Sofie Ryan Books in Order

If you want the core cozy mystery series: The Whole Cat and Caboodle → Buy a Whisker → A Whisker of Trouble
If you want magical small-town mysteries: Curiosity Thrilled the Cat → Copycat Killing → Final Catcall
If you want her realistic YA side: Rules for Life → Saving Grace → Five Minutes More

Sofie Ryan is one of the pen names used by Canadian writer Darlene Ryan, and it suits the part of her work that leans into cozy mysteries, sharp observation, and very memorable cats. Under her own name she has written realistic young adult fiction, and as Sofie Kelly she created the Magical Cats books. Across all three names, the through line is easy to spot. She likes capable women, close communities, and characters who keep going when life gets complicated.

Ryan has long ties to New Brunswick. She attended Saint John High School, earned a BSc from the University of New Brunswick and a BEd from St. Thomas University, and has lived on the East Coast with her husband and daughter. She is also a mixed-media artist, which feels like a good clue to her fiction. Her books are full of people who make, mend, sort, salvage, and notice small details.

She did not arrive at novels in a straight line. She has said she started writing early, even winning a poetry contest in third grade. Before books, she wrote radio commercials. She was also an all-night disk jockey, taught very nervous adults how to swim, and learned how to fit writing around work and family.

That long apprenticeship shows.

Her first published book was A Mother's Adoption Journey, a memoir about adopting her daughter from China. From there she moved into fiction for younger readers, writing books like Rules for Life, Saving Grace, and Five Minutes More. Those novels deal with grief, adoption, illness, bullying, and the shaky decisions teenagers make when adults are not much help. They are direct, compassionate books, and they are a reminder that Ryan did not start in cozies.

Then the cats took over.

As Sofie Kelly, she launched the Magical Cats books with Curiosity Thrilled the Cat, introducing librarian Kathleen Paulson and the unusual cats Owen and Hercules in Mayville Heights, Minnesota. As Sofie Ryan, she began the Second Chance Cat books with The Whole Cat and Caboodle, centered on secondhand-shop owner Sarah Grayson and her rescue cat Elvis in North Harbor, Maine. Both mystery lines went on to become New York Times bestsellers. Readers come for the crimes, but they stay for the company, the library chatter, the repurposed furniture, the senior sleuths, the town politics, and the cats who are much more useful than they first appear.

What makes Ryan interesting is that the tone changes with the name, but her interests do not. The YA novels are more realistic and harder-edged. The cozy mysteries are warmer and funnier, with a little magic or odd intuition around the edges. But she keeps circling back to found family, second chances, loyalty, and people trying to do right by each other. She likes characters with jobs, routines, neighbors, and enough stubbornness to keep asking questions.

Off the page, the details are pleasantly ordinary. She practices Wu style tai chi, loves to cook, runs, and prowls thrift shops for things she can reuse in her art. She also loves cats, though she has joked that she cannot keep one because her husband is allergic, so she makes do with neighborhood cat friends. That mix of practicality and affection feels very much like her fiction. It is tidy when it needs to be, curious all the time, and never far from a good story.