Charlaine Harris Schulz Books in Order
Explore Charlaine Harris Schulz's books in order, with series overviews, story summaries, reading order guides, and simple tips on where to start her mysteries.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Publication Order
66 books
Sweet and Deadly
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1981
Grieving her parents' suspicious death in a supposed car accident, young reporter Catherine Linton comes home to Lowfield, Mississippi, only to find her father's nurse murdered and a web of small town secrets that suggest a killer very close to home.
A Secret Rage
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1984
Dropped by her agent, New York model Nickie Callahan returns to a Tennessee college town just as a serial rapist begins targeting students, and after suffering her own attack she teams with another survivor to hunt the predator hiding in plain sight.
Real Murders
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1990
Aurora Teagarden belongs to a club of crime buffs who study famous murders, but when a member is killed in a copycat slaying, the librarian finds herself both suspect and sleuth as more deaths echo historic crimes.
A Bone to Pick
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1992
Roe Teagarden unexpectedly inherits a house, money, and a trove of secrets from a fellow Real Murders Club member, including a human skull hidden in a window seat, and must work out whose death she has literally been handed.
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1994
Testing the waters of her mother's real estate business, Aurora Teagarden shows a house to a client and discovers a dead body inside, then learns that someone seems to be targeting local agents, including Roe herself.
The Julius House
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1995
Eager for a place of her own, Aurora Teagarden buys the infamous Julius House, where an entire family vanished years before, and soon finds unsettling clues in the walls that suggest the missing residents may never have left at all.
Dead Over Heels
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1996
When a police detective literally falls from the sky and lands dead in Aurora Teagarden's yard, Roe becomes enmeshed in a case that links prank calls, old grudges, and someone determined to make her the next victim.
Shakespeare's Landlord
by Charlaine Harris
1996
Cleaning woman Lily Bard keeps to herself in Shakespeare, Arkansas, until she glimpses someone dumping a body in the park using her garbage cart, forcing her to juggle her need for anonymity with a growing determination to see a killer caught.
Shakespeare's Champion
by Charlaine Harris
1997
Trying to keep her head down in Shakespeare, Arkansas, Lily Bard instead finds a body in her gym and a wave of racist violence sweeping the town, pushing her to use her fighting skills and cleaner's eye for detail to uncover who is stirring up hate.
Shakespeare's Christmas
by Charlaine Harris
1998
Lily Bard reluctantly returns to her hometown for a family Christmas and an old friend's wedding, but a long unsolved child kidnapping case and fresh danger in the church aisles prove that the past in small towns is never really past.
A Fool and His Honey
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
1999
Aurora Teagarden's peaceful married life is upended when a young relative arrives with a newborn, then disappears, leaving the baby behind and a dead husband on Roe's porch, sending her on a frantic search for the missing mother and a killer.
Shakespeare's Trollop
by Charlaine Harris
2000
When one of Lily Bard's cleaning clients and sometime rival is found dead in a parked car, gossip in Shakespeare turns vicious, and Lily must navigate ugly small town rumors and her own painful history to uncover the truth.
Dead Until Dark
by Charlaine Harris
2001
In small town Bon Temps, telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse falls for Bill, the first vampire to walk into her bar, just as a string of vampire linked murders makes both of them suspects and forces Sookie into a lethal investigation.
Shakespeare's Counselor
by Charlaine Harris
2001
In this final Lily Bard mystery, Lily joins a group therapy program to confront her past, only to have violence erupt at the counselor's office and drag her into an investigation that forces her to balance hard earned trust with her instinct to run.
Last Scene Alive
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2002
A film crew arrives in Lawrenceton to shoot a movie based on a crime novel clearly inspired by Aurora Teagarden, and when the temperamental lead actress is murdered, Roe must sift through Hollywood egos and hometown tensions to find the killer.
Living Dead in Dallas
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2002
Summoned by vampire sheriff Eric Northman, Sookie Stackhouse is sent to Dallas to use her telepathy to locate a missing vampire, a job that pits her against a militant anti vampire church and tests her fragile relationship with Bill.
