AW Hartoin Books in Order
Explore AW Hartoin books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy advice on where to start with Mercy Watts, Stella Bled, and more.
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AW Hartoin books in publication order
46 books
A Fairy's Guide to Disaster
by AW Hartoin
2012
Matilda Whipplethorn is tiny, hearing-impaired, and desperate to prove she is capable of more than babysitting. When humans tear her home from the manor wall, she has to protect her charges in a world that suddenly feels huge.
Coke with a Twist
by AW Hartoin
2012
Mercy's PI father pulls her into a fast, ugly case involving a young woman's attack. Chasing answers from a dive bar to sorority row, Mercy learns she needs to solve it quickly or become the next victim.
It Started with a Whisper
by AW Hartoin
2012
Puppy MacClarity thinks the family stories about dead ancestor Ernest are just stories until one angry wish comes true. A summer of magic, fear, and family secrets shows him his clan is much stranger than he knew.
Touch and Go
by AW Hartoin
2012
To avoid paperwork for her father, Mercy takes a case for an old rival and instantly regrets it. A missing man and an unruly dog turn a simple job into another scramble to stay ahead of trouble.
A Good Man Gone
by AW Hartoin
2013
Mercy thinks she is finally free from her parents' investigations until a family friend's sudden death pulls her back in. Then a bride is murdered, and Mercy has to figure out whether the two deaths are connected.
A Monster's Paradise
by AW Hartoin
2013
Matilda reaches Paris hunting a cure, but the city is full of warring fairies and shifting loyalties. With Miss Penrose fading and the Vermillion clan in hiding, every question Matilda asks creates a new enemy.
Diver Down
by AW Hartoin
2013
Mercy escapes to Roatan for sun and scuba, only to find that her problems have followed her there. The deeper she gets into island trouble, the clearer it becomes that someone wants her dead.
Fierce Creatures
by AW Hartoin
2013
Life in a human house feels dull after kidnapping and spriggan battles, until Matilda's tutor falls desperately ill. To save Miss Penrose, Matilda must return to the antique mall and face enemies she barely escaped before.
Flare-up
by AW Hartoin
2013
This short prequel catches Matilda Whipplethorn as a child, right when her quiet day turns wild. An adventure inside a dog's snout gives an early glimpse of the trouble that seems to find her.
Nowhere Fast
by AW Hartoin
2013
Guilt-tripped by family, Mercy goes looking for a missing girl the police cannot find. What starts as a favor quickly turns dangerous when it becomes clear someone is determined to keep the runaway hidden.
A Wicked Chill
by AW Hartoin
2014
Stranded in Vienna with her parents missing, Matilda hides in St. Stephen's Cathedral and tries to stay ahead of trolls, politics, and panic. The widening revolution may force her to use the dangerous power she has been hiding.
Double Black Diamond
by AW Hartoin
2014
A Colorado ski trip goes off the rails when Mercy agrees to a desperate favor and ends up a suspect in a brutal crime. To save a child, she may have to break the law before she can solve the case.
Dry Spell
by AW Hartoin
2014
When Mercy's friend turns up terrified in the middle of a brutal Missouri drought, the explanation could be grief, madness, or something long buried. Mercy follows the trail into a mystery that feels almost supernatural.
Drop Dead Red
by AW Hartoin
2015
A mass killing at a St. Louis restaurant should have nothing to do with Mercy, but favors and family say otherwise. Her search for the truth leads from home to New Orleans and a case with a nasty scientific twist.
In the Worst Way
by AW Hartoin
2015
Sent to a remote castle to hide from a vengeful gang, Mercy expects trouble, but not murder. Surrounded by bickering cousins, baseball campers, and old ghosts, she has to solve the crime before the killers find her.
A Sin and a Shame
by AW Hartoin
2016
While recovering from injury, Mercy gets pushed into defending a retired librarian who has taken a life. The case is stranger than it first appears, and solving it forces Mercy toward a choice with real cost.
The Wife of Riley
by AW Hartoin
2016
Mercy owes the Fibonacci family a favor, and it sends her to Paris to identify a woman who may not be dead after all. Mafia pressure, family secrets, and the Klinefeld Group make this search far riskier than it looks.
To the Eternal
by AW Hartoin
2016
Matilda's hidden power is no longer hidden, and now everyone wants something from her. As her parents remain in danger and the unrest in France spreads, she heads to Rome in search of help only a powerful ally can give.
Brain Trust
by AW Hartoin
2017
Racing home from Sturgis, Mercy finds danger waiting and gets pulled into one of her darkest cases yet. With her father missing and violent predators closing in, she and her oddball crew have to keep digging.
My Bad Grandad
by AW Hartoin
2017
Mercy heads to the Sturgis motorcycle rally with her grandad, hoping for a break from trouble. Instead she gets a dead Vietnam veteran, a string of suspicious deaths, and an old secret still stalking the Watts family.
