Mystery Authors You May Have Missed
Carolyn Hart
Biography
Carolyn Hart was born in 1936 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma, B.A. in 1958 and married attorney Philip Donnell Hart that same year. They have two children. Miss Hart is a member of Sisters in Crime and was president of that group in 1991 through 1992. She is also past national director of Mystery Writers of America. Her other organization memberships include Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Phi Beta Kappa, Theta Sigma Phi, American Crime Writers League, and International Association of Crime Writers USA. After college she worked as a reporter for the Norman Transcript in Norman, Oklahoma and was editor of the Sooner Newsmakers (University of Oklahoma alumni news), then became a freelance writer and an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Oklahoma. She has won several mystery awards including the Agatha Award from Malice Domestic and the Anthony Award from Bouchercon. Her fiction work Letters from Home was a Pulitzer nominee in 2003.
What she writes: The "Death on Demand" series is set on a fictional South Carolina resort island where Annie and Max Darling own a mystery bookshop and together solve the many real mysteries that take place there.
Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins is a retired journalist who is featured in the "Henrie O" series. This character is a reflection of Hart's own life and career as a journalist. Both series feature charming characters and show the pleasant appeal of Miss Marple stories. There is some romance, mystery, and bibliophilia in each of these popular series. Her other work includes some young adult fiction and other non-series fiction for adults.
| List of works |
|
| Death on Demand series |
|
| Death on Demand (1987) -- cassette -- CD -- large type | |
| Design for Murder (1988) -- cassette | |
| Something Wicked (1988) -- cassette | |
| Honeymoon with Murder (1989) -- cassette -- CD | |
| A Little Class on Murder (1989) -- cassette | |
| Deadly Valentine (1990) -- cassette | |
| The Christie Caper (1991) -- cassette | |
| Southern Ghost (1992) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Mint Julep Murder (1995) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Yankee Doodle Dead (1998) -- CD -- large type | |
| White Elephant Dead (1999) -- cassette -- CD | |
| Sugarplum Dead (2000) -- cassette -- CD -- large type | |
| April Fool Dead (2002) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Engaged to Die (2003) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Murder Walks the Plank (2004) -- CD | |
| Death of the Party (2005) | |
| Dead Days of Summer (2006) -- CD -- large type | |
| Henrie O series |
|
| Dead Man's Island (1993) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Scandal in Fair Haven (1994) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Death in Lovers' Lane (1997) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Death in Paradise (1998) -- cassette -- CD -- large type | |
| Death on the River Walk (1999) -- cassette -- CD -- large type | |
| Resort to Murder (2001) -- cassette -- large type | |
| Set Sail for Murder (2007) | |
| Other works |
||
| Flee from the Past (1975) | Castle Rock (1983) | |
| A Settling of Accounts (1976) | Sculduggery (1984) | |
| Escape from Paris (1982) | The Devereux Legacy (1986) | |
| The Rich Die Young (1983) | Brave Hearts (1987) | |
| Death by Surprise (1983) | Letter from Home (2003) | |
| Awards and nominations |
| Something Wicked 1989 winner, Agatha Award 1989 winner, Anthony Award |
| Honeymoon with Murder 1990 winner, Anthony Award |
| A Little Class on Murder 1990 winner, Macavity Award, Mystery Readers International |
| Dead Man's Island 1993 winner, Agatha Award |
| Scandal in Fair Haven 1994 nominee, Agatha Award 1994 nominee, Macavity Award, Mystery Readers International |
| Letter from Home 2004 nominee, Agatha Award |
| 2003 nominee, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction |
| What the critics say |
| “Carolyn Hart is the reigning monarch of the amateur sleuth mystery.” — Plain Dealer, Cleveland |
| “Hart pulls out all the stops in the fast-paced 17th installment of her acclaimed Death on Demand cozy series” [after 2005's Death of the Party] — Publishers Weekly |
| “Irresistable! Hart drops big names from the mystery world like murderers drop clues and Annie and Max are the most endearing new pair of sleuths since Tommy and Tuppence!” — Nancy Pickard |
| “Cheers for Henrie O, an intelligent, engaging sleuth!” —Mary Higgins Clark |
| “If I were teaching a course on how to write a mystery, I would make Carolyn Hart's required reading...Superb.” — Los Angeles Times |
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