Steve Brown Books in Order
Browse Steve Brown books in order, from the Susan Chase mysteries to his historical novels, with quick summaries, series notes, and where to start.
Last updated: July 6, 2026
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Publication Order
21 books
Black Fire
by Steve Brown
1999
On the anniversary of *Gone with the Wind*, Brown imagines a modern Southern relationship in the shadow of a church burning in South Georgia. It is part romance, part suspense, and very much a story about the modern South.
Color Her Dead
by Steve Brown
1999
Myrtle Beach lifeguard and runaway finder Susan Chase agrees to look for a missing young woman and quickly walks into a murder case. What starts as a reluctant favor turns into a dangerous hunt through the Grand Strand.
Of Love and War
by Steve Brown
1999
Set against the attack on Pearl Harbor, this debut follows lives caught in the days when America was pulled into World War II. Brown blends romance, military tension, and history without losing sight of ordinary people.
Dead Kids Tell No Tales / Color Me Guilty
by Steve Brown
2000
A missing child and a dead mother pull Susan Chase into one of her most personal cases. The trail leads toward a babysitter with a chilling history, and every answer makes the disappearance feel darker.
Radio Secrets
by Steve Brown
2000
Jean Fox, a nationally known radio psychologist, is preparing for her daughter's wedding when a buried secret threatens to break loose. The novel pairs public poise with private fear and turns a family celebration into suspense.
Stripped to Kill / Color Me Gone
by Steve Brown
2000
When two strippers vanish after protesting a topless club, Susan Chase goes looking for them, and one of the missing women is her friend. The search drags her into club politics, bad boyfriends, and real danger.
America Strikes Back
by Steve Brown
2001
Brown shifts back toward national crisis in this historical novel, following Americans swept up in a time of attack, anger, and response. It is driven by the mood of a country moving from shock toward action.
Fallen Stars
by Steve Brown
2001
Anti-war reporter Casey Blackburn is searching for her MIA father when she and a top allied commander are shot down over Cambodia. Captured behind enemy lines, they have to survive war, captivity, and each other.
When Dead is Not Enough / Color Me A Killer
by Steve Brown
2001
Now working in state law enforcement, Susan Chase faces a serial killer operating along the beach. The case pushes the series into darker territory as bodies mount and the coast stops feeling safe.
Woman Against Herself
by Steve Brown
2001
Brown turns inward here, focusing on a woman whose hardest fight is with her own choices, fears, and contradictions. It is a more intimate story, but the tension still comes from secrecy, pressure, and consequences.
Hurricane Party / Color Me Evil
by Steve Brown
2002
Susan and her fiance attend a strange hurricane party in a Victorian beach house, where talk of magic gives way to illness and murder. Trapped by weather and suspicion, she has to work out who wanted the gathering to turn deadly.
Rescue!
by Steve Brown
2002
A high-pressure adventure built around survival, split-second decisions, and the cost of helping others. Brown keeps the pace moving as danger closes in and a rescue effort turns into a test of nerve.
River of Diamonds
by Steve Brown
2002
James Stuart heads up the Amazon to find his missing brother, who is chasing a legendary river of diamonds. With zoologist Kate Lawrence along, the journey becomes part search mission, part wilderness adventure, and part obsession.
Sanctuary of Evil
by Steve Brown
2003
An explosion tears through the Grand Strand and shakes loose a secret tied to Susan Chase's own life. Brown mixes personal fallout with a fresh mystery as Susan tries to understand what was lost and why.
The Belles of Charleston
by Steve Brown
2005
Set in Charleston before the Civil War, this coming-of-age novel follows four cousins growing up inside a proud family with strict rules. Brown mixes domestic expectations, education, and looming history in a distinctly Southern world.
Carolina Girls
by Steve Brown
2006
Four girls meet on Pawleys Island in the mid-sixties, and each summer deepens the friendships that shape their adult lives. Brown uses beach seasons, family secrets, and social change to track who they become.
The Charleston Ripper
by Steve Brown
2007
A modern-day killer is stalking tourists through Charleston's historic district, and the old-city setting only sharpens the menace. Brown borrows the shadow of Jack the Ripper for a Southern thriller with a local twist.
