On a sea island in South Carolina, a painting hangs in a mystery bookstore. It holds clues to five famous mysteries, and the first customer to name all five wins a free book. That shop is Death on Demand. Its creator is Carolyn Hart, an Oklahoma journalist who turned to detective fiction. She wrote four mystery series and more than sixty novels. Below are all Carolyn Hart books in order, her awards and our reviews.
Who Is Carolyn Hart? Author Bio
Carolyn Hart was born Carolyn Gimpel in Oklahoma City in 1936. At eleven she decided to become a newspaper reporter. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in journalism from the University of Oklahoma in 1958. She then worked as a reporter for the Norman Transcript and married Philip D. Hart, an attorney.
After her son was born, she left the newsroom. A contest for a mystery for girls aged 8 to 12 gave her a new start. Her entry, The Secret of the Cellars, won the prize and was published in 1964. For more than twenty years she wrote young adult mysteries and suspense novels with only modest success. From 1982 to 1985 she also taught professional writing at the University of Oklahoma.
Then she wrote the book she would love to read herself, set in a mystery bookstore. Bantam published Death on Demand in 1987, in a new paperback line of traditional mysteries by American women. Hart was a founding member of Sisters in Crime, the group that supports women crime writers. She served as president of Sisters in Crime in 1991 and 1992. In 2003 and 2007 she was a featured author at the National Book Festival in Washington.
Carolyn Hart Books in Order: All Four Series
Each series stands on its own, so you can start with any of them. Within a series, read the books in publication order, because the characters’ lives move forward.
Death on Demand Mysteries (26 books)
Annie Laurance owns the Death on Demand bookstore on Broward’s Rock, a fictional sea island in the South Carolina Low Country. In the first book, a mystery writer dies during a gathering at the shop, and Annie becomes the prime suspect. Max Darling helps her clear her name. Annie and Max Darling marry in book 4, and from then on they investigate together. Annie Darling is an amateur sleuth, and Max’s mother, Laurel, is a recurring character. The books are full of talk about classic mysteries.
- Death on Demand (1987)
- Design for Murder (1988)
- Something Wicked (1988)
- Honeymoon with Murder (1988)
- A Little Class on Murder (1989)
- Deadly Valentine (1990)
- The Christie Caper (1991)
- Southern Ghost (1992)
- Mint Julep Murder (1995)
- Yankee Doodle Dead (1998)
- White Elephant Dead (1999)
- Sugarplum Dead (2000)
- April Fool Dead (2002)
- Engaged to Die (2003)
- Murder Walks the Plank (2004)
- Death of the Party (2005)
- Dead Days of Summer (2006)
- Death Walked In (2008)
- Dare to Die (2009)
- Laughed ’til He Died (2010)
- Dead by Midnight (2011)
- Death Comes Silently (2012)
- Dead, White and Blue (2013)
- Death at the Door (2014)
- Don’t Go Home (2015)
- Walking on My Grave (2017)
Henrie O Mysteries (7 books)
In the Henrie O series, Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins, known as Henrie O, is a retired newspaperwoman in her seventies. Like her author, she is an ex-journalist. The first book became a 1996 CBS television movie with Barbara Eden and William Shatner.
- Dead Man’s Island (1993)
- Scandal in Fair Haven (1994)
- Death in Lovers’ Lane (1997)
- Death in Paradise (1998)
- Death on the River Walk (1999)
- Resort to Murder (2001)
- Set Sail for Murder (2007)
Bailey Ruth Raeburn Mysteries (10 books)
The Bailey Ruth Raeburn series follows Bailey Ruth, a red-haired ghost who works for Heaven’s Department of Good Intentions. She travels down on the Rescue Express to her old hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma, to help people in trouble.
- Ghost at Work (2008)
- Merry, Merry Ghost (2009)
- Ghost in Trouble (2010)
- Ghost Gone Wild (2013)
- Ghost Wanted (2014)
- Ghost to the Rescue (2015)
- Ghost Times Two (2016)
- Ghost on the Case (2017)
- Ghost Ups Her Game (2020)
- Ghost Blows a Kiss (2021)
Nela Farley (1 book)
What the Cat Saw (2012) was launched as the first of a new series. Nela Farley, an out-of-work reporter, understands the thoughts of cats when she looks into their eyes. No second book followed, and the author’s website now lists it with her standalones.