Club Dead
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2003
After vampire Bill vanishes on a mysterious errand, Sookie Stackhouse travels to Mississippi with werewolf escort Alcide to search for him in a dangerous vampire club, where court intrigue, old enemies, and a brutal betrayal wait.
Poppy Done to Death
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2003
When Aurora Teagarden's glamorous stepsister in law Poppy is found murdered in her own kitchen, Roe must sort through a tangle of affairs, jealous spouses, and family resentments to find which of Poppy's many entanglements turned deadly.
Dead to the World
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2004
Sookie Stackhouse finds vampire sheriff Eric Northman running through the woods with no memory of who he is, drawing her into a dangerous power struggle among witches, werewolves, and vampires that threatens everyone she cares about.
Fairy Dust
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2004
When a fairy is murdered outside the bar, Sookie Stackhouse agrees to help her surviving siblings by using her telepathy to sift through the human witnesses in Bon Temps and uncover who killed their glamorous sister.
Dead as a Doornail
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2005
In the tense days after shape shifters reveal themselves to the world, Sookie Stackhouse is caught in the crossfire when someone begins shooting shifters, and she must help track a sniper while navigating volatile were and vampire politics.
Grave Sight
by Charlaine Harris
2005
Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver are hired to locate a missing girl in an Ozarks town, but when Harper finds the teenager's body and another corpse beside her, they become entangled in a knot of secrets the locals will do anything to keep buried.
Definitely Dead
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2006
Sookie travels to New Orleans to settle the estate of her murdered cousin Hadley, former lover of the vampire Queen of Louisiana, and finds herself entangled in royal vampire intrigue, witchcraft, and a mystery tightly bound to her own bloodline.
Grave Surprise
by Charlaine Harris
2006
Demonstrating her abilities for a skeptical professor in a Memphis cemetery, Harper Connelly discovers a grave that holds both a centuries dead man and the recently murdered girl she once failed to find, pulling her into a case that quickly turns even deadlier.
All Together Dead
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2007
Sookie travels with the Queen of Louisiana to a high security vampire summit, where her telepathy is meant to keep the queen safe during a public trial but instead reveals plots, betrayals, and a terrorist attack that leaves humans and vampires fighting for survival.
An Ice Cold Grave
by Charlaine Harris
2007
Harper Connelly is hired to find one missing boy in rural North Carolina and instead uncovers a burial site filled with vanished teenagers, making her a target for a sadistic killer who does not want his crimes brought into the light.
From Dead to Worse
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2008
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and a bombing at a vampire summit, Sookie Stackhouse tries to rebuild her life, but new wars among werewolves and vampire kings drag her back into violence and force her to reconsider every alliance she has.
Dead and Gone
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2009
When werewolves and other shifters publicly reveal their existence, the backlash in Bon Temps is immediate, and Sookie Stackhouse soon faces a crucifixion style murder close to home and a deadly power struggle within the fairy world.
Gift Wrap
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2009
At Christmastime, left alone while her friends and family are away, Sookie Stackhouse finds an injured stranger in the woods near her home and brings him inside, only to discover that his presence is part of a supernatural plot and an unexpected holiday gift.
Grave Secret
by Charlaine Harris
2009
Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver travel to Texas to read the grave of a wealthy family's patriarch, only to find the case tangled up with their own painful past and the long unsolved disappearance of Harper's sister.
One Word Answer
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2009
Sookie Stackhouse is eating dinner on her porch when a stranger arrives in a limousine with news that her cousin Hadley has died, forcing Sookie to confront old family rifts, Hadley's secret second life, and the dangerous vampire politics tied to her inheritance.
Dead in the Family
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2010
Still recovering from fairy torture and recent supernatural wars, Sookie Stackhouse finds her home crowded with vampires and fairies who all have unfinished business, while a new murder on her land threatens the fragile peace she is trying to build.
True Blood Collection
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2010
An omnibus collection of Sookie Stackhouse novels issued to tie in with the television adaptation, offering several of Sookie's early adventures in one package for readers coming to the books from the screen.
