Author Information
Joan Lowery Nixon's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    113 Books (11 Series)
  • First Book:
    June 1970
  • Latest Book:
    December 2008
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Full Series List in Order

Casebusters

1 - The Statue Walks at Night (Mar-1995)
2 - The Legend of Deadman's Mine (Mar-1995)
3 - Backstage With a Ghost (Apr-1995)
4 - Check In to Danger (May-1995)
5 - The House Has Eyes (Mar-1996)
6 - Secret of the Time Capsule (May-1996)
7 - Beware of the Pirate Ghost (Jul-1996)
8 - Catch a Crooked Clown (Sep-1996)
9 - Fear Stalks Grizzly Hill (Sep-1996)
10 - Sabotage on the Set (Dec-1996)
11 - The Internet Escapade (Mar-1997)
12 - Bait For a Burglar (Mar-1997)

Claude

1 - If You Say So, Claude (1980)
2 - Beats Me, Claude (Nov-1986)
3 - Fat Chance, Claude (Oct-1987)
4 - You Bet Your Britches, Claude (Jul-1989)
5 - That's the Spirit, Claude (Sep-1992)

Ellis Island

1 - Land of Hope (Aug-1993)
2 - Land of Promise (Jan-2001)
3 - Land of Dreams (Oct-1994)

Gus & Gertie

Gus & Gertie and the Missing Pearl (Dec-2000)
Gus & Gertie and the Lucky Charms (Sep-2002)

Hollywood Daughters

1 - Star Baby (May-1991)
2 - Overnight Sensation (Jun-1991)
3 - Encore (Jan-1992)

Maggie

1 - Maggie, Too (Apr-1985)
2 - And Maggie Makes Three (Apr-1986)
3 - Maggie Forevermore (Mar-1987)

The Nic-Nacs and the Nic-Nac News

1 - The Mystery Box (Apr-1991)
2 - Watch Out for Dinosaurs! (Apr-1991)
3 - The Honeycutt Street Celebrities (May-1991)
4 - The Haunted House on Honeycutt Street (Jun-1991)

The Orphan Train Adventures

1 - A Family Apart (Dec-1988)
2 - Caught In The Act (Mar-1989)
3 - In the Face of Danger (Aug-1988)
4 - A Place to Belong (Jan-1989)
5 - A Dangerous Promise (Sep-1994)
6 - Keeping Secrets (Mar-1995)
7 - Circle of Love (Feb-1997)

Orphan Train Children

1 - Lucy's Wish (Feb-1998)
2 - Will's Choice (Feb-1998)
3 - Aggie's Home (Aug-1998)
4 - David's Search (Oct-1998)

Thumbprint Mysteries

1 - Champagne at Risk (Jun-1999)
2 - Champagne at the Murder (Aug-1999)
3 - Champagne with a Corpse (Sep-1999)

Young Americans: Colonial Williamsburg

Ann's Story: 1747 (Apr-2000)
Caesar's Story: 1759 (Apr-2000)
Nancy's Story: 1765 (Oct-2000)
Will's Story: 1771 (Apr-2001)
Maria's Story: 1773 (Sep-2001)
John's Story: 1775 (Dec-2001)

Book List in Order: 113 titles



  • Joe doesn’t plan to stow away on the ocean liner. And horrible Harriet, who helped him hide, isn’t his idea of a friend…not until strange things begin to happen on the ship. The mysterious bearded stranger disappears…was he thrown overboard? ...



  • HELP! Mike's father says if it weren't for all that dratted red tape, all the forms you have to fill out and sign, maybe their neighborhood would get fixed up. That gives Mike an idea. Soon he's the leader of the highly secret Red Tape Gang. They're...



  • It gurgles, it hisses and even makes a cooing sound. Nobody can guess what Michael John has brought to school for his science project, but when it escapes, Paul, with his Indian ancestry, knows how to find it. Paul has guessed what it is!...



  • Mike’s father say if it weren’t for all that dratted red tape, all the forms you have to fill out and sign, maybe their neighborhood would get fixed up. That gives Mike and idea. Soon he’s the leader of the highly secret Red Tape Gang. They’r...











