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Carlene Thompson is an American author of mystery, thriller and romantic suspense.

Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, she attended Marshall University in Huntington, where she graduated with a degree in English.

Upon completing her Master’s and a Ph.D. at The Ohio State University, Carlene taught for six years at the University of Rio Grande before resigning in order to pursue her dreams of becoming a full-time fiction writer.

Her lifelong passion, which began with writing mysteries at the age of nine, culminated in 1990 when she made her debut as a novelist with Black for Remembrance.

At first, her goal was to write only five books. But five became ten, and she just kept going.

It is Carlene’s hope that her readers will continue enjoying her books, because she sure does enjoy writing them.

More about Carlene Thompson

Genres: Mystery, Suspense Romance, Thriller

Born: 1952

United States

Website: http://www.carlenethompson.us/default.html

Non Series

  • Black for Remembrance (1990)
  • All Fall Down (1992)
  • The Way You Look Tonight (1995)
  • Tonight You're Mine (1998)
  • In the Event of My Death (1999)
  • Don't Close Your Eyes (2000)
  • Since You've Been Gone (2001)
  • If She Should Die (2004)
  • Share No Secrets (2005)
  • Last Whisper (2006)
  • Last Seen Alive (2007)
  • If You Ever Tell (2008)
  • You Can Run... (2009)
  • Nowhere to Hide (2010)
  • To the Grave (2012)
  • Can't Find My Way Home (2015)
  • Just a Breath Away (2018)
  • Praying for Time (2020)
  • Such a Winter's Day (2022)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

Black for Remembrance

Caroline Webb knows what it means to lose the person you love most. Twenty years ago, her five-year-old daughter, Hayley, was the light of her life, her treasure, her angle. Then came the terrible day when Hayley was kidnapped from her favorite swing. More than a month passed before her burned, lifeless body was found. All that remained was the silence of Caroline's heartache--and her guilt...

Now, Caroline has started over with a new husband. She even has another precious daughter, Melinda. She thinks she has put the ghosts of her past behind her. But without warning, those ghosts once again start to echo in the night. Suddenly, Hayley's favorite doll reappears...strange murders rock the Webbs' small town...Caroline even claims she has heard the voice of the little girl she lost all those years ago. Could Hayley still be out there somewhere, somehow? Now a killer waits in the wings--waiting to make Caroline live her worst nightmare yet...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 1990
ISBN: 978-1250091871
Publisher: Griffin
All Fall Down

Few locals believe Sinclair's wealthy golden boy Martin Avery actually took his own life-or that his beautiful young widow had nothing to do with his death. Well aware of the rumors behind her back, Blaine Avery is focused on managing her late husband's finances and raising her adolescent stepdaughter...until her serene woodland property yields a gruesome discovery.

For the second time in six months, Sheriff Logan Quint has been called out to the Avery place, where another corpse has been found. This time, it belongs to a teenage girl who had everything to live for. But if Rosie Van Zandt didn't kill herself...who did?

As the once sleepy town reels from the rash of so-called suicides, Blaine regrets the day she ever came home. Only Logan is willing to accept her innocence-or her suspicions. For Blaine is desperate to clear her name, and dead certain somebody intends to destroy it. Somebody who calls her in the dead of night, taunting her with the childhood rhyme: Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posey, ashes, ashes, we...All Fall Down

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 1992
ISBN: 978-0380770212
Publisher: Avon
The Way You Look Tonight

For Better...

Deborah Robinson lived on a quiet street in a small town with her handsome husband and darling twins. It was the picture-perfect life---until the day Deborah's husband vanished without a trace.

Or For Worse...

Before he disappeared, Steve had been on edge. When he told her he was distracted by work, Deborah is scared. She's heard about the sadistic murders of several local women, and she can't shake the horrible feeling that the killings are somehow connected to Steve's disappearance.

Until Death Do Us Part...

Torn by guilt, tormented by suspicion, Deborah begins to delve into the shadowy secrets of her husband's past. What she finds will chill her to the bone. Dor Deborah no longer knows who or what her husband was. But she does know that someone is watching the Robinson house, someone who has ruthlessly killed---and is only waiting for the perfect moment to stike again...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 1995
ISBN: 978-1250039750
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Tonight You're Mine

She knew he was back. But was it for love...or revenge?

