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Lorna Barrett books in order

Lorna Barrett is a New York Times bestselling author of mystery and thriller books.

Although her beloved Booktown Mystery Series is what proved to be her breakthrough project, it is her passion and gift of storytelling that has helped retain her place at the helm–whether she is writing as Lorna, L.L. Bartlett, or Lorraine Bartlett.

Lorna currently lives in Rochester, New York with her husband and two cats, Poppy and Emma.

More about Lorna Barrett

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Pseudonym: L.L. Bartlett, Lorraine Bartlett

Website: https://lornabarrett.com/

Non Series

  • Something Old, Something New (2021)
  • When Life Gives You Lemons (2022)

Booktown Mystery

  1. Murder Is Binding (2008)
  2. Bookmarked For Death (2009)
  3. Bookplate Special (2009)
  4. Chapter and Hearse (2010)
  5. Sentenced to Death (2011)
  6. Title Wave (2016)
  7. Murder on the Half Shelf (2012)
  8. Not the Killing Type (2013)
  9. Book Clubbed (2014)
  10. A Fatal Chapter (2015)
  11. A Just Clause (2017)
  12. Poisoned Pages (2018)
  13. A Killer Edition (2019)
  14. Handbook for Homicide (2020)
  15. A Deadly Deletion (2021)
  16. Clause of Death (2022)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

Something Old, Something New

"Set in present day Dublin, this is the story of two women’s lifelong friendship and a betrayal that threatens to tear their lives apart."

Trish is left picking up the pieces following a terrible tragedy. Life has been cruel and now it lands another blow. Luckily, she has her best friend Karen by her side to help her through. Then a chance encounter on the French Riviera leads Trish to think that maybe la vie est belle after all.

Karen has it all. Sophisticated and successful, she is head of a Maternity & Fertility Clinic in Dublin’s city center. Now, a new man who ticks all the boxes looks like he might be ‘The One’.

Olivia is the perfect daughter with a steady boyfriend and a steadier job. But she wants answers. Haunted by the fact that her life has been a matter of chance, she is on a mission to unearth the truth.

But, for each of them, the truth has the potential to blow their lives apart.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-1781994290
Publisher: Poolbeg Press Ltd
When Life Gives You Lemons

Four best friends. When life lets them down, at least they have each other.

Diane has it all. A great career, a beautiful home and a lavish lifestyle. When all that changes overnight, she is left with some very difficult decisions.

Suze feels invisible. Neither family nor friends seem to have noticed her gradual disappearance. She desperately needs to escape from the trap her life has become, but is there any way out?

Sarah’s world is rocked when her husband of over twenty years makes an astonishing admission. Everything she thought she knew is a lie. What will it take for her to accept the past and move on?

Laurie waits at home while her actor boyfriend Kevin goes to Hollywood for auditions. Then a devastating call from a stranger turns her world upside down.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2022
Ebook: B09P1MX5VJ
Publisher: Poolbeg Press Ltd

Booktown Mystery

Murder Is Binding

"The streets of Stoneham, New Hampsire are lined with bookstores...and paved with murder."

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition.

But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial.

Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia.

To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2008
Ebook: B0013A1IV6
Publisher: Berkley
Bookmarked For Death

"What do a stone book and a stabbed cake have to do with Zoë Carter's death?"

Once a struggling town, Stoneham, New Hampshire is now enjoying a renaissance--thanks to booksellers like Tricia Miles, proprietor of Haven’t Got a Clue. It’s a great place to find a good mystery to read--or to solve….

To celebrate her bookstore’s anniversary, Tricia Miles hosts a book signing for bestselling author Zoë Carter. But the event takes a terrible turn when the author is found dead in the washroom. Before long, both police and reporters are demanding the real story. So far, the author’s obnoxious assistant/niece is the only suspect.

And with a sheriff who provides more obstacles than answers, Tricia will have to take matters into her own hands--and read between the lines to solve this mystery….

