North Carolina book series in reading order

by Robert Beatty

by Kathy Reichs

Joyce & Jim Lavene is a writing partnership credited with 67 books between 1999 and 2016, the catalogue opening with A Time for Love (1999). Subjects include mystery and detective fiction, murder investigation, sheriffs and North Carolina. Mystery series by Joyce & Jim Lavene include Sharyn Howard, Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries, A Renaissance Faire Mystery, Missing Pieces Mystery, Retired Witches Mysteries, Pie Shop Mysteries and Pet Psychic Mystery. Romance also appears among the subjects, and a non-fiction line sits alongside the novels. Putting on the Witch (2016) is the newest title, and the catalogue is marked likely complete.

Nicholas Sparks

27 books• 4 series

Nicholas Sparks, born December 31, 1965, is an American novelist who also works as a screenwriter and film producer. Sparks has published 24 novels, 16 of them New York Times bestsellers, plus two nonfiction books, and sales exceed 130 million copies in more than 50 languages. The earliest catalogued title is Wokini (1990), a nonfiction book written with Billy Mills; The Notebook (1996) was the first novel. The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle are among 11 Sparks books adapted as feature films. Subjects in the catalogue include contemporary romance, North Carolina, widowers and fathers and daughters. The site lists 27 books, with Remain (2025) as the newest, and series entries for the Calhoun Family / Notebook and Jeremy Marsh & Lexie Darnell.

Mark de Castrique grew up above a Hendersonville, North Carolina funeral home where his father was the funeral director, and undertakers run through his mysteries. The Buryin' Barry books and the Sam Blackman series account for most of a catalogue of 25 titles between Blackman's Coffin (2003) and Desperate Spies (2025), with the Secret Lives mysteries beside them. Disabled veterans, private investigators, sheriffs and murder investigation fill the subject tags. De Castrique also works in broadcast and film production, and won an Emmy for documentary work.

Domestic fiction is Diane Chamberlain's form: mothers and daughters, sisters, marriages and friendships, with North Carolina and New Jersey as the usual settings. Chamberlain's 32 catalogued books open with Lovers and Strangers (1990) and include the Keeper of the Light Trilogy, Before The Storm, Necessary Lies and Pretending To Dance. The Last House on the Street is the most recent title, and the catalogue has been dormant since 2022.

Ann B Ross published The Murder Cure in 1978 and The Murder Stroke in 1981 before the books that made her name. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind (1990) started a comic mystery series about a North Carolina widow, and it fills most of a 27-title catalogue. Humour, small-town life and women sleuths are the recurring subjects. Miss Julia Happily Ever After (2021) is the last entry.

Margaret Maron

43 books• 6 series

Two detective series carry Margaret Maron's mysteries: Judge Deborah Knott, a woman on the bench, and Sigrid Harald, a police officer. One Coffee With (1981) opens the catalogue, followed by Death of a Butterfly, Bloody Kin and The Right Jack. Forty-three books reach Take Out in 2017, and the catalogue is listed as complete.

Clyde Edgerton is an American author and academic from North Carolina, born May 20, 1944. Edgerton taught creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington for 26 years, and three Edgerton books have been adapted for film. The catalogue lists 14 books from Raney (1985) to Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers (2013), including Walking Across Egypt (1987), The Floatplane Notebooks (1988), Killer Diller (1991) and Lunch at the Piccadilly (2003). Subject tags include North Carolina, the Southern states, marriage and musicians.

The Mitford novels are the core of Jan Karon's work: New York Times bestsellers set in the fictional village of Mitford and featuring Father Timothy Kavanagh, an Episcopal priest. Karon, an American novelist born March 14, 1937, writes for adults and young readers. My Beloved, the most recent Mitford novel, came out in October 2025. Karon was named a lay Canon for the Arts in the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, Illinois, and in May 2000 received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Nashotah House, a seminary in Wisconsin. The catalogue records 30 books from Miss Fannie's Hat (1993) onward, with At Home in Mitford (1994) as the second.

Cozy mystery is Tamar Myers's form, and 49 catalogued books carry her name across three series: Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, Den of Antiquity and Amanda Brown. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (1993) opens the catalogue and Cousins From a Distant Sun (2026) is the newest entry. The recurring sleuths are Magdalena Yoder and Abigail Timberlake, and the books' subjects take in Mennonites, hotelkeepers, antique dealers, women detectives and cooking.

Cozy mystery is Elizabeth Spann Craig's form, written in five series: Myrtle Clover Mysteries, Southern Quilting Mystery, Village Library Mysteries, Memphis BBQ Mysteries and Sunset Ridge Mystery. Women sleuths lead the books, and the subjects run to older women, quilting, barbecue, real estate development and North Carolina. Craig's catalogue holds 72 books, from Pretty is as Pretty Dies (2009) to A Dish Best Served Dead (2026).

Lin Stepp writes romance set in the Smoky Mountains. 24 catalogued books run from The Foster Girls (2009) to Wildflower Haven (2026). Mountain Home carries the Tennessee and North Carolina stories, among them Tell Me about Orchard Hollow (2010), Delia's Place (2012) and Saving Laurel Springs (2015); Edisto and Lighthouse Sisters are the other two series. Widows, single mothers, foster children and changes of life run through the subjects.

Ellery Adams writes murder mysteries, and women sleuths appear among the subject headings. The catalogue lists 57 books from 2006, the year of A Killer Collection and A Fatal Appraisal, to The Liars' Book Club (2026). Named series include the Secret, Book & Scone Society, Book Retreat Mysteries, Books by the Bay, Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries, Hope Street Church Mystery, Supper Club Mystery and A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery. Librarians, bakeries and pies are listed there too.