Dead Reckoning
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
When a firebomb shatters a quiet night at Merlotte's, Sookie Stackhouse must find out who wants her dead while deciding how to use a one time piece of fairy magic that could change her future or someone else's in an irreversible way.
Dead Reckoning
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
As a firebomb explodes at Merlotte's and vampire power struggles escalate, Sookie Stackhouse must uncover who wants her dead while deciding how to use a one time piece of fairy magic that could change her life or someone else's forever.
Grave Sight
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
This full length graphic novel edition of Grave Sight retells Harper Connelly's first case in Sarne, Arkansas, combining the mystery of a missing girl and a suspicious family tragedy with atmospheric artwork that captures the eerie pull of Harper's gift.
Part 1
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
In this first graphic novel installment of Grave Sight, Harper Connelly arrives in the town of Sarne, Arkansas, and uses her lightning born gift to locate a missing teenage girl, only to sense that the grave she finds holds more than one troubling secret.
Part 2
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
Part 2 of the Grave Sight graphic adaptation follows Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver as the town of Sarne reels from her discovery, tensions rise with local law enforcement, and more violence suggests that someone will kill again to keep old sins covered.
The First Sookie Collection
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
An omnibus volume that gathers the early Sookie Stackhouse novels into one edition, letting readers follow Sookie from her first meeting with Bill through her earliest brushes with vampire politics without hunting down separate books.
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2011
This companion to the Sookie Stackhouse series includes a new Sookie novella, timelines, character guides, recipes, and background essays that deepen the world of Bon Temps for readers who want extra detail between or after the novels.
Dancers in the Dark
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2012
In New Orleans, traumatized dancer Rue flees a violent stalker by joining a supernatural dance troupe, where her new partner is a brooding centuries old vampire whose protective instincts and dangerous past make him both sanctuary and threat.
Deadlocked
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2012
With her relationship to vampire Eric Northman already strained, Sookie Stackhouse arrives at his house to find him feeding from a stranger who later turns up dead on the lawn, pulling Sookie into a politically charged murder case where every choice has consequences.
Part 3
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2012
Harper's search for the truth in Sarne reaches a boiling point in Part 3, as she pieces together the connections between the dead girl, a supposed murder suicide, and the town's most respected families, even while hostility toward her strange talent grows.
After Dead
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2013
This companion volume to the Sookie Stackhouse series offers brief, alphabetized glimpses of what happens to major and minor characters after the main novels end, giving fans closure on romances, careers, and fates across Bon Temps and beyond.
Dead Ever After
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2013
In the final Sookie Stackhouse novel, Sookie is trying to reclaim a quieter life when former barmaid Arlene is found murdered and Sookie becomes the prime suspect, forcing her to confront old enemies, shifting alliances, and what kind of future she really wants.
Midnight Crossroad
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2014
Psychic Manfred Bernardo moves to the dried up town of Midnight, Texas, hoping for a quiet place to work, but the discovery of a dead woman with ties to his landlord drags him and his eccentric, often supernatural neighbors into a defining murder investigation.
Part 4
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2014
In Part 4 of the continuing Grave Sight comic, Harper and Tolliver dig deeper into Sarne's scandals, following money, betrayals, and whispered rumors, and Harper must decide how much danger she is willing to accept for the sake of the dead she has found.
Part 5
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2014
Part 5 pushes Harper close to the killer as new bodies and new clues surface, tightening the circle of suspects and forcing her to rely on Tolliver and the few townspeople who are brave enough to face what really happened.
Part 6
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2014
In the final Grave Sight comic installment, Harper Connelly confronts the person behind the deaths in Sarne and lays the victims' secrets to rest, bringing emotional closure to the case and sharpening the uneasy bond between her and Tolliver.
The Pretenders
by Christopher Golden
2014
After waking up bruised and memoryless in a graveyard, a teenage girl takes the name Calexa Rose Dunhill, hides in a crypt, and discovers she can see the dead, a talent she must use when she witnesses a ritual in the cemetery turn to murder.
