Carolyn Hart

• Born: August 25, 1936
• Place of Birth: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

TYPES OF PLOT: Amateur sleuth; cozy

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Death on Demand, 1987-; Henrie O, 1993-2007; Bailey Ruth Raeburn, 2008-

Contribution

The novels in Carolyn Hart’s series fall in the cozy genre. Hart uses the methods of Golden Age mystery writers such as , , and to provide quickly sketched but interesting characters and a variety of viable suspects. Plots are fairly straightforward, and there is an element of romance, especially in the earlier Death on Demand novels that include the courtship and marriage of two amateur sleuths.

The Death on Demand mysteries are unusual for their self-referentiality. Set in Annie Laurance Darling’s mystery bookstore, they constantly evoke parallels with the books sold there. Many of them begin and end with the interesting device of a contest, in which five paintings represent five murder mysteries and the first to guess the references of the paintings wins the prize. This framing device contributes to the “cozy” atmosphere of these novels in that the reader guesses along with the characters in the novel, and the identities are revealed only after the “real” murderer is discovered. The series is composed of over twenty-five mystery novels, beginning with Death on Demand (1987) and continuing with Laughed 'Til He Died (2010), Death at the Door (2014), and Walking on My Grave (2017).

The Henrie O novels tend to be a little more serious but still reader-friendly and direct. They present an older woman, Henrietta O’Dwyer “Henrie O” Collins, as the astute detective, as Christie’s Miss Marple novels did, and they assign to her a competence and confidence reassuring to older readers. Hart has said her intent in writing the Henrie O novels is to create a positive image of older women that encourages people to value them and treat them with respect. The seven-book series begins with Dead Man's Island (1993) and continues with Death in Lovers' Lane (1997), Resort to Murder (2001), and Set Sail for Murder (2007).

In 2008, Hart began publishing the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series, following the experiences of the deceased Bailey Ruth Raeburn's ghost, who returns to earth to help solve mysteries in her town. The series includes Ghost at Work (2008), Ghost In Trouble (2010), Ghost to the Rescue (2015), Ghost on the Case (2017), and Ghost Ups Her Game (2020).

Hart received an Anthony Award in 1990 for Honeymoon with Murder (1988); Agatha Awards in 1988 for Something Wicked (1988), in 1993 for Dead Man’s Island (1993), and in 2003 for Letter from Home; and Macavity Awards in 1990 for A Little Class on Murder (1989) and in 1993 for “Henrie O’s Holiday.” She also was given a lifetime achievement award from the Oklahoma Center in 2004, and she was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2014.

Biography

Carolyn Hart was born Carolyn Gimpel on August 25, 1936, in Oklahoma City. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1956, the same year that she married Philip Donnell Hart. The couple would later have two children. Growing up in Oklahoma in wartime convinced Hart of the immense importance of newspapers and spurred her ambition to be a journalist. She was a reporter for the Norman Transcript and an editor of another journal before she became a freelance writer in 1961. She taught at the University of Oklahoma School of Journalism and Mass Communications from 1982 to 1985. Although she ultimately became a mystery writer, her enthusiasm for journalism has not waned, and this interest led to her award-winning novel Letter from Home (2003), which, she said, was her book about home and about journalism as well.

Hart has been active in crime writers’ associations; she was president of Sisters in Crime and national director of Mystery Writers of America, and she belongs to many similar organizations. Hart has written more than sixty novels and has received Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards.

Analysis

Carolyn Hart unfailingly provides cozy, reader-friendly mysteries that project underlying values with wide appeal. The stories imply that most people are basically good and desire community, that love is the power behind positive action, and that evil flourishes in the absence of love. This perspective may seem simplistic, but the strong characterization and detailed setting Hart provides give life to the novels. Many current female mystery writers present a wounded heroine who is trying to come to terms with her own trauma while helping others. Annie Darling is whole; Henrie O has been wounded, but her grief is in the past and has made her more compassionate.

The presence of the gothic, sometimes hovering in the margins, sometimes organic to Hart’s novels, implies that there are some things that cannot, and should not, be explained. Her works have a Southern feel to them, containing the sense of fatality and inescapability that surfaces in Southern thought and a reliance on women’s intuition. Her work, like much writing with a gothic slant, has an implied metaphysical or spiritual dimension, in which supernatural events may suggest a perspective beyond that of humans. Although her novels would certainly not be called religious, their sense of poetic justice contributes to the suggestion of spirituality.

Readers find Hart’s novels are addictive for a number of reasons: the sensitive and generous main characters, the sense of escape they get on visiting Broward’s Island or Hart’s other settings, the multiple allusions to other detective novels, and the direct and indirect comments on the genre. Some readers may find the references to other mysteries and the genre annoying, but Hart’s fans delight in it, and it helps differentiate her work.