P.T. Deutermann writes naval fiction and thrillers drawn from United States Navy service. Scorpion in the Sea (1992), The Edge of Honor and Official Privilege sit early in a catalogue of 29 books, the World War II Navy novels form its largest strand, and the Cam Richter mysteries run alongside. The Screaming Sands is scheduled for 2027.

Lynne Hinton writes about friendship and faith in small American towns. Friendship Cake (2000) opens a run of North Carolina church-community novels, and the Divine Private Detective Agency Mysteries and the Pie Town books, set in New Mexico, follow. Seventeen titles reach O, Biscuit! (2026), and Hinton is listed as actively publishing.

Michael Malone (1942-2022) was an American novelist and television writer whose work included the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. Twelve catalogued books run from Painting the Roses Red in 1974 to The Four Corners of the Sky in 2009, among them Dingley Falls in 1980, Handling Sin in 1986 and Foolscap in 1991. Savile and Mangum is the one named series and First Lady a murder mystery; North Carolina, police work, race relations and serial murder are the recurring subjects, often handled in a humorous register.

Ellen Foster (1987) is the novel Kaye Gibbons is known for, and the one she returned to in The Life All Around Me By Ellen Foster (2005). Gibbons, born in 1960 in Nash County, North Carolina, is an American novelist and a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Ellen Foster took the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, a Special Citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Prize; it and A Virtuous Woman (1989) were chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 1998. 11 catalogued books reach The Lunatics Ball (2011). Mothers and daughters, young women and North Carolina family life fill the subjects.

Kathy Reichs

47 books• 5 series

Kathy Reichs, born Kathleen Joan Toelle on July 7, 1948, is an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic. Reichs holds the title of professor emerita of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the television series Bones drew on Reichs's work. Déjà Dead (1997) is the first catalogued book, followed by Death du Jour (1999), Deadly Decisions (2000) and Fatal Voyage (2001). The subjects pair Temperance Brennan with forensic anthropology, medical examiners and murder. Series include Temperance Brennan and Tory Brennan (Virals), and the listing runs to 2025.

Diana Gabaldon

33 books• 12 series

Diana Gabaldon is best known for the Outlander book series. Gabaldon, born January 11, 1952, is an American author and television writer whose novels mix historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure and science fiction or fantasy. Starz premiered a television adaptation of the Outlander novels in 2014. The catalogue lists 33 titles, from Outlander / Cross Stitch (1991) to Besieged (2022), with Dragonfly in Amber (1992) and Voyager (1993) early in the run. Lord John Grey is a second named series. Time travel, Scotland, Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall appear among the subject headings.

Mary Alice Monroe is an American novelist, born in Evanston, Illinois, on 25 May 1960, and resident in South Carolina. Monroe's fiction draws parallels between nature and human nature: The Beach House and Swimming Lessons both involve injured sea turtles, and Time Is a River follows breast cancer survivors in a North Carolina fly-fishing group. The catalogue holds 33 books from The Long Road Home (1995) to Where the Rivers Merge (2025), with The Rivers' End due in 2027, plus the Beach House, Lowcountry Summer, Islanders and Rivers series. One title appeared under the name Mary Alice Kruesi.

Kay Hooper, born in 1957, is a New York Times bestselling American author credited with more than 60 books. The catalogue counts 86 Hooper books between Lady Thief (1981) and Curse of Salem (2021), several early titles appearing under the name Kay Robbins. Subjects include romance, suspense, the Loveswept imprint, psychics, serial murders and the fictional investigator Noah Bishop. Series include the Bishop Files, Hagan, Shamrock Trinity and Once Upon A Time..., and no new title has been listed since 2021.

Sherryl Woods is an American writer of romance and mystery, born July 23, 1944, in Arlington, Virginia, who has also used the pen names Alexandra Kirk and Suzanne Sherrill. The Chesapeake Shores novels became a six-season Hallmark Channel series, and Netflix's Sweet Magnolias is based on Woods' books, with Woods as an executive producer. The catalogue lists 157 titles from Restoring Love (1982) to Starlit Secrets (2024). Other named series include Calamity Janes, Devaney Brothers and the Amanda Roberts and Molly DeWitt mysteries.

Sarah Addison Allen has 11 catalogued books, from Tried and True (2003), published under the pen name Katie Gallagher, to Paper Ghosts (2026). Garden Spells (2007), The Sugar Queen (2008), The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2010), The Peach Keeper (2011), Lost Lake (2014) and First Frost (2015) are among the titles, and Waverley Family is the listed series. Magic, sisters, family secrets and North Carolina feature in the subjects. Allen is an American author and a New York Times bestseller.

North Carolina is where John Hart sets his crime novels, which turn on families, fathers and sons, and murder. The King of Lies (2006) opens a catalogue of seven books that runs through Down River (2007), The Last Child (2009), Iron House (2012), Redemption Road (2016) and The Hush (2018) to The Unwilling (2021). Johnny Merrimon carries one short series; the rest stand alone. Nothing new has been published since 2021.

Delia Owens is an American zoologist, conservationist and author, born on April 4, 1949, and raised in southern Georgia. Owens earned a zoology degree at the University of Georgia and a PhD in animal behavior from the University of California, Davis. After marrying Mark Owens in 1973, the pair moved to southern Africa in 1974 to study animals in the Kalahari Desert and Zambia. The catalogue lists 4 books: Cry of the Kalahari (1984), The Eye of the Elephant (1992), Secrets of the Savanna (2006) and the 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing, the book Owens is best known for.