Day Shift
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2015
When a mysterious hotel opens on the edge of Midnight and an unusual child is left in Manfred Bernardo's care, the already strange town is swamped with strangers, scandal, and murder, forcing its tight knit supernatural residents to decide how far they will go to protect one another.
Inheritance
by Christopher Golden
2015
Still hiding in the cemetery she calls home, Calexa Rose Dunhill witnesses a brutal killing that pulls her into a new investigation, even as police attention and nosy neighbors threaten to expose the identity she is desperate to protect.
All the Little Liars
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2016
Just as Aurora Teagarden is settling into marriage and pregnancy, her teenage half brother Phillip and three other kids vanish from a soccer field, and a body turns up nearby, pushing Roe and her husband Robin into a frantic search before Christmas.
Charlaine Harris' Grave Surprise
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2016
This graphic novel adapts Grave Surprise, sending Harper Connelly to a Memphis cemetery where she discovers two bodies in a single grave and a third corpse soon after, turning a routine demonstration of her skills into a layered murder investigation.
Night Shift
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2016
In Midnight, Texas, weapons bought from the local pawnshop are turning up at public suicides staged in the crossroads, and vampire Lemuel, psychic Manfred, and their supernatural neighbors must uncover who is driving the deaths before the town's secrets are exposed.
Layla Steps Up
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2017
Newly turned vampire Layla LaRue LeMay dances in a supernatural revue with her maker and husband Sean, but when a sadistic ex lover comes to town to reclaim him, Layla must finally tap into the power of her undeveloped vampiric abilities to protect the life she has built.
Sleep Like a Baby
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2017
New mother Aurora Teagarden is down with the flu and relying on a night nurse when she wakes to her baby's cries, the nurse missing, and a stranger's corpse in the backyard, forcing Roe to solve a murder while barely able to stand.
The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2017
A single volume collection of every Sookie Stackhouse short story and novella, gathering tales of fairies, weddings, road trips, and small town crises that fill in the gaps between the Southern Vampire novels for longtime fans.
An Easy Death
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2018
In fractured Texoma, young gunnie Lizbeth Rose takes a job guarding two Russian wizards as they hunt for a descendant of Rasputin, only to find their trail tied to her own bloody past and to forces that could reshape the continent.
Haunted
by Christopher Golden
2018
Calexa Rose Dunhill, the amnesiac girl who lives among the tombs of Dunhill Cemetery, realizes the people who tried to kill her are still hunting when a man named Salazar arrives, forcing her to face the ghosts she carries and the truth about her past.
Small Kingdoms and Other Stories
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2019
This collection introduces Anne DeWitt, a high school principal with a covert past training elite operatives, as she quietly teams up with coach Holt Halsey to confront violent threats at their school, blending dark humor, vigilante justice, and four connected stories in one slim volume.
A Longer Fall
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2020
After a supposedly routine train job ends in a fiery ambush, gunslinger Lizbeth Rose follows stolen magical cargo into the rigid kingdom of Dixie, where class prejudice and dangerous sorcery make every step of her search a gamble.
The Russian Cage
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2021
Lizbeth Rose travels into the heart of the Holy Russian Empire's territory when her partner Eli is imprisoned in San Diego, and she must outshoot wizards, royal guards, and political schemes to bring him home alive.
The Serpent in Heaven
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2022
In this Gunnie Rose novel the focus shifts to Felicia, Lizbeth's magically gifted younger sister, as she leaves the safety of royal schools and is thrown into plots, assassins, and court secrets that test both her powers and loyalties.
All the Dead Shall Weep
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2023
In this later Gunnie Rose novel, Lizbeth Rose and her younger half sister Felicia find their hard won family threatened by enemies from both Texoma and the Holy Russian Empire, and must face fresh conspiracies, gunfights, and magic that could tear their world apart.
The Last Wizards' Ball
by Charlaine Harris Schulz
2025
As the fractured nations of North America gather for the final Wizards' Ball, Lizbeth Rose and Felicia are drawn into a deadly confrontation involving rival mages, royal politics, and the last secrets of Rasputin's bloodline, bringing the Gunnie Rose saga to a decisive close.
