. Today she and her husband live in Texas, on a cliff above the Brazos River, with their rescue dogs.

Her first book, Sweet and Deadly, appeared in 1981. Harris is best known for Sookie, yet she had been publishing mysteries for 20 years before the first Sookie book. Her books have since sold more than 39 million copies worldwide. On her website she writes a regular “Books & Blog” column, where she reviews other writers.

Charlaine Harris Books in Order: Every Series

Read each one in the order it came out, because the characters change from book to book. The series appear in the order they began, and the counts are novels only.

Aurora Teagarden Series: 10 Books

The main character, Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, is a 28-year-old librarian in Lawrenceton, Georgia, a fictional suburb of Atlanta, when the books open. She belongs to Real Murders, a club of 12 true-crime buffs.

1. Real Murders (1990)
2. A Bone to Pick (1992)
3. Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (1994)
4. The Julius House (1995)
5. Dead Over Heels (1996)
6. A Fool and His Honey (1999)
7. Last Scene Alive (2002)
8. Poppy Done to Death (2003)
9. All the Little Liars (2016)
10. Sleep Like a Baby (2017)

The short story “Deeply Dead” (1997) is not numbered. After book 8 there was a 13-year pause. Harris has announced no new Aurora title since 2017.

Lily Bard Series (Shakespeare Mysteries): 5 Books

Lily is a cleaning lady with a violent past in Shakespeare, Arkansas. Harris has said she is done with these books.

1. Shakespeare’s Landlord (1996)
2. Shakespeare’s Champion (1997)
3. Shakespeare’s Christmas (1998)
4. Shakespeare’s Trollop (2000)
5. Shakespeare’s Counselor (2001)

Lily came back in a short story, “The One That Got Away”, in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (2025).

Sookie Stackhouse (The Southern Vampire Mysteries): 13 Books

Its other name is the Southern Vampire Mysteries. The heroine, named Sookie Stackhouse, can read minds, and she lives in the small town of Bon Temps. As that name says, vampires are part of her world.

1. Dead Until Dark (2001)
2. Living Dead in Dallas (2002)
3. Club Dead (2003)
4. Dead to the World (2004)
5. Dead as a Doornail (2005)
6. Definitely Dead (2006)
7. All Together Dead (2007)
8. From Dead to Worse (2008)
9. Dead and Gone (2009)
10. Dead in the Family (2010)
11. Dead Reckoning (2011)
12. Deadlocked (2012)
13. Dead Ever After (2013)

After Dead (2013) is a coda, and A Touch of Dead and The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories collect the short stories. For the characters and a full reading guide, see our Sookie Stackhouse series page.

Harper Connelly Mysteries: 4 Books

Harper Connelly was struck by lightning at 15, and since then she can find the dead. She travels with her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang. The first case takes them to Sarne, Arkansas, in the Ozarks.

1. Grave Sight (2005)
2. Grave Surprise (2006)
3. An Ice Cold Grave (2007)
4. Grave Secret (2009)

A graphic novel version of Grave Sight followed in three parts in 2011 and 2012.

Midnight, Texas Trilogy: 3 Books

Midnight is a Texas town with one traffic light, a pawnshop and a diner. Its lead is the psychic Manfred Bernardo, whom readers first met in Grave Surprise.

1. Midnight Crossroad (2014)
2. Day Shift (2015)
3. Night Shift (2016)

Cemetery Girl Graphic Novels: 3 Books

Harris also wrote a graphic novel trilogy with Christopher Golden, and Don Kramer drew it.

1. The Pretenders (2014)
2. Inheritance (2015)
3. Haunted (2018)

Gunnie Rose Series: 6 Books

Lizbeth Rose is a young gunslinger, a “gunnie”, in an America that broke into several countries after the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt. Magic is real there, but people mistrust it. From book 3 the story also follows her half-sister Felicia, a granddaughter of Rasputin.

1. An Easy Death (2018)
2. A Longer Fall (2020)
3. The Russian Cage (2021)
4. The Serpent in Heaven (2022)
5. All the Dead Shall Weep (2023)
6. The Last Wizards’ Ball (2025)

The sixth book is the last, so Gunnie Rose is complete.

The Stronghold: Her Next Series

Book 1, Hold My Spellbook, is announced for February 9, 2027. More about it below.

Standalone Novels: 2 Books

Before her first series she wrote two standalone mysteries:

1. Sweet and Deadly (1981), published in the UK as Dead Dog
2. A Secret Rage (1984)

That makes 43 novels under her own name. The graphic novels, the story collections and the seven anthologies she edited with Toni L.P. Kelner come on top.

What Genre Does Charlaine Harris Write? Cozy Mystery, Darker Crime and Urban Fantasy

She writes mystery fiction, and her later books are urban fantasy. Her own website calls the Aurora and Lily books mysteries and the Sookie and Harper books urban fantasies. The tone changes a lot from one to the next.

Aurora Teagarden is her traditional cozy mystery series. It is lighthearted, and Publishers Weekly praised its “humorous social satire”. It still has an edge: Carolyn Hart wrote that Real Murders “alternately charms and chills”.

The darker side starts with Lily Bard. She is a more troubled heroine than Aurora, and Publishers Weekly saw “a blend of cozy style with more hard-boiled elements”. Her backstory includes a sexual assault, which some readers will want to know before they start. Harper’s books are paranormal mysteries about a woman who can locate dead bodies.

Then there is urban fantasy. With Sookie Stackhouse, Harris wanted to mix “mystery, the supernatural, bloody adventure, and a dash of romance” with humor. Midnight, Texas stays with psychics and vampires, and Gunnie Rose moves into alternate-history fantasy. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas sums her up as a writer whose novels have “a distinctive Southern setting” and are “often full of dark humor”.

Where to Start: Aurora Teagarden, Sookie or the Harper Connelly Series

Cozy readers should start with Real Murders, Aurora’s debut. Our Real Murders review tells you what to expect. For darker tastes, go on to Shakespeare’s Landlord, Lily’s first case.

Readers who came for vampires should open Dead Until Dark, the first Sookie book. For something different again, start the Harper Connelly series with Grave Sight.

Has Charlaine Harris Won Awards? From the Anthony to Grand Master

Yes. Dead Until Dark won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original and was an Agatha finalist for Best Novel. Real Murders had been an Agatha nominee before it. The second Sookie novel won the Lord Ruthven Award in 2003.

The biggest honours came later. The Mystery Writers of America named her Grand Master for 2021. “This is like winning the lottery and the Pulitzer Prize in one day,” she said. In 2023 International Thriller Writers made her a ThrillerMaster, together with Walter Mosley. Her story “The One That Got Away” was an Edgar Award nominee in 2026.

On Screen: True Blood, the Aurora Teagarden Movies and Midnight, Texas

Three sets of her books have been adapted for TV. The television series True Blood came from creator Alan Ball and ran on HBO from 2008 to 2014: seven seasons, 80 episodes. Anna Paquin played Sookie, and season 1 follows the first Sookie story.

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has made 21 Aurora Teagarden TV films (2015–2024), starting with A Bone to Pick. Candace Cameron Bure starred in the first 18, and Skyler Samuels plays a younger Aurora in the three prequels. The films move Lawrenceton from Georgia to Washington State. NBC’s Midnight, Texas ran for two seasons, from 2017 to 2018.

The Newest Charlaine Harris Book and the Next One

Her newest book is The Last Wizards’ Ball, published by Gallery / Saga Press on July 22, 2025. It is the sixth and final Gunnie Rose novel. Since then there have been reissues, but no new novel.

Next comes Hold My Spellbook, due from Saga Press on February 9, 2027. It starts The Stronghold. Madison Briggs, who is prone to seizures, steps through a portal. There she learns she is Hannalyn Severne, “the last living member of a powerful house of mages”. Harris has said she is already working on another book with the same characters.

We have reviewed four of her series openers. The Real Murders review follows Aurora and the Real Murders club. The Shakespeare’s Landlord review covers Lily Bard‘s first case. Sookie’s story begins in our Dead Until Dark review. The Grave Sight review opens the Harper Connelly books.

Frequently Asked Questions About Books by Charlaine Harris

How many books has Charlaine Harris written?

43 novels under her own name: two standalones and 41 series books. On top come three Cemetery Girl graphic novels, story collections and anthologies she edited.

Is Charlaine Harris a cozy mystery author?

Partly. The Aurora Teagarden books are cozy mysteries, and Lily Bard is a darker take on the cozy. The Sookie books, her best known, are urban fantasy.

Is the Sookie series finished?

Yes. Dead Ever After (2013) is the 13th and final novel. Harris added the coda After Dead the same year.

Is Charlaine Harris her real name?

Yes. Her full name is Jean Charlaine Harris Schulz, and Schulz is her married name. She has no pen name.

Which authors are similar to Charlaine Harris?

Carolyn Hart, who praised Real Murders, has her own author page here. Rhys Bowen won the Agatha the year Harris’s first Sookie novel was a finalist. For more librarian sleuths like Aurora, see our librarian mysteries. Sookie fans can try our paranormal cozy mysteries.