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2009
Ebook: B001QEQRLA
Publisher: Berkley
Bookplate Special

"Tricia Miles, owner of Haven't a Clue mystery bookstore, is still settling into Stoneham, New Hampshire, the kind of town where everybody knows your name--and where everyone's quick to lend a hand, even when murder is afoot..."

The kinder folks of Stoneham might call Pammy Fredericks a free spirit. The less kind, a freeloading thief. Tricia has put up--and put up with--her uninvited college roommate for weeks. In return, Pammy, has stolen $100, among other things.

But the day she's kicked out, Pammy's found dead in a dumpster, leaving loads of questions unanswered. Like what was she foraging for?

Did her killer want it too? To piece the case together, Tricia will have to dive in head-first....

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-1410425089
Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Chapter and Hearse

"According to the gossip around Stoneham, New Hampshire, Tricia Miles cannot put down a real murder mystery. After all, the owner of the mystery bookstore, Haven't Got a Clue, has been spending more time solving whodunits than reading them..."

Tricia's sister, Angelica, considers herself to be the next celebrity chef. To celebrate her first cookbook, Angelica hosts a launch party, but sadly the only guest is an oversized cutout of herself. Worse than the lack of fans is a nearby gas explosion that injures her boyfriend, Bob Kelly, the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

Tricia's never been a fan of Bob, but when she reads that Bob is being tight-lipped about the "accident" and how it killed the owner of the town's history bookstore, it's time to take action. As the incriminating details emerge, Tricia gets wrapped up in a murder that proves to be as spine-tingling as the books that line her shelves...

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-1410431318
Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Sentenced to Death

As the owner of Stoneham, New Hampshire's mystery bookstore Haven't Got a Clue, Tricia Miles can figure out whodunit in the latest bestseller long before she gets to the last page.

On Founder's Day in Stoneham, the whole village has turned out to celebrate in the square, including Tricia's friend and festivities organizer Deborah Black. As everyone watches Deborah give the opening speech, a small aircraft crashes into the village gazebo, killing both Deborah and the pilot.

While the Sheriff's Department is convinced that it was an accident, Tricia has a feeling that there's more to the story. And when she reads between the lines of the case, what she finds is worse than the most sinister whodunit...

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-1410441430
Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Title Wave

While her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, is rebuilt following a devastating fire, Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, decide to book a cruise for some much needed R & R. Naturally they choose a mystery lovers cruise, where they can ponder whodunit in deck chairs while sipping colorful drinks and soaking up some rays.

But the fun is cut short when a fellow passenger is murdered for real. Is the killer a famous mystery author, one of her fans, or a member of the ship’s crew? As Tricia tries to find the killer before they reach port, she may be cruising for a bruising...

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2016
Ebook: B016VRFUDC
Publisher: Berkley
Murder on the Half Shelf

Tricia Miles—owner of Haven’t Got a Clue, the best mystery bookstore in Stoneham, New Hampshire—once again plays amateur sleuth as she is unexpectedly reunited with a man from a chapter of her life she closed long ago…

The town of Stoneham is a haven for bookstores, but it is sadly lacking in bed-and-breakfasts. Fortunately Pippa and Jon Comfort’s Sheer Comfort Inn is about to open, and the couple has offered some locals a free night as a trial run.

But it won’t be so easy to sleep after Tricia makes two startling discoveries: Pippa’s murdered body in the backyard, and the fact that Pippa’s husband, Jon, is actually Harry Tyler, a man Tricia loved—and believed dead—for nearly twenty years.

Though Harry is the prime suspect, Tricia doesn’t believe him capable of murder, even though he’s led a life of lies. Especially when she discovers that Pippa had a few secrets of her own—some that may have been worth killing for.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2012
Ebook: B0073XV362
Publisher: Berkley
Not the Killing Type

It’s November in Stoneham, New Hampshire, and time for the Chamber of Commerce elections. The long-standing Chamber president is being challenged by a former lover—Tricia’s own sister, Angelica. Also throwing his hat in the ring is small business owner Stan Berry. Unfortunately, Stan isn’t in the race for long.