Fifteen years ago, Nicole and Paul were deeply in love-she was a college student and he was a brilliant pianist. They were passionately happy, until one violent, terrifying night changed their lives forever. Now she's a different person, with a different life, but her past continues to haunt her. And though Paul was reported dead in a car crash, Nicole can't shake the feeling that the man she loved is still out there somewhere alive. 

Following the sudden death of her father, a series of mysterious murders shake her world, threatening her safety, as well as her sanity. And somehow, these horrific killings are tied to Nicole-now she must find out why-and uncover the shadowy figure who stalks her before he makes his deadly claim...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 1998
ISBN: 978-1444778670
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
In the Event of My Death

They had been six teenage girls in Wheeling, West Virginia. Full of mischief. Acting wild. Having good times. And getting into trouble. They called themselves the Six of Hearts. Then one night things went to far. One of them died. The rest swore to never tell what really happened.

Now, thirteen years later, someone has decided to kill the remaining Six of hearts. The first to die is Angie, a successful New York City actress. And flower-shop owner Laurel Damron, still living in Wheeling, may be next. She has gotten a chilling message in the mail. She knows a killer is watching her. But who? Only by searching the past can she uncover a haunting truth...only by looking deep with herself can she uncover a lost memory...and only by suspecting everyone she knows, does she have one slim chance of staying alive...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 1999
ISBN: 978-1444778694
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Don't Close Your Eyes

Nestled on the shores of Lake Erie, the small town of Port Ariel, Ohio, is a welcome haven for Natalie St. John. Back home for the first time in years, she plans to visit old friends, mend a broken heart, and take a break from her busy veterinarian practice. But her peace is shattered her first night back, when she discovers the murdered body of her friend, Tamara Peyton.

Was it a random act of violence...or something personal? The answer becomes clear as Natalie is stalked by the voice of "Tamara," whose terrifying phone calls warn her that she too, is going to die.

One by one, the people closest to Tamara are being savagely murdered. But neither Natalie nor Sheriff Nick Meredith recognizes the face of the devious killer who walks among them, hiding behind a well-crafted lie. Now, a murderer's deadly act of vengeance demands one more sacrifice-and Natalie has been chosen to pay the price...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2000
ISBN: 978-1444778717
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Since You've Been Gone

A decade ago, teenaged clairvoyant Rebecca Ryan gained notoriety helping the local police solve high-profile cases. Then came the shocking kidnapping that hit close to home; the first crime she couldn't solve.

Haunted by guilt since the shattering day her beloved kid brother was found murdered, Rebecca has finally made a fresh start in New Orleans. Then comes the all-too-familiar vision: Mind-numbing terror. Shattering pain. The grim certainty that somewhere, a child has been kidnapped from his bed in the middle of the night. A child who shares Rebecca's last name--and perhaps, her brother's grim fate.

Back in quaint Sinclair, West Virginia, Rebecca intends to use her psychic gift to find her cousin's missing son before it's too late. But some people in town--and in the Ryan household itself--still resent her for what her second sight did. Some haven't forgiven her for what it couldn't do. And one vengeful soul is determined that Rebecca and her family will once again pay a deadly ransom...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2001
ISBN: 978-1444778731
If She Should Die

Three years have passed since erotic, willful Dara Prince disappeared from Winston, West Virginia, leaving a note saying she's run away. Now a body has been found in the creek. A body, Christine Ireland suspects, that could very well belong to her adopted sister Dara. Deputy Sheriff Michael Winter certainly seems to think so. But if Dara's dead, who's been sending Ames prince the letters he cherishes: always with a different postmark and always signed with his missing daughter's initial?

When Dara's diary turns up unexpectedly, Christine is plunged into her lost sister's dark and mysterious world. Clearly, in the days before her disappearance, Dara was certain somebody was stalking her. As past melds hauntingly with present, people who knew Dara are meeting tragic fates. Now, someone is watching Christine's every move--perhaps just the way they once watched Dara, right before she died. If, indeed, she really did die...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2004
ISBN: 978-1444778779
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Share No Secrets

Along the banks of the Ohio River, the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has been the home of quiet pleasures and safety for Adrienne Reynolds and her fourteen-year-old daughter Skye since the death of Adrienne's husband four years ago. Their sense of safety is shattered, however, when Adrienne and Skye find the body of one of Adrienne's best friends, Julianna, in a once-elegant, now abandoned hotel named La Belle Riviere. La Belle has a long history of misfortunes, but Julianna's murder is the most gruesome.