  • When three children are babysat by a neighbour in their apartment building, they wonder. How was she able to predict a storm? What was in the paper bag that she brought for them as a surprise? Why did she want to tell them a story about.... witches!...



  • Amateur detectives Susan and Mike track down the mysterious sender of an unsigned valentine....



  • On her way home from visiting a friend, Christina Lattimore is grabbed in her driveway and drugged. When she wakes up she is on a narrow cot in a chilly basement. What is she doing there? Christina realizes she has been kidnapped and is being h...



  • Susan and Mike use their detective skills to figure out what happened to the missing ingredients for their New Year's party refreshments. ...





    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy










  • An old Irish legend says that horses talk at midnight on Christmas Eve, but when Susan and Mike stand watch at the local stable, they overhear robbers, not horses....




  • A container of lifelike dolls, a gift from the planet Urd, seems to be tied with a mysterious warning that the planet Durth will be invaded....



  • Lauren is reluctant to be part of the séance from the start. When the lights are turned off and only a candle flickers, she feels scared. Something is wrong. Something is watching her. And when Sara screams, all the girls are frightened. Even more f...





  • Seventeen-year-old Dina is fighting cancer and is  angry at the whole world. But when Julie, a  nine-year-old survivor of a car accident, becomes Dina's  roommate at the hospital, there's no time for Dina  to k...






  • Caught in a violent storm, Lisa and her three friends take refuge in a deserted old house. Inside are strewn odd tricks and gadgets -- the props of a practiced magician. Doors slam. The phones go dead. A ghostly hand creeps across the mantel. But the...






    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

    A NIGHT OF TERROR As Jeff and Debbie make their way to the old Hackman mansion, snowflakes start to fall. They come to the house on Hackman's Hill to look for a stolen Egyptian mummy that old Mr. Karsten has told them about -- and for which they co...



  • A defensive twelve-year-old comes to understand her father, a busy Hollywood director planning to remarry, after she is exiled for the summer to the everyday life of her grandmother's house in Houston....



  • Twelve-year-old Maggie, living with her grandmother in Houston, joins the drama club at school, wins a part in a play, begins to make friends, and learns to deal with feelings of loneliness, selfishness, being in love, and having an unusual family li...



  • The Andrews house was rumoured to be haunted, and Jeremy had warned his sister Angie to stay away from there. After he became the victim of a hit-and-run accident, she became desperate to learn the truth, but found herself alone in a deepening myster...




  • When their aunt buys an old, run-down inn on the banks of the Mississippi, Chris and Amy Holt go south to help her fix up the place. They lend helping hands during the day, but at night, they wonder about the island in the middle of the river-a myste...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes The Stalker from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          When Jennifer Lee Wilcox returns home from the beach, sh...



  • Happy living with her Texas grandmother and looking forward to celebrating a family Christmas, thirteen-year-old Maggie is devastated when she is summoned by her movie-director father to spend Christmas with him and her very young stepmother in Calif...



  • • Stacy wakes up in a hospital room to find she’s been in a coma for four years. She’s caught inside the body of a beautiful seventeen-year-old, while inside she still feels thirteen. The last thing she remembers was a summer day four years ago...



  • "In the frontier town of Hideyhole, feisty Shirley resists her parents' attempts to marry her off--especially since the only bachelor left is dull Elmer Twaddle."--Publishers Weekly. Full-color illustrations....








  • Shy Megan Kelly cannot forget the day a gypsy read her palm announcing to all that she would bring trouble to those around her. Afterward, trouble does follow her, until she takes the necessary steps to free herself from the burdens of fear, lone...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Secret, Silent Screams from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Is Barry’s death the latest tragedy in a st...



  • FOR LOVERS OF HISTORICAL ADVENTURE, A FAMILY APART IS THE MIDDLE-GRADE ANSWER TO CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE'S NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING ORPHAN TRAIN. Imagine being taken from your home. Imagine your mother is the one who lets it happen. Th...



  • Danny and his younger sister, Peg, are placed in St. Joseph, Missouri, with kind Alfrid and Olga Swenson. Danny is thrilled to have a "real" father again, but when Olga suddenly dies, he is devastated -- until he thinks of an ingenious plan to fi...