When Stan is found murdered, his political rivals become suspects. Angelica is going to need more than a vote of confidence from her sister—she needs Tricia to clear her name so she can win the election.

Tricia soon uncovers a ballot box full of lies and betrayals, and a chamber full of people who had grudges against the victim. But were they serious enough to lead to murder? It’s up to Tricia to pull the lever on a killer before it’s curtains for someone else.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2013
Ebook: B009RYL1US
Publisher: Berkley
Book Clubbed

Cranky Chamber of Commerce receptionist Betsy Dittmeyer is done reading people the riot act. After she's crushed by a fallen bookcase, the next item to be read is her last will and testament--which is packed with surprises. It soon comes to light that Betsy was hiding volumes of dark secrets behind that perpetual frown of hers--and one of them just might have been a motive for murder.

While Tricia tries to help Angelica--the newly elected Chamber of Commerce president and Betsy's boss--solve the mystery, she discovers a hidden chapter in her own family history that rocks her to her very core. And with her ex-husband and the chief of police vying for her affections, it's doubly hard to focus on who might have buried Betsy in a tomb of tomes.

But as Tricia and Angelica try to read between the lines, they need to watch their step...and make sure the killer doesn't catch them between the stacks.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2014
Ebook: B00G3L13KQ
Publisher: Berkley
A Fatal Chapter

While out walking Sarge, her sister’s bichon frise, bookshop owner Tricia Miles is led by the agitated dog to a man lying in a gazebo. She’s startled when she recognizes Pete Renquist, the president of the Stoneham Historical Society, who appears to be suffering from cardiac arrest. When Pete later dies at the hospital, the discovery of a suspicious bruise and a puncture mark on his arm suggests he may have been murdered.

Haunted by Pete’s enigmatic last words to her, Tricia begins to consider who had a motive to kill her friend. Did Pete take his flirting too far, only to have a jealous husband teach him a lesson? Or did he discover something in the town’s historical records that his killer wanted kept secret? Tricia is determined to get to the bottom of things before someone else becomes history…

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2015
Ebook: B00OQS4E40
Publisher: Berkley
A Just Clause

Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, is in for a surprise when her ne’er-do-well father, John, comes to town—and promptly becomes a prime suspect in the murder of a woman with her own scandalous past. Even Tricia’s faith in the old man is shaken when the Stoneham police break the news that her father is a known con man who has done jail time.  

But what about bestselling thriller author Steven Richardson? Is it a coincidence that he arrived for a book signing just before the crime or that the victim was found with a signed copy of his latest bestseller?  

From merlot to murder, Tricia is determined to clear the family name before another body shows up and ruins Stoneham’s first—and highly anticipated—wine and jazz festival.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2017
Ebook: B01MA58VW8
Publisher: Berkley
Poisoned Pages

Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, throws a housewarming cocktail party in her new apartment and has cooked all the food by herself—quite a feat for someone who previously couldn't boil water. Then one of her guests is poisoned and dies. Tricia's left to wonder if her cooking is to blame or if there's something much more sinister at play. Either way, Tricia's once again in hot water with her ex-lover, Chief Baker.

Meanwhile the charming town of Stoneham is being disrupted by a vandalism crime wave. It's the hot topic in the race for Chamber of Commerce president which sees Tricia pitted against two bitter rivals. With all that's going on can she find the killer before she's the next item on the menu?

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2018
Ebook: B076GNBNG9
Publisher: Berkley
A Killer Edition

With her assistant, Pixie, picking up more responsibility around the shop, Tricia Miles suddenly has a lot more time on her hands. Tricia decides to join the local animal-rescue board and enter the Great Stoneham Bake-Off, but neither pans out as smoothly as she’d hoped.