Evidence indicates Julianna that had a secret lover whom she met regularly in the hotel, and who could have been with her in her final moments. The only person who knows this lover's identity is the hotel caretaker, Claude Duncan. But Claude is quickly silenced-drugged and burned to death in his small cottage on the grounds of La Belle the night after Julianna's death. One by one, people close to Adrienne are brutally murdered, and it looks as though she and Skye are the next targets of a fierce killer with a shocking secret.

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2005
ISBN: 978-1250054746
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Last Whisper

Someone is tracking her every move.

A killer who knows that true nightmares never end…

And that the perfect murder is always worth waiting for…

Brooke Yeager's childhood ended the night she crept downstairs to find her beautiful, gentle mother, Anne, lying in a pool of blood. Standing above Anne's shattered body, a gun aimed right at the terrified little girl, was Brooke's stepfather, Zachary Tavell. 

Luck saved Brooke that night, and in the years since, she's managed to build a good life in Charleston, West Virginia, secure in the knowledge that Zach is behind bars. Until the night another woman is murdered--a woman who looks just like Brooke. Zach Tavell has escaped from prison, and this time, Brooke will need much more than luck to survive.

As the police search for Tavell, Brooke is shaken by a string of gruesome deaths and disturbing messages linked to her mother's murder. Everyone she has ever cared about is in danger. And soon it's clear that the nightmare that began fifteen years ago won't be over until Brooke comes face to face with a monstrous evil that's closer, and more cunning, than she ever imagined...

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-1444778830
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Last Seen Alive

Chyna Greer was sixteen when her best friend, Zoey, disappeared. Though very different in looks and temperament, the two girls shared a bond that was stronger than blood. But even Chyna's urgent warnings couldn't prevent a love-struck Zoey from sneaking out to the lake to meet her secret crush—and being swallowed up into the warm summer night forever….

Now Chyna has come back to her West Virginia hometown of Black Willow to lay her mother to rest. But memories of Zoey are everywhere…and then, out of nowhere, Chyna hears a voice—Zoey's voice—begging for her help. As Chyna delves into Black Willow's past, she learns that two other teenagers also went missing. Soon Chyna's search for answers becomes a desperate race to uncover a chilling secret that strikes at the heart of everything she holds dear—and reveal the remorseless evil that has been hiding in plain sight….

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2007
ISBN: 978-0312937317
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
If You Ever Tell

It took everything in Teresa Farr's power to return to her hometown of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Eight years earlier, she had walked in on the savage murders of her father and stepmother—both of whom she hated. 

She barely managed to save herself and her eight-year-old stepsister, Celeste. But even after notorious serial killer Roscoe Lee Byrnes confessed, people still wondered if Teri was the guilty one. And with Celeste unable to remember that night, or to speak at all, those suspicions never went away…

Now Celeste is beginning to remember. Now Byrnes has recanted his confession. And someone is using a series of bizarre, taunting events to exact terrifying "justice." As Teri desperately races to uncover the truth, she's finding that everyone she loves has secrets they would kill to keep buried. And in the bright mountain sunlight, an evil concealed all too well is reaching out to silence her and Celeste forever…

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2008
ISBN: 978-1250035196
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
You Can Run...

Penny Conley is still recovering from the untimely death of her husband. But she and her five-year-old daughter, Willow, seem to be thriving in their West Virginia suburb. 

Penny works for esteemed archeologist Simon Van Etton, who is like family to her—even Simon's great niece, Diana, has become one of Penny's closest friends. So when a distraught Penny calls Diana late one night, Diana is the one who comes running. But just as Diana arrives, the house explodes…leaving Penny in a coma, though sparing Willow any harm.

As Diana and Simon try to figure out what happened—and why—two shocking discoveries are made: First, investigators find a bomb in Penny's basement. Then, new facts about Penny's dark past come to light. Determined to find the truth about her friend and protect Willow, Diana keeps digging for clues. But someone is following her every move—and is willing to kill to make sure that Penny's secrets stay dead and buried…

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-1250035189
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Nowhere to Hide

Marissa Gray's world was shattered when her best friend, Gretchen, was brutally murdered. Back then, Marissa tried to convince authorities that Dillon Archer was the killer. But her eyewitness statement wasn't enough—and Dillon disappeared. Now a successful journalist, Marissa is back to help her family during a time of need. After years away from Aurora Falls, she finally feels the past is safe behind her. Until a terrifying hooded figure causes Marissa's car to swerve off a snow-slick road, nearly killing her.