Down and Dirty
by AW Hartoin
2018
Back at the clinic and hoping for normal, Mercy instead lands in a lawsuit and a messy case full of jealousy and affairs. With Chuck absent and danger rising, she has to sort out who is lying before the situation turns deadly.
The Paris Package
by AW Hartoin
2018
On a 1938 honeymoon, Stella Bled and her husband are pulled into danger when a Jewish friend entrusts them with a secret package. Fleeing Vienna after Kristallnacht, they must outrun the Reich and decide what they are willing to risk.
Small Time Crime
by AW Hartoin
2019
A cold case from 1965 drags Mercy back into family history when the FBI uncovers a new clue. What should be a vacation turns into a hunt for answers some relatives would rather leave buried.
Strangers in Venice
by AW Hartoin
2019
After the terror of Vienna, Stella and Nicky chase Abel's missing cousins to a flooded Venice. Injuries, suspicion, and Nazis on their trail force Stella to decide how far she will go to keep a promise.
Bottle Blonde
by AW Hartoin
2020
Nurse Mercy Watts returns to St. Sebastian after a kidnapping involving a German stranger. With family secrets and a suspect close to home, she tries to untangle a decades-old mystery while those around her struggle to keep her safe.
One Child in Berlin
by AW Hartoin
2020
In 1939, Stella’s intelligence training ends early when her mentor sends her on a courier assignment. A personal favor takes her to Berlin, where Nazi persecution and doubts about women agents test her courage and usefulness.
A Quiet Little Place on Rue de Lille
by AW Hartoin
2021
Working undercover in occupied Paris, Stella must serve both British intelligence and her Nazi handler. An assignment to loot Jewish homes turns her artistic knowledge into a dangerous opportunity to protect people who have nowhere to turn.
Dark Victory
by AW Hartoin
2021
Stella longs to leave undercover work in Amsterdam, but a new assignment forces her to assess two Dutchmen’s loyalties. With invasion approaching and someone recognizing her cover, a precarious bargain draws her toward the bombing of Rotterdam.
Mean Evergreen
by AW Hartoin
2021
Mercy knows who attacked her, but the blackmailer remains elusive. A Christmas trip to Germany with her grandmother brings festive markets, an FBI request, and old family tensions that complicate her efforts to uncover the truth.
Her London Season
by AW Hartoin
2022
Recovering from an injury in 1940, Stella faces a struggle within British intelligence while her husband joins the air war. New duties in London expose her to the Blitz, competing loyalties, and threats beyond the battlefield.
Silver Bells at Hotel Hell
by AW Hartoin
2022
A blizzard traps Mercy at a Swiss mountain hotel where guests fall ill in a troubling pattern. Without medical equipment or an escape route, she must investigate hidden connections while a violent attack raises the stakes.
A Trunk, a Canoe, and all the Barbecue
by AW Hartoin
2023
A young girl’s friendship with an invisible woman turns frightening when the ghost becomes distressed and the child cannot explain why. Jess and Libby investigate the family’s secrets while juggling their own children and responsibilities.
Dead Companions
by AW Hartoin
2023
Widowed Jess and struggling mother Libby buy a haunted house in St. Sebastian. When its resident ghost offers Libby employment on the condition that they solve his decades-old murder, the friends embark on an unusual investigation.
Old Friends and Fedoras
by AW Hartoin
2023
The ghost of a 1940s detective hires Jess and Libby to solve the one case that defeated him. A missing car and an unexplained death lead the friends through buried secrets and a growing trail of danger.
So Long Gone
by AW Hartoin
2023
Mercy’s engagement and new home should mark a happy beginning, but the discovery of missing teenagers’ bodies reopens old wounds. Despite her father’s warnings, secrets involving her family and fiancé force her to investigate her own past.
The Trouble with Tinsel
by AW Hartoin
2023
A beloved handyman’s mysterious inheritance changes his life before he dies during a Christmas pageant. Jess and Libby answer his niece’s plea for help, tracing the fortune to an old crime and secrets that refuse to stay buried.
Angels and Insects
by AW Hartoin
2024
Puppy MacClarity’s hopes for an ordinary summer end when her family is attacked. With her grandfather barely surviving and her mother’s defenses weakening, a mysterious map and someone seeking information about a cauldron deepen the danger.
Black Bandana
by AW Hartoin
2024
A house sale draws Mercy into suspicions surrounding a woman’s apparently natural death. With little evidence and an old enemy offering a clue, she searches for a sinister pattern before more vulnerable people are harmed.
Double Duet
by AW Hartoin
2024
Disappearing agents in Lyon point to a traitor feeding intelligence to the Nazis. Stella travels undercover as an American journalist with her sister, but rival German intelligence services and Gestapo interest make their mission increasingly dangerous.