  • Andrea didn't want to accompany her aunt and a group of privileged people on a boat trip to the Bahamas to look at a valuable artifact. But she's stuck there now, and angry when she realizes that this is a stolen artifact. All the adults want to own ...



  • As the saga of the Kelly children continues, Mike Kelly is adopted by a German immigrant farm family living in Missouri. Although they are kind to him, they are mainly interested in having cheap labor....



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes The Dark and Deadly Pool from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Liz enjoys her summer pool job at the glamo...




  • Only Sarah senses the horror. The minute she steps through the door of her family's new home, she feels a smothering cold mist and hears the echo of a scream and a heartbreaking whisper in Spanish: "Help me!" Sarah feels compelled to find out who is...






  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes A Candidate For Murder from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          A suspense novel set in the world of politics...




  • The Nic-Nac kids--Niki, Amy, Carlos, and Slap--investigate such neighborhood mysteries as the disappearance of items from the community swimming pool, then write about their exploits in their own newspaper...



  • After her mother dies, leaving the family business vulnerable to the machinations of greedy relatives, Sarah Lindley embarks on a dangerous journey to the Colorado frontier, where she hopes to enlist the help of her long-absent father. Reprint....







  • As Sarah Lindley's father lay dying in her arms, he found the strength to whisper a cryptic message. Sarah vows to clear his name of the murder he is wrongly accused of committing, and now she cannot leave the lawless mining town of Leadville until s...



  • Cassie's daughter Erin, who identifies closely with her grandmother Abby, wants to be an actress more than anything in the world, but is disappointed that her parents do not approve of her working in the television medium....




  • Novelist Augustus Trevor has written a manuscript that reveals the darkest secrets of his guests. Whoever can solve Trevor's clues can have his story removed from the book. But when Trevor is bludgeoned to death, the survivors (along with the reader)...



  • The family of Rebekah Levinsky emigrates from Russia and settles in New York City, hoping their dreams will come true. But instead of finding streets paved with gold, they find they must work seven days a week in a sweatshop simply to survive. Will R...





  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes The Weekend was Murder! from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Mary Elizabeth can’t wait for the weekend ...



  • When Katie Gillian and her mother move from Houston to a small Texas town, they never imagine that violence and intrigue will interrupt their six-month stay. Could the two bodies found have anything to do with newspaper articles Katie's reporter mot...




  • It's 1861, and although Mike Kelly is far younger than the legal age of 16, he and his best friend Todd secretly join up with the Second Kansas Infantry and become army drummer boys. Mike's dreams of glory end when he's wounded at the bloody Batt...



  • Swedish immigrant Kristin Swensen lives on a farm in Minnesota. She hoped for a new life in America, but she realizes that her parents are clinging as closely as possible to the life they knew in Sweden. Kristin can’t accept coming all this way onl...



  • It's the autumn of 1863, and as the Civil War rages, a stranger named Violet seeks refuge with the Kelly family. Peg Kelly, 11, is thrilled -- Violet treats her like an adult, not a child. Violet is fleeing Confederate raiders and has information...



  • The Casebusters race to catch a horsenapper! Brian and Sean Quinn are two kids with a cool hobby: they're private detectives! Brian and Sean have just begun a two-week summer vacation at a dude ranch in the Nevada mountains when they learn that...



  • It's the Casebusters versus a living statue! Brian and Sean Quinn are two kids with a cool hobby: they're private detectives. Brian and Sean are hot on the trail of the thief who stole several priceless masterpieces from the local museum. The c...



  • Sean and Brian Quinn look for the causes and perpetrators of a series of accidents that have set preservationists against developers, who want to tear down Redoaks' old Culbertson Theater. Simultaneous....



  • Melia wants to be a writer just like her mom. She's not exactly sure what a writer does, though. She sees her mom staring at the typewriter and then she sees her opening up boxes of books. But what comes in between? With some help from her mom, Melia...



  • On a visit to Piney Point Manor, an elegant seaside resort, Sean and Brian Quinn investigate a series of thefts that have baffled local police, and someone tries to frighten the brothers off. Simultaneous....