Once again, no one wants to believe Marissa's story—not her sensible sister Catherine, and certainly not her ex-fiancé Eric, who happens to be the town's deputy chief of police. But other strange happenings are afoot…and a terrifying sequence emerges in which old friends of Gretchen's start turning up dead. As Marissa desperately races to uncover Aurora Falls's secret history, someone is two steps ahead, concealed in every taunting clue—and waiting to silence one inconvenient witness forever…

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-0312360740
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
To the Grave

No secret can stay buried for long...

As a psychologist, Catherine Gray understands the power of first love. As a woman, she still has feelings for her first crush, James—a handsome lawyer who was trapped in a bad marriage for years. Now that Catherine has returned to Aurora Falls, and James is divorced, they can finally build a life together. But then she stumbles onto his first love—his ex-wife Renée, missing for the past three years—murdered…

Catherine is stunned. How well does she really know James? What secret destroyed his marriage—and who killed his wife? When a mysterious fire destroys the crime scene, Catherine starts looking for answers. In a portrait for a masked woman, she sees Renée's eyes looking back at her hauntingly. And when the next victim is revealed, it becomes terrifyingly clear that an obsessed killer is on the loose—and Catherine is next in line…

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-1444778939
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Can't Find My Way Home

Brynn Wilder must confront a dark and dangerous walk back into her traumatic past.

Eighteen years ago, twelve-year-old Brynn Wilder’s life changed forever when her father and a teenage girl were severely injured in a brutal attack in the woods.

Jonah Wilder died, but fifteen-year-old Tessa Cavanaugh survived to tell the world about her horrific ordeal, and Brynn’s devoted father was soon identified as the infamous Genessa Point serial killer. Brynn and her family fled the town, and Brynn swore never to return.

But the scars of the past won’t heal, and when Brynn’s tormented brother, Mark, goes back to Genessa Point only to suddenly disappear after telling a friend he has new information about his father’s death, Brynn resolves to find him.

She may not want to confront her traumatic past, but a series of creepy and menacing incidents show that someone is determined Brynn won’t escape it. Can she find Mark and uncover the truth about their father’s death?

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1847515568
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Just a Breath Away

Your sister is killed before your eyes.

It’s the worst pain imaginable.

But what if the real target was you?

That balmy evening in Louisville, Kentucky. Kelsey and her beautiful sister Lorelei were walking home from the local bar.

A man appeared in the shadows, holding a gun. Lorelei was shot dead. Kelsey couldn’t do anything to save her.

Police think the murderer was a crazed stalker.

But what if he was a hitman and he got the wrong sister?

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1847518613
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Praying for Time

She thought her prayers had been answered. Now she's praying for time.

Vanessa Everly is a successful actress in Los Angeles, but she’s still traumatized by the night that ripped her world apart. Eight years ago, Vanessa and her younger sister Roxanne were attacked on the beach in their hometown in Oregon – and Roxanne was kidnapped. Devastated, Vanessa ended her relationship with handsome medical student Christian Montgomery, whose troubled brother Brody was the police's prime suspect.

Now, Vanessa receives the news she never thought she’d hear: Roxanne is alive. Arriving back in Everly Cliffs, Vanessa is reunited with her sister – and with Christian. Roxanne can’t remember what happened that night, but someone else can… Who’s making threatening phone calls to Vanessa, and why has Brody suddenly gone missing?

Vanessa’s torment should be over, but it’s about to get much darker…

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1780296982
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Such a Winter's Day

Juliet Reid wasn't able to save her murdered brother almost ten years ago. Can she face her demons to stop an ice-cold killer in their tracks a decade later?

Nine and a half years ago, Juliet's talented brother Fin should have returned home. He didn't. When Juliet set out to find him that snowy winter evening, she made a devastating discovery.

Now, Juliet returns to the small town of Parrish, Ohio to celebrate her twenty-fifth birthday with her parents. But when she arrives, she receives the shocking news that her father appears to have committed suicide. Why was he so distant shortly before his death? And why was he suddenly asking questions about Fin before his brutal murder?

As Juliet tries to come to terms with another family tragedy, she finds herself at the center of a series of spine-tingling events. What chilling secrets did her father uncover, and can she stop an ice-cold killer who's determined to keep them hidden?

Author: Carlene Thompson
First Release: 2022
ISBN: 978-1448307241
Publisher: Severn House Publishers