Balancing a bake-off that’s heating up with a frosty reception from the board, Tricia stops by Joyce Whitman’s romance bookstore looking for a book to get her fired up. She stumbles on something hot, but it’s an argument between Joyce and her neighbor Vera Olson instead of a steamy read. When Vera turns up dead in Joyce’s garden hours later, Tricia has to wonder—could Joyce be the killer? Or is the culprit still lurking in town?

One thing is for sure, someone in Stoneham is stirring up something more sinister than sweet. Tricia is determined to win the cutthroat cooking contest, but first she will have to make sure no one else is in danger of getting burned....

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2019
Ebook: B07KNSSZCG
Publisher: Berkley
Handbook for Homicide

Haven't Got A Clue bookshop owner Tricia Miles's relationship is on the rocks. After a not-so-fun vacation with her on-again-off-again lover, Marshall Cambridge, Tricia's hoping for smooth sailing back in Stoneham. Unfortunately Booktown greets her not with blue skies but with another body.

When Tricia's assistant manager, Pixie, finds homeless vet Susan Morris's body behind Haven't Got A Clue, Pixie's checkered past makes her the prime suspect. Tricia sets out to clear Pixie's name armed with only an anchor insignia earring found at the scene of the crime.

As Tricia digs deeper she discovers Susan was involved in a scandal right before retiring from the Navy—but since nobody in the village knows Susan, even Tricia's one lead is in danger of drying up. With family drama brewing in the background and all of Stoneham convinced her manager is a murderer, Tricia knows she has to get to the bottom of the case soon before Pixie's life is sunk.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2020
Ebook: B081M7J5FF
Publisher: Berkley
A Deadly Deletion

Tricia Miles has just received a second marriage proposal within fifteen minutes. The first was from her friend with benefits, Marshall Chambers, and the second from her ex-lover, police chief Grant Baker. Tricia's got some serious thinking to do.

She's still weighing her options when she hears the sound of an engine roaring down Main Street. It's a big white pickup truck that aims for and hits Marshall as he's walking back to his apartment. 

Tragically, he's killed, leaving Tricia feeling bereft and guilty. She retreats to her sister, Angelica's, apartment to wait for Baker to update her on what happened. While there, Tricia takes Angelica's dog out for a comfort call behind the building, and the same white pickup roars up the alley and just misses hitting Tricia.

Still shaken by that news, Tricia returns to Haven't Got a Clue and is met by federal marshal Kirby, who tells her that Marshall had been in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Everything Marshall told Tricia was a lie—in particular, that he was a widower. Was his death an act of revenge?

Tricia's on the hunt for a killer, and it seems like she might be next on the list.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2021
Ebook: B08M191YJH
Publisher: Berkley
Clause of Death

Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Things are changing in the booktown, and some merchants would say not for the better. They grumble that too many non-book-related stores are moving into the village, taking up the most visible storefronts on Main Street, diluting the “Booktown” moniker.

Of course, the members with other businesses, like the latest, The Bee’s Knees, are fine with other businesses moving in. No matter what side of the argument they're on, all the business owners agree on one thing: Tricia and Angelica are to blame.

Still, it's a pretty typical day in the life of a small-town Chamber of Commerce until one of the disgruntled bookstore owners is killed—Eli Meier from The Inner Light Bookstore, the most vocal of the Chamber complainers.

He sold religious and other spiritual books, but also stocked books on wild conspiracy theories and sold incense, crystals, etc. Eli had never been a member of the Chamber until Angelica recently convinced him to join.

He hit on her and she, having good taste, turned him down. He hounded (but not stalked) her, and some might think that was a motive for murder.

Stoneham's new police chief is an old friend of Tricia's, but that doesn't mean he's going to go easy on her sister. One might even say that he's going to throw the book at her.

Author: Lorna Barrett
First Release: 2022
Ebook: B09J3D5JN3
Publisher: Berkley