  • Moving to the old Everhart mansion, which is believed to be haunted, newcomer Charles fears the strange incidents that are taking place in his new home and asks the Casebusters to find out if ghosts or pranksters are responsible. Simultaneous....



  • Time's running out for the Casebusters! Brian and Sean Quinn are two kids with a cool hobby: they're private detectives. It's time for the town of Redoaks's annual parade in celebration of the city's founding, and this year a time capsule will ...



  • Brian and Sean Quinn have their own suspicions regarding the whereabouts of Lester, a bratty seven-year-old who has supposedly been kidnapped, but their investigation is stalled by a pirate ghost who seems to be watching their every move....



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Don’t Scream from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          When two new guys start at Jess’s high school, she ...



  • When the circus comes to town, a clown and his monkey get into troubleKid detectives Brian and Sean Quinn are on their way home when they see a clown causing a commotion outside the mall. The Star-Spangled Circus has just rolled into town, and Cracke...



  • When Sean and Brian stay with their friend Alan and his family in the wooded area of Grizzly Hill for the weekend, they are told to stay out of the woods, but their curiosity leads them to the edges of the woods where they see glowing eyes and clawed...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Search for the Shadowman from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Twelve-year-old Andy Thomas isn’t thrille...



  • Sean gets his chance at stardom, but a Hollywood jinx stands in his wayA movie is being filmed in Redoaks, and Sean Quinn wants to be a part of it. The movie is called New Guy in Town, and it stars famous child actors Dakota Wayne and Justin Moore. T...



  • The Civil War has officially ended and Frances Mary Kelly's true love, Johnny, is back from the war. But to Frances's dismay, Johnny is hesitant to marry her. Attempting to ease her aching heart, Frances accepts an offer to go to New York City and es...



  • While working on a local TV news show, Brian gets the scoop of a lifetime Brian Quinn signed up for journalism class expecting an easy A. But as he quickly finds out, there's nothing simple about reporting the news. Brian is nervous when his teach...



  • Sean, an elementary school computer prankster, finds himself in the middle of a mystery when he is wrongly accused of infecting the school's computer system with a virus, and he and the Casebusters must find out who is trying to set him up. Original....



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Spirit Seeker from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Holly Campbell’s life has suddenly become a newspape...



  • When a chocolate tycoon is found dead, it's anything but sweet. . . . Jenny Jakes and her mother, a famous mystery writer, travel to see their millionaire cousin, Arnold Harmony, who made his fortune in the chocolate business. Harmony, a true eccent...



  • Ten-year-old Lucy Griggs's mother has just died, leaving Lucy orphaned and living on the streets of 1866 New York City. Then Lucy hears about the Children's Aid Society, a group that sends orphans out West to new homes. Lucy knows she'll never replac...



  • It's 1866 and 12-year-old Will Scott is not happy to be riding the orphan train. That's because Will's not really an orphan. He has a father--Jesse, a circus performer. But Will is no good at circus tricks, and Jesse tells him he'd be better off with...



  • Aggie Mae Vaughn is 12 years old in 1866, and she lives in the Asylum for Homeless Waifs in New York City. Aggie hates being called a waif almost as much as she hates the orphanage, where she's always in trouble.

    Now she's going west on the o...



  • Fifteen-year-old Lia comes from a long line of courageous women, dating back to a Civil War survivor who single-handedly saved her Louisiana plantation house, Graymoss, from destruction. But Graymoss is haunted by a terrible evil.

    With clues f...



  • History comes alive in this entertaining and educational series for readers ages 7-11, written by the beloved author of the Orphan Train Adventures.

    David Howard has been living on the streets of New York City so long he can barely remember h...



  • From one of the foremost mystery writers for young adults comes a gripping double mystery about a high school student who finds out that a stranger has kept a secret file on her entire life.

    Kristi Evans and her parents can't understand why po...



  • When writer Duncan Tyler turns his pen towards blackmail and is found murdered at the annual mystery writer's retreat, Stacy Champagne and Deputy Ramon Gonazalas must discover who decided to kill Tyler rather than meet his demands...



  • Joan Lowery Nixon, president of the Mystery Writers of America, has found 10 well-known writers to craft spellbinding stories for adults who want to read but have undeveloped reading skills. Here are stories with adult themes and interests that chall...



  • When Gerald Dinkins is found murdered at a fundraising gala at the Silver Ridge Hotel, head of hotel security Stacy Champagne and her fiance Deputy Ramon Gonazalas must discover who decided to kill Dinkins and why...



  • Ann McKenzie loves living in Williamsburg. All of her family and friends are nearby, and there’s always something exciting happening in the colonial capital. Now that she’s 9 years old, it’s time for Ann to start acting like a proper young woma...



  • In partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation come authentic novels set in the
    18th century about actual people, places, and events in this celebrated Virginia town.

    Caesar’s life as a slave consists of long hours of backbreak...



  • Furious at her father for breaking up their family, Abbie Thompson acted without thinking and got arrested for malicious mischief. Now the judge has assigned her to volunteer in a program that matches teens with the elderly. But Abbie doesn't get jus...



  • The year is 1765, and there's a lot going on in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Stamp Act has just been passed, and many colonists are protesting it because nobody knows what it will mean to the colonies as a whole. Twelve-year-old Nancy Geddy is concern...




  • Irish immigrant Rose Carney has a difficult life in Chicago. She’s working to help pay for her mother’s and sisters’ passages, dealing with her father’s drinking problem, and worrying about her brothers’ involvement in questionable activiti...



  • In partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation come authentic novels set in the 18th century about actual people, places, and events in this celebrated Virginia town.

    Eleven-year-old Will Pelham's father is the gaoler for the city of...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Playing for Keeps from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Rose Ann can’t believe her good luck. Her grandm...



  • When Maria Rind's father dies, her mother is forced to carry on his work: writing and publishing The Virginia Gazette, one of Williamsburg's weekly newspapers. Nine-year-old Maria would like to help too, but instead her older brother is chosen to wor...



  • The year 1775 is an explosive one -- both for the colony of Virginia and 11-year-old John Nicholas’s family. The tensions are rising between England and the colonies, and Virginians disagree on how to act. Like many, John’s father, Robert Carte...



  •         Joan Lowery Nixon is the acclaimed author of more than a hundred books for young readers. Over the years, many of her readers have written to her to ask how they, too, can become published writers someday. From her first p...



  • The slapstick sequel to Gus & Gertie and the Missing Pearl is now available in paperback! Gus and Gertie arrive at the Animals Winter Olympics with dreams of winning gold as Antarcticas first synchronized swimming team. But first they find out that s...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes The Trap from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Julie has the perfect summer plan. She’ll be with her fri...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Nightmare from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Emily has never fit in with her overachieving family. Inst...



  • Two of Joan Lowery Nixon's Edgar Award winners in one volume!

    The Other Side of Dark:
    Stacy wakes up in a room that’s not hers, in a body she doesn’t recognize, to discover she’s been in a coma for four years. Her mother is deadâ€"mu...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Laugh Till You Cry from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          Thirteen-year-old Cody doesn’t like Texas. He a...



  • For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Stories from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon.          In the old towns of the Wild West,...


Award-Winning Books by Joan Lowery Nixon

The Dark and Deadly Pool
1990 Young Hoosier Book Award -- Grades 6-8
A Family Apart
1992 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Middle School
The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore
1980 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- Juvenile
The Name of the Game Was Murder
1994 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- Young Adult
1996 Black-Eyed Susan Award -- Grades 6-9
1997 Grand Canyon Reader Award -- Teen
The Other Side of Dark
1987 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- Juvenile
1988 Colorado Blue Spruce Award -- Young Adult
1989 Iowa Teen Award -- Young Adult
The Seance
1981 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- Juvenile
Spirit Seeker
2000 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Middle School
Whispers from the Dead
1992 Nevada Young Readers' Award -- Young Adult
1993 Golden Sower Award -- Young Adult
1995 Young Hoosier Book Award -- Grades 6-8


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Joan Lowery Nixon has published 113 books.

Joan Lowery Nixon does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Stories, was published in December 2008.

The first book by Joan Lowery Nixon, Mystery of the Secret Stowaway, was published in June 1970.

Yes. Joan Lowery Nixon has 11 series.