One of Hart’s strengths is that she leaves herself open for changes in direction; therefore, her novels are not predictable, except for the series conventions such as the mystery chat and the recurrent contests in the Death on Demand series. Hart is one of the heirs of the Agatha Christie tradition, but she possesses a flexible frame of vision. She has also written some nonseries novels, mystery and otherwise, and novels for children.

White Elephant Dead

White Elephant Dead (1999) is a typical Death on Demand mystery, set like the others on Broward’s Rock, a fictional sea island community off the South Carolina coast. Katherine Girard is murdered while apparently collecting donations for a White Elephant sale; however, it soon becomes clear that she was visiting the houses of the wealthy for blackmail purposes. Henny Brawley, bookstore owner Annie Darling’s friend, was injured at the time of the murder, and the dull-witted but arrogant police chief suspects her of the murder. Annie and her husband, Max, follow a trail of puzzling clues to find the real killer. The plot involves revealing the secrets of those on Katherine’s blackmail list to determine who had the strongest motivation to kill her.

White Elephant Dead has the appeal and the limitations of the typical cozy. The characters found in many of the Death on Demand novels are present, including Laurel, Annie’s mother-in-law and New Age devotee; the self-centered murder mystery writer Emmy; and Henny Brawley, the ultimate mystery fan. The setting of the Death on Demand bookstore lends itself to many comparisons between the current action and events in well-known mystery novels; these comparisons are so numerous that occasional mystery readers less familiar with these works may find them confusing and distracting. However, the attractiveness, generosity, and friendliness of the main characters makes the novel an easy and pleasant read.

Resort to Murder

Resort to Murder (2001), a Henrie O mystery, is set in Bermuda. Henrie O is invited to attend the wedding of her former son-in-law, Lloyd Drake, and Connor Bailey, a beautiful, flirtatious widow, in Bermuda. The resort, however, appears to be haunted: Strange lights appear from a tower from which the resort manager’s husband fell to his death the previous year. Henrie O and most of the other members of the party think the haunting is a prank, but a murder soon illustrates how serious the situation is. Although Henrie O is recovering from pneumonia, she is able to follow the clues and unravel the mystery, though not before a second murder takes place.

Although the novel might be thought of as “murder lite,” it is enjoyable reading. Hart is particularly good at describing the natural beauty of the island, and the lush background adds to the romance of this novel. Hart also lets Henrie O act like the older, recently ill woman that she is; she does not behave like an athletic college student.

Letter from Home

In Letter from Home, a nonseries mystery novel, Gretchen “G. G.” Gilman, a well-known journalist, receives a letter from Barbara, a childhood friend living in the small Oklahoma town where Gretchen grew up. She heeds the plea to come back, and when she does, the past she had nearly forgotten explodes in her face, and she is forced to remember.

During World War II, thirteen-year-old Gretchen was able to get a reporting job with a newspaper, as many men were off at war. She covered local issues with an expertise beyond her years. Then Faye, the mother of her friend Barbara, was murdered, and rumors spread about Faye’s misbehavior. Barbara’s father, Clyde, was accused of the murder, and Gretchen determined to get at the truth. The resulting tragedy was one of the events that drove the young reporter away from her hometown. Now an older woman, Gretchen goes back home to learn the truth. The truth is painful, but Barbara wants her old friend Gretchen to find it.

This story is richly atmospheric in its evocation of small-town America in the 1940s. The specifics of that life are portrayed precisely and lovingly. Hart’s nonseries novels tend to be detailed and even poetic, and this one is no exception.

Death of the Party

Death of the Party (2005), the sixteenth Death on Demand mystery, has an intriguing setting. The novel begins with the preoccupations of a number of friends and relatives of Jeremiah Addison, a media mogul who owned a private island and died from a fall during a party held on his estate, Golden Silk. His daughter-in-law knew at the time that it was murder but had her reasons for not sharing her knowledge with the police. Now, a year later, she wants justice—and wants Max Darling, who runs Confidential Commissions, to find out who killed Jeremiah. Max and his wife, Annie, go to the island, and they investigate any possible motives that the attendees could have had for killing the magnate, then follow the chain of evidence toward a conclusion. The murderer begins to take various steps in an attempt to remain undetected, and the suspense builds to a satisfying climax.

Hart likes to use islands as her settings; however, after so many books, Broward’s Rock has become so familiar to her readers that some of the atmosphere has been lost. Taking the action to a private island—and at one point marooning the party on it—in Death of the Party renews the feeling of island life.

Principal Series Characters:

• Annie Laurance Darling is the owner of Death on Demand, a mystery bookstore on the South Carolina island of Broward’s Rock. She investigates whatever mysteries come her way. During the early part of the series, she marries Max Darling.
• Max Darling is a wealthy young man with a penchant for amateur detective work. He has created Confidential Commissions, which investigates problems brought to it.
• Laurel Darling is Max’s attractive, eccentric mother, who interferes with a New Age flair, sometimes to the benefit of the investigation and sometimes otherwise.
• Henny Brawley is Annie’s best customer and good friend, an older woman who takes action in investigations