The Pirate and the Belle
by Steve Brown
2008
Set in 1718, this historical adventure reaches into the world of Anne Bonny, Jack Rackham, and South Carolina. Brown mixes pirate legend with Lowcountry history and imagines what happens when a famous outlaw story comes ashore.
The Charleston Vampire
by Steve Brown
2009
Brown gives old Charleston a gothic twist by imagining the arrival of a vampire family in 1752. The book leans on atmosphere, voyage, and early American setting more than modern vampire flash.
The Old Maids' Club
by Steve Brown
2010
Set around the textile mills of the Carolina Piedmont, this historical novel looks at women's lives in a tightly watched Southern world. Work, reputation, and community pressure matter here as much as romance or rebellion.
Charleston's Lonely Heart Hotel
by Steve Brown
2011
Set in Roaring Twenties Charleston, this novel steps into a city of reinvention, gossip, and restless longing. Brown uses the hotel setting to bring together people chasing love, status, and a fresh start.
Where should I start?
If you want Susan Chase from the beginning: Color Her Dead → Stripped to Kill / Color Me Gone → Dead Kids Tell No Tales / Color Me Guilty
If you want the beach mysteries at their darkest: When Dead is Not Enough / Color Me A Killer → Hurricane Party / Color Me Evil → Sanctuary of Evil
If you want Steve Brown's wartime fiction: Of Love and War → Fallen Stars → America Strikes Back
If you want South Carolina historical fiction: The Belles of Charleston → Carolina Girls → Charleston's Lonely Heart Hotel
Author bio
Steve Brown is a South Carolina novelist whose books move easily between beach mystery, wartime drama, and regional historical fiction. He has written about Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Pawleys Island, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, and the Carolina Piedmont, but the common thread is usually place. His stories tend to begin with a strong sense of where people live, then let trouble walk in.
Before he turned to fiction, Brown studied political science and history at the University of North Alabama. After college, he served as a combat platoon leader with the 25th Infantry in South Vietnam. That background helps explain why even his lighter books often carry a little grit. Danger in his fiction rarely feels abstract.
The beach kept calling him.
Brown has said he was introduced to the Grand Strand by his wife and immediately fell in love with it. He later made his home in Greenville, South Carolina, and liked to joke that it was a little over four hours, and much too far, from the beach. That detail says a lot about him as a writer. He kept returning to the coast in his work, not as a postcard backdrop, but as a place with weather, memory, tourism, class tension, and trouble of every kind.
His first novel, Of Love and War, appeared in 1999. Set around the attack on Pearl Harbor, it showed his interest in big historical events seen through ordinary lives. He followed it with Black Fire, a modern Southern suspense novel, and then with Color Her Dead, the book that introduced Susan Chase and launched the series most readers now connect with his name.
Susan Chase gave Brown a perfect frame for what he does best. She starts as a Myrtle Beach lifeguard and finder of runaways, then grows into a more seasoned investigator as the books continue. In titles like Stripped to Kill, Dead Kids Tell No Tales, When Dead is Not Enough, Hurricane Party, and Sanctuary of Evil, Brown mixes missing persons, murder, local secrets, storms, and the uneasy edge between vacation fun and real danger. The books are beach reads in one sense, but they are never only that.
He never stayed in one lane for long.
Outside the Susan Chase novels, Brown kept moving through different corners of Southern history and legend. The Belles of Charleston heads into Charleston before the Civil War. Carolina Girls follows four friends whose summers on Pawleys Island shape the women they become. The Pirate and the Belle reaches back to Anne Bonny and pirate lore. The Old Maids' Club turns toward the textile mills of the Carolina Piedmont. Later, Charleston's Lonely Heart Hotel carried him into Roaring Twenties Charleston.
That range is part of what makes his bibliography interesting. One book may lean mystery, another war story, another family or historical drama, but Brown keeps circling similar ideas. He is drawn to how a place shapes people, how the past refuses to stay buried, and how ordinary lives get pulled into situations that test loyalty and nerve. Readers who like fiction rooted in South Carolina usually find plenty to explore here.
Brown has also been connected with Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, which fits the mystery side of his catalog. Even when he shifts away from detective plots, he still writes like someone who knows the value of suspense, a well-timed reveal, and a setting that does real work.
At heart, Steve Brown comes across as a writer with a long memory for Southern places. Start with Susan Chase if you want the mysteries first. Wander outward if you want to see how wide his map really is.
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.
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