Charlaine Harris Books in Order

This reading order guide provides the complete list of Charlaine Harris books in order, from the very first to the latest, so you won’t miss anything!

Charlaine Harris is a name that mystery and fantasy readers have adored for decades. She is widely known among supernatural fiction fans for her smart and witty storytelling, characters that are deeply engraved in readers’ memories, and excellent blend of the supernatural with small-town life. Harris has definitely made a great impact on the modern fiction scene for her original and modern style. Harris, born on November 25, 1951, in the Mississippi Delta, grew up in a family of southern charm, deeply ingrained traditions, and stories that helped spark her creativity from early age. At present, she resides in southern Arkansas with her husband and three children. She is still actively writing, reading, and passionately loving stories.

While most of her fans know her as the person behind the famous Sookie Stackhouse novels, Harris’s career as a writer started very long before vampires appeared in Bon Temps. Actually, she was first recognized as a poet who wrote about teenage problems and ghostly themes. Being in college, she took playwriting as a course, which gave her a chance to experiment with her skills of dialogue and storytelling rhythm. However, after a very short period, she changed her focus and began writing novels mainly in the mystery genre.

Harris’s earliest fiction was mystery standalone novels, but the big success arose with the introduction of the Aurora Teagarden series, The first of these was Real Murders in 1990. The series was about Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, the librarian of a small town who had a knack for getting into murder investigations without intending to. The first book of the series was even nominated for an Agatha Award, which made Harris’s name get better recognized in the cozy mystery world of literature. Her writing style was funny, captivating, and resonated with Southern culture—a signature that would be carried across her other genres.

Harris definitely got around. After a few books she extended her horizons yet again in mid-90s by starting Shakespeare series, which was made up of books about Lily Bard, a cleaning woman with a dark past. Those books are set in rural Arkansas and they are more gritty and darker than her previous works. Nevertheless, they reflect Harris’s talent of creating complex women characters who are both emotionally secure and psychologically strong.

Following that, the book series that changed the game for her—The Southern Vampire Mysteries, also popularly known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels. Dead Until Dark, which was published in 2001, saw Harris bring to life the character of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress from northern Louisiana who had to deal with a world where vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural beings were allowed to exist. The series has been a huge hit and even resulted in a TV show called True Blood, which helped her books to reach farther places across the globe. These novels combine mystery, fantasy, romance, and social commentary, all presented from Sookie’s witty and often humorous point of view. The last book in the series, Dead Ever After, was published in 2013. Moreover, a companion book, After Dead, which provided fans with a last glance of their favorite characters, was the same year released alongside.

At the same time, Harris was not satisfied with it all. The new series was unveiled in 2005, namely Harper Connelly Mysteries. Here the heroine was Harper, a young woman who after being struck by lightning became able to find dead bodies and see exactly in that moment they were if they did not come alive. The first book, Grave Sight, gave a vibe of one more successful series of Harris’ books where she discussed the weird and mysterious from her perspective only.

In 2014, she joined forces with Christopher Golden to pen the Cemetery Girl graphic novel series, proving to be her ability to embrace the changing times and venture into various storytelling formats. Her love of storytelling was always clear from the very beginning, irrespective of the medium she was using, and she still has a very vibrant role in the writing community. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the American Crime Writers League, and also on the board of Sisters in Crime. She has joined hands with her good friend and author Joan Hess to share the presidency of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance.

Besides writing, Charlaine Harris enjoys a life full of zest and excitement. She has a lot of reasons to be happy such as being a mother and grandmother, karate student in the past and weightlifter, and a big movie fan. In addition to this, she is very active in her church in Magnolia, Arkansas, to which she is the senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church.

Regardless if it is a story about a psychic investigator, vampire love, or crimes in a small town, Charlaine Harris has a very cozy and relatable writing style which attracts readers again and again. The everyday and the phenomenal blended together is what makes her unique and her books are still motivating young readers. If you need a mystery writer with compassion, humor, and a bit of sting—none other than Charlaine Harris comes to mind.