Fun Ivy
by AW Hartoin
2024
A family spring break trip to Cornell draws Jess and Libby into a dead professor’s decades-old mystery. As they question an apparent suicide, a hostile podcaster and disturbing new evidence complicate their search for the truth.
Bullets Over Baltimore Street
by AW Hartoin
2025
Jess and Libby’s visit to Gettysburg takes a strange turn when the ghosts at their historic inn fall unusually silent. Communication problems, old grudges, and family complications draw them into a mystery rooted in the town’s past.
Operation Knickknack
by AW Hartoin
2025
Stella travels to Nuremberg with a double agent carrying intelligence that could change the war. When he vanishes from Hitler’s favored hotel, she must evade dangerous attention and find a way to bring the information home.
Origin Story
by AW Hartoin
2025
A mysterious disappearance and a clue hidden in Stella’s liquor cabinet send Mercy and her godmothers to Austria. Following connections between the Watts and Bled families, she confronts an old enemy and secrets spanning generations.
Bitter Bobby and the Devil Woman
by AW Hartoin
2026
Jess and Libby tackle an estate deadline complicated by an uncooperative ghost while investigating a decades-old murder. Their client believes the imprisoned man is innocent, forcing the friends to untangle overlapping secrets among the living and dead.
Loved and Lost
by AW Hartoin
2026
Small thefts from locked houses on a seemingly perfect street bring Mercy a puzzling case. The missing keepsakes lead toward an old crime, a runaway woman, and a stalker whose intended target may be someone else.
Survive and Thrive
by AW Hartoin
2026
Stella and her mentor enter Prague in 1942 to stop an assassination, only to discover their contacts are dead. Her determination to help endangered friends strains their partnership as Heydrich’s terror makes every choice potentially fatal.
Where to start with AW Hartoin
If you want twisty crime with family chaos: A Good Man Gone → Diver Down → Double Black Diamond
If you want WWII suspense: The Paris Package → Strangers in Venice
If you want fantasy for younger readers: A Fairy's Guide to Disaster → Fierce Creatures → A Monster's Paradise
If you want a one-book taste of the magical side: It Started with a Whisper
AW Hartoin sub-series and character series
Afterlife Issues books in order
Explore this seriesAway From Whipplethorn books in order
Explore this seriesAway From Whipplethorn books in chronological order
Mercy Watts Mysteries books in order
Explore this seriesMercy Watts Mysteries books in chronological order
Son of a Witch books in order
Explore this seriesStella Bled books in order
Explore this seriesStella Bled books in chronological order
Standalone AW Hartoin books
Author bio
AW Hartoin grew up in rural Missouri, but one place seems to have stayed with her in a big way, her grandmother's home in the Central West End of St. Louis. Those visits gave her a feel for old houses, hidden rooms, and the idea that every door might be holding a story.
That image, big rooms and bigger secrets, shows up all over her fiction.
Hartoin has said she can't remember a time when she didn't love reading. She read Harry and the Lady Next Door again and again, and Anne of Green Gables was the first book that made her want to step inside a fictional world and stay there.
As an adult, she decided she needed more life experience if she was going to write believable characters, so she joined the Air Force. That choice changed the shape of her writing life. It brought travel, a wider view of the world, and the chance to live in places including Alaska, Italy, and Germany. She also met her husband along the way.
Her first published series was Away From Whipplethorn, a fantasy adventure built around Matilda Whipplethorn, a tiny hearing-impaired fairy who keeps landing in very large trouble. The books have the pleasure of classic middle grade adventure, odd creatures, hidden worlds, and a heroine who has to rely on nerve as much as power.
A lot of readers first meet Hartoin through Mercy Watts. Beginning with A Good Man Gone and continuing through books like Diver Down and The Wife of Riley, the Mercy novels mix murder, travel, family chaos, and a heroine who would really prefer a quiet life but never gets one. Mercy is a nurse, the daughter of a private investigator, and a magnet for bad situations. Hartoin uses that setup to write mysteries that are funny without going soft on the danger.
Then there is The Paris Package, the opening book in the Stella Bled series. That line moves Hartoin into WWII suspense, with Stella starting out as a young bride in Europe in 1938 and getting pulled into a much larger fight. In Strangers in Venice and the books that follow, Hartoin keeps one eye on history and the other on the human cost of living through it. The result is tense, fast-moving fiction that still makes room for loyalty, fear, and stubborn hope.
She likes big casts, old secrets, and people who get dragged into trouble because they can't quite walk away.
Across her work, you can see a few steady interests. Family matters, sometimes in helpful ways and sometimes in deeply inconvenient ones. Place matters too, whether that means St. Louis streets, wartime Europe, or a fairy world hiding in plain sight. Her books tend to ask what ordinary people do when loyalty and danger arrive at the same time.
She has also lived in Waldenbuch, Germany, with her family and two spoiled cats. She has said she reads almost everything except horror because she likes to sleep, which feels like exactly the kind of practical detail a mystery and fantasy writer would keep.
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