Where should I start?
If you want urban fantasy with vampires: Dead Until Dark → Living Dead in Dallas → Club Dead.
If you prefer cozy small town mysteries: Real Murders → A Bone to Pick → Three Bedrooms, One Corpse → The Julius House.
If you like darker, grittier crime: Shakespeare's Landlord → Shakespeare's Champion → Shakespeare's Christmas.
If paranormal mysteries appeal to you: Grave Sight → Grave Surprise → An Ice Cold Grave → Grave Secret.
If you want alt history and gunslingers: An Easy Death → A Longer Fall → The Russian Cage → The Serpent in Heaven.
Author bio
Charlaine Harris Schulz writes under the name Charlaine Harris, and her stories sit at the crossroads of mystery, small town life, and the supernatural. She is best known for creating telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, whose adventures in Dead Until Dark became the basis for the television series True Blood.
She was born on November 25, 1951, in Tunica, Mississippi, and grew up in the flat, humid landscape of the Mississippi Delta. As a child she filled notebooks with poems about ghosts and uneasy teenagers, long before she knew those obsessions would turn into a career.
In college she studied at Rhodes College in Memphis, where she shifted from poetry to playwriting and discovered how much she liked putting characters on a stage. After college she turned to crime fiction, publishing stand alone novels like Sweet and Deadly and A Secret Rage that mixed Southern settings with hard questions about violence and justice.
Her first long running character was Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden, a Georgia librarian and true crime buff who keeps stumbling over real corpses. Starting with Real Murders in 1990, the Aurora books let Harris explore cozy mystery comforts alongside real danger, and the series later inspired a long run of television films. In the 1990s she also wrote the Lily Bard or Shakespeare novels, in which a scarred cleaning woman in small town Arkansas tries to build a quiet life after a brutal assault and finds herself dragged, again and again, into violent secrets.
In 2001 Harris combined mystery with full on urban fantasy in Dead Until Dark, the first of the Southern Vampire Mysteries. The books follow Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana, as she navigates vampire politics, werewolf turf wars, and the daily grind of working at a bar. Across thirteen novels Sookie grows from lonely outsider to someone who chooses her own boundaries, even while the wider world comes to terms with vampires coming out into the open.
Harris did not leave crime fiction behind. With the Harper Connelly novels, beginning with Grave Sight in 2005, she created a heroine who can locate the dead and see their final moments after a lightning strike, then built tightly plotted mysteries around that unsettling gift. Later came the Midnight, Texas trilogy, set in a dusty town where witches, angels, psychics, and vampires try to live quietly together while trouble keeps finding them. Around the same time she teamed up with writer Christopher Golden and artists like Don Kramer and Geraldo Borges for the Cemetery Girl graphic novels, about an amnesiac teen living in a graveyard who can see ghosts.
More recently Harris has written the Gunnie Rose books, alternate history adventures that drop a young gunslinger named Lizbeth Rose into a fractured North America where magic and Russian royals sit alongside desert border towns. The series keeps her favorite concerns, loyalty, survival, and complicated family ties, but moves them into a rough edged, 1930s flavored landscape full of wizards, tsars, and gun smoke.
Across all of these stories certain patterns repeat. Her protagonists are usually women who work for a living, who pay bills, run errands, and worry about their relatives even while bodies pile up around them. There is often a strong streak of humor and a dry, practical voice, but her books do not look away from trauma or cruelty, especially when it touches women and children.
Harris has been publishing for more than forty years and has received honors such as the Lord Ruthven Award and the Inkpot Award for her contributions to fantasy and horror. She is a longtime member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the American Crime Writers League. After many years in Arkansas she now lives in Texas with her husband, Hal Schulz, close to her three grown children and grandchildren, still reading widely and thinking about what kind of trouble to send her characters into next.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.



















































































Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts