Ellen Hart

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  • Bibliography:
    36 Books (2 Series)
  • First Book:
    October 1989
  • Latest Book:
    September 2020
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Full Series List in Order

A Culinary Mystery

1 - This Little Piggy Went to Murder (Dec-1994)
2 - For Every Evil (Sep-1995)
3 - The Oldest Sin (Dec-1996)
4 - Murder in the Air (Dec-1997)
5 - Slice and Dice (Sep-2000)
6 - Dial M for Meat Loaf (Oct-2001)
7 - Death on a Silver Platter (Aug-2003)
8 - No Reservations Required (Jun-2005)

A Jane Lawless Mystery

1 - Hallowed Murder (Oct-1989)
2 - Vital Lies (Apr-1991)
3 - Stage Fright (Oct-1992)
4 - A Killing Cure (Sep-1993)
5 - A Small Sacrifice (Oct-1994)
6 - Faint Praise (Nov-1995)
7 - Robber's Wine (Sep-1996)
8 - Wicked Games (Aug-1998)
9 - Hunting the Witch (Sep-1999)
10 - Merchant of Venus (Feb-2001)
11 - Immaculate Midnight (Jul-2002)
12 - An Intimate Ghost (Mar-2004)
13 - The Iron Girl (Aug-2005)
14 - Night Vision (Dec-2006)
15 - The Mortal Groove (Dec-2007)
16 - Sweet Poison (Nov-2008)
17 - The Mirror and the Mask (Nov-2009)
18 - The Cruel Ever After (Dec-2010)
19 - The Lost Women of Lost Lake (Oct-2011)
20 - Rest for the Wicked (Oct-2012)
21 - Taken by the Wind (Oct-2013)
22 - The Old Deep and Dark (Oct-2014)
23 - The Grave Soul (Oct-2015)
24 - Fever in the Dark (Feb-2017)
25 - A Whisper of Bones (Mar-2018)
26 - Twisted at the Root (Aug-2019)
27 - In a Midnight Wood (Sep-2020)

Book List in Order: 36 titles

  • Hallowed Murder

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 1

    EVERYONE AT KAPPA ALPHA SIGMA SORORITY HOUSE HAS A SECRET -- AND BEAUTIFUL ALLISON LORD HAS TAKEN HERS TO THE GRAVE. The police call Allison Lord's drowning a suicide, but her housemates at her University of Minnesota sorority insist it was murder...

  • Vital Lies

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 2

    "A well-conceived cozy. She writes about characters, some of whom happen to be gay, rather than setting out to write a lesbian story."
    THE DROOD REVIEW OF MYSTERY
    In this sequel to HALLOWED MURDER, an old friend invites Minneapolis restaurateur...

  • Stage Fright

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 3

    "A compelling story of family passions on a big stage."
    MINNEAPOLIS STAR & TRIBUNE
    Book three in the Jane Lawless murder mystery series.
    In a darkened Minneapolis theatre, restauteur-sleuth Jane Lawless found aging actor Torald Werness dead-...

  • A Killing Cure

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 4

    After seventy-five years of high-minded respectability, the Amelia Gower Women's Club is in trouble. One distinguished director has been strangled. Another has taken a fatal plunge down the club's elegant staircase.

    As soon as restaurateur-sle...

  • A Small Sacrifice

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 5

    When Cordelia Thorn ventures to Summer Green, Wisconsin, for a reunion with some old college friends, she finds trouble in paradise. Twenty-plus years have definitely changed things. Soap opera star Diana has become an alcoholic. Curt and Annie's mar...

  • This Little Piggy Went to Murder

    A Culinary Mystery - 1

    It's election year in Minnesota, and Jack Grendel is running hard for the U.S. Senate. But a pair of grotesque murders threatens to derail his campaign. One is the bizarre hanging of a consultant for Grendel Shipping. The other is the shooting of Jac...

  • For Every Evil

    A Culinary Mystery - 2

    When powerful Minneapolis art critic Hale Micklenberg is murdered, there aren't too many mourners. A master of the bad review, Micklenberg was bad news for a lot of people.

    Food critic Sophie Greenway is nonetheless troubled to learn that her ...

  • Faint Praise

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 6

    "INTELLIGENT AND ENGROSSING . . . A VERY COMPLEX PUZZLE."

    --Publishers Weekly



    Everyone knows Arno Heywood. He's been a Minneapolis TV personality for years. So when he jumps to his death from a downtown high-rise, it's a shocker...

  • Robber's Wine

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 7

    THE DEAD OF SUMMER

    The first of the dead is wealthy Belle Dumont, who vanished from her home in the Minnesota woods only hours before she was to reveal startling news to her three grown children. The kids and Belle's lover deny any knowledge o...



  • The Oldest Sin

    A Culinary Mystery - 3

    SUITE DEATH Elegant Maxfield Plaza Hotel, in downtown St. Paul, is packed to the rafters with the power brokers of the charismatic Church of the Firstborn--and a national convention of the Daughters of Sisyphus. Between the two gatherings, five o...

  • Murder in the Air

    A Culinary Mystery - 4

    SERIAL MURDERThe yuletide revival of a vintage Twin Cities radio serial isn't just for fun--dealing as it does with the scandalous unsolved 1950s murder of beautiful Kay Collins. But an even deeper mystery intrigues radio personality Bram Baldric and...

  • Wicked Games

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 8

    A BLUE-PLATE SPECIAL OF DECEPTION, BLOOD ALLIANCES, AND MURDER Jane Lawless has worked hard to make her Minneapolis restaurant a success, and she's finally reaping the financial rewards. Yet even the demands and excitement of being a popular resta...

  • Hunting the Witch

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 9

    Jane Lawless is slowly recovering from a head injury gained after a run-in with a killer, working a limited schedule at her restaurant, the Lyme House, and trying to stay in touch with Dr. Julia Martinsen, Jane's former lover who wants to rekindle th...

  • Slice and Dice

    A Culinary Mystery - 5

    MURDER A LA CARTE If all goes according to plan, Connie Buckridge's culinary empire will soon boast a state-of-the-art cooking academy And restaurant in her hometown of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Unfortunately, just when the kitchen queen and her bicke...

  • Merchant of Venus

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 10

    Jane Lawless is a woman at a crossroads - her lover has left, she has finally recovered from a vicious attack sustained last year, and the holidays are closing in. With no one to help her ring in the new year, Jane reluctantly agrees to accompany her...

  • Dial M for Meat Loaf

    A Culinary Mystery - 6

    RECIPE FOR MURDER As Minnesota housewives race to meet the deadline for the Times Register's meat loaf contest, an unsavory small-towner named Kirby Runbeck is blown to smithereens by a car bomb. Days later, the town's former mayor, John Washbu...

  • Immaculate Midnight

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 11

    Ray Lawless, prominent defense attorney and father of Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless, tries his biggest case yet defending an accused serial murderer and arsonist whom the media has dubbed "The Fireman." Ray's client is eventually convicted an...

  • Death on a Silver Platter

    A Culinary Mystery - 7

    DOUBLE MURDER, ON THE HOUSE Far from being the idyllic home Carl Veelund envisioned when he built the grand mansion years ago, Prairie Lodge has become the keeper of many dark and terrible secrets. Now, family members are dropping like flies: Two ...

  • An Intimate Ghost

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 12

    Restaurateur Jane Lawless is thrilled to be catering the wedding of some family friends, Nick and Lauren Clifford, but when Jane arrives at the wedding, she's in for a shock of a lifetime-and one that could jeopardize her career. The food has been sp...



  • No Reservations Required

    A Culinary Mystery - 8

    A KILLER WAS FULLY COMMITTED Twin Cities businessman Ken Loy is the first to die; shot between the eyes during a sunset bike ride. Half an hour later, Bob Fabian, the rich and handsome owner of the Minneapolis Times Register, meets a similar fate....