Carolyn G. Hart Standalone Novels
Her early books appeared as Carolyn G. Hart; the G stands for Gimpel. She has never used a pen name. Besides the series, she wrote five novels for young readers and fourteen standalone novels for adults:
- Young readers: The Secret of the Cellars (1964), Dangerous Summer (1968), No Easy Answers (1970), Rendezvous in Veracruz (1970), Danger: High Explosives! (1972)
- 1970s: Flee from the Past (1975), A Settling of Accounts (1976)
- 1980s: Escape from Paris (1982), The Rich Die Young (1983), Death by Surprise (1983), Castle Rock (1983), Skulduggery (1984), The Devereaux Legacy (1986), Brave Hearts (1987)
- Later standalones: Letter from Home (2003), Cry in the Night (2012), Cliff’s Edge (2014), High Stakes (2015), Peril Off Padre
Letter from Home is a wartime novel set in Oklahoma during World War II, and it won her third Agatha Award. Cliff’s Edge follows Camilla in ancient Rome. In High Stakes, aspiring actress Kirsten Soderstrom is caught up with a senator. Peril Off Padre is a hunt for Aztec gold off the Texas coast.
Awards: Agatha, Anthony, Macavity and Grand Master
Something Wicked won the first Agatha Award for Best Novel, given in 1988. It also won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. Honeymoon with Murder won a second Anthony, and A Little Class on Murder won the Macavity Award for best novel. She won two more Agathas, for Dead Man’s Island and Letter from Home.
In 2007 Malice Domestic gave her its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 she was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.
The Newest Carolyn Hart Book
The most recent new novel is Ghost Blows a Kiss (Severn House, 2021), the tenth Bailey Ruth book. The last Death on Demand mystery is Walking on My Grave (2017). No new book has been announced. Open Road Media is reissuing her early standalones as ebooks in 2025 and 2026.
Where to Start: Death on Demand, Then Design for Murder
The Death on Demand series is her best-known work, and its publishers call it a New York Times bestselling series. For bookstore puzzles and island life, start with Death on Demand and go on with Design for Murder. If you prefer an older, sharper heroine, begin with Dead Man’s Island. For a lighter read with a ghost who breaks the rules, start with Ghost at Work.
Books by Carolyn Hart Reviewed on This Site
We have reviewed three of her books, each from a different corner of her work. Our Death on Demand review looks at how the series began: Annie, her shop and a dead writer at the Sunday night meeting. The What the Cat Saw review is about Nela Farley and Jugs, the cat who knows too much. The Skulduggery review looks at a 1984 suspense novel about an anthropologist in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Frequently Asked Questions About Carolyn Hart
How many books has Carolyn Hart written?
We count 63 novels: 44 in her four series, five for young readers and fourteen adult standalones. Her short story collections and edited anthologies are not included.
Is Carolyn Hart still writing?
Her latest new novel came out in 2021. Since then, only reissues of her older books have appeared.
Is Carolyn Hart the same as Callie Hart?
No. Callie Hart is a British romance and romantasy author, best known for Quicksilver (2024). If you are looking for the order of Callie Hart’s books, her own website is the place to check. Carolyn Hart writes traditional mysteries.
Is Carolyn Hart related to John Hart?
No. John Hart is an American thriller writer, born in 1965, whose first novel was The King of Lies (2006). His books are dark crime novels, not cozies.
Did Carolyn Hart write the Midsomer Murders books?
No, that is Caroline Graham, an English writer. Her Chief Inspector Barnaby novels, starting with The Killings at Badger’s Drift (1987), became the TV series Midsomer Murders.
Which authors are similar to Carolyn Hart?
Charlaine Harris praised What the Cat Saw in a cover blurb. Margaret Maron and Nancy Pickard led Sisters in Crime just before Hart did. Readers of Hart also often pick up Donna Andrews, Dorothy Gilman and Alexander McCall Smith.