FollowFor 50 years, Oklahoma City native Carolyn Hart has been murdering people.
Some people were innocent, fine citizens who were undeserving of their fate. Others had dark, haunting secrets that led to their grisly end. Each victim, however, was intimately part of 78-year-old Hart’s passion for secrets, clues and murder most foul.
One of America’s most prolific mystery novelists, Hart has two more murders this year. Her recent book, “Don’t Go Home,“ A Death on Demand mystery, was released this spring and another novel, “Ghost to the Rescue,” will come out this fall.
“I wrote my first book at 27, and I’m 78 now,” said Hart. “I’m trying desperately to finish my next book. I have to turn it in by Oct. 1. It’s always challenging and terrifying to write a book, but I can’t seem to stop.”
Life—and death—wasn’t always that easy for the Oklahoma writer. In the 1970s, American women faced a hard road on the mystery trail, but with a bit of talent, perseverance and luck, Hart has become one of America’s finest mystery novelists.
CHOOSING YOUR WEAPON
October brings the return of one of Hart’s endearing mystery characters, the irrepressible ghost Bailey Ruth Raeburn. “Ghost to the Rescue” is just the latest in a long career of accomplished mystery writing.
Hart is the author of 19 Death on Demand novels that have won multiple Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards. She has also written Henrie O mysteries, Bailey Ruth Raeburn “ghost” mysteries, more than two dozen non-series books and multiple short stories.
Hart, a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her 2003 novel, “Letter From Home,” a novel based in Oklahoma, which won the Agatha for best mystery novel of the year and was a New York Times notable book.
Her first novel, however, was a little young.
“My first book was a juvenile mystery,” said Hart. “I took the Writer’s Magazine, and they would run monthly contests. This contest was a mystery for girls. I thought I’d try that, because I loved mysteries and Nancy Drew. I won the contest. ‘The Secret of the Cellars’ was sold in spring 1964 when I was 27. It was published in September 1964 and I was 28, so this fall marks the 51st anniversary of the publication.”
That little mystery book launched Hart’s passion, but American publishers weren’t keen on American women mystery writers at the time.
“I was teaching at OU in the 1980s because I had 14 books published and all of them disappeared into the black hole of publishing,” Hart said. “At that time, you either had hard-boiled private eye novels written by men or traditional mysteries written by English women. They weren’t interested in American mystery writers.”
Marsha Muller and Sue Grafton, female American mystery writers, changed all that. Soon, mysteries written by women in the U.S. were selling and selling well.
“Women went crazy over it, and the New York publishing houses paid attention,” Hart said. “In the 1980s, I was still teaching and not selling books, so I went to the Mystery Writers of America chapter in Houston in spring of 1985. Going there reminded me of how much I loved mysteries and the writers.”
While in Houston, she also discovered a small bookstore called Murder by the Book. That name would soon become a pivotal part of Hart’s future.
THE PERFECT MURDER
Hart decided to try murder one more time after the Houston visit. Her novel “Death on Demand” would be set at a mystery bookstore, inspired by Murder By the Book, on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. The couple who owns the bookstore, Annie Lawrence and Max Darling, are the central characters, and editors loved it.
“The first editor my agent offered it to bought it. It was published in 1987,” said Hart. “The 25th book of that series came out this spring. I also started writing a ghost series that is set in Oklahoma. That series is challenging to write, but I always wanted to write a series with ghosts in it.”
When writing, Hart said she has her own method of murder. She knows who her protagonist is, knows the locale of the drama and knows who her suspects are.
“My second most import decision is who the victim is,” she said. “I do love writing mysteries. I like to throw all these people in stressful situations and see what they do. I don’t know what my characters are going to do until they do it.”
Mysteries aren’t Hart’s only works. “Letter From Home” is set in Oklahoma in 1944. The novel follows a young girl who works at a local newspaper office after a murder is committed on her street. The book is a favorite of Hart’s and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers at Oklahoma State University, Tulsa.
“Escape From Paris” is one of two novels set in World War II Germany, a setting that’s close to Hart’s soul. Her second WWII novel, “Brave Hearts,” was set in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation.
“I’m very proud of those books,” Hart said.
Still, mysteries are the meat of Hart’s writing career. Hart was one of 10 mystery authors featured at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington D.C. in 2003 and again in 2007. In 2005, she received the Ridley Pearson Award for significant contributions to the mystery field and received the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Amelia Award from Malice Domestic. Also in 2004, she spoke at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., received the Ridley Pearson Award at Murder in 2005 for significant contributions to the mystery field and received the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Amelia Award from Malice Domestic.
In 2014, she was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.
“I think it’s really very amazing how real your characters become to you,” Hart said. “I love mysteries. I don’t know if I can stop writing them.”
For more information, visit her website at
carolynhart.com.
Written by Heide Brandes | Photos by Emily Brashier
