Carolyn Haines

Carolyn Haines was born on May 12, 1953, in Lucedale Mississippi. She also uses the pen names Carolyn Burnes and Lizzie Hart in some of her works. With over 70 books written since the start of her writing career, she truly an iconic writer.

The best place to start is the Fear Familiar series, the earliest of Carolyn Haines's multi-book series: it opens with Fear Familiar (1989) and runs to 19 books across 1989–2017, ending with Thrice Familiar (2017). Carolyn Haines's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Carolyn Haines has 465 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1981 and 2026. 424 of them belong to 15 named series — the largest being the Sarah Booth Delaney series with 38 books — and 41 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Carolyn Haines's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Fear Familiar (1989–2017, 19 books), Holding Out For a Hero (1994–1997, 9 books) and Eye Witness (1997–2011, 3 books), plus 4 more.

This guide splits Carolyn Haines's 465 books into 15 named series and 41 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Sarah Booth Delaney (38 books, 1999–2026); Fear Familiar (19 books, 1989–2017); Trouble Cat Mysteries (15 books, 2017–2022); Holding Out For a Hero (9 books, 1994–1997); Pluto's Snitch (4 books, 2016–2019), plus 10 further series.