  • The Iron Girl

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 13

    After years spent mourning the death of her partner, Christine Kane, Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless thinks she's ready to move on. That is, until she finds a gun among Christine's belongings. The night before Christine died of cancer, three me...

  • Night Vision

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 14

    Joanna Kasimir, an old friend of Jane Lawless, left Minneapolis years ago to make it big in Hollywood and, unlike so many others, she succeeded. Unfortunately, her stardom came at a price. Early in her career, Joanna was involved with a man who quick...

  • The Mortal Groove

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 15

    Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year the best way she knows how-with her family, friends, and some excellent champagne-when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up t...

  • Sweet Poison

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 16

    Jane Lawless is at her wit's end keeping her Minneapolis restaurants running while volunteering on her father's campaign for governor. With an eleven-point lead, the race is Ray Lawless's to lose, but all that changes when his rival posts a list of v...

  • The Mirror and the Mask

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 17

    Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless is at crossroads. The rough economy has put her plans for a third restaurant on hold, and her long distance romance is on the rocks and quite possibly unsalvageable. Unsure of what to do next, she takes her good ...

  • The Cruel Ever After

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 18

    The shock that Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless is in for when Chester Garrity, her ex-husband, returns to a city that he swore he'd never see again is nothing compared to Chester's own. After their divorce many years ago, he took off with his i...

  • The Lost Women of Lost Lake

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 19

    Restaurateur and part-time P.I. Jane Lawless is taking some much-needed time off at her family's lodge when her best friend, Cordelia, arrives with news that Tess, one of their good friends, has taken a nasty fall and needs their help with rehearsals...

  • Rest for the Wicked

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 20

    DeAndre Moore came to Minneapolis from St. Louis with a purpose, but things aren’t going as he planned. When it becomes clear he’s in way over his head, DeAndre can think of only one person to call for help -- his Uncle Nolan’s business partner...

  • Taken by the Wind

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 21

    Although Eric and Andrew have been trying to keep up a semblance of normal life, they know their thirteen-year-old son Jack has been having a tough time of it since they separated. They’ve been concerned, but now they’re terrified -- Jack has run...



  • The Old Deep and Dark

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 22

  • The Grave Soul

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 23

    When Guthrie Hewitt calls on restaurateur and private investigator Jane Lawless, he doesn't know where else he can turn. Guthrie has fallen for a girl-Kira Adler. In fact, he was planning to propose to her on Christmas Eve. But his trip home with Kir...

  • Fever in the Dark

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 24

    Fiona and Annie return home from their one year anniversary trip to discover that their poignant proposal video has been posted on YouTube and has garnered hundreds of thousands of hits. The video is on the verge of going viral, and there’s enormou...

  • A Whisper of Bones

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 25

    Britt Ickles doesn’t remember much from her only visit to her mother’s childhood home when she was a kid, except for playing with her cousin Timmy and the eruption of a sudden family feud. That’s why, when she drops by unannounced after years o...

  • Twisted at the Root

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 26

    Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Ellen Hart’s intimate storytelling returns in Twisted at the Root, where Hart’s latest mystery shows the importance of finding the truth. Everyone thought Rashad May and Gideon Wise were happily married. ...

  • In a Midnight Wood

    A Jane Lawless Mystery - 27

    Beloved heroine Jane Lawless finds that some secrets don't stay buried forever in Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Ellen Hart's In a Midnight Wood, the 27th mystery in this cultishly popular series.Minnesota private investigator Jane Lawless is...

  • Behind the Fog

    • / Science Fiction
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Award-Winning Books by Ellen Hart

Merchant of Venus
2001 Lambda Literary Award -- Women's Mystery
The Old Deep and Dark
2015 Lambda Literary Award -- Lesbian Mystery


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Ellen Hart has published 36 books.

Ellen Hart does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, In a Midnight Wood, was published in September 2020.

The first book by Ellen Hart, Hallowed Murder, was published in October 1989.

Yes. Ellen Hart has 2 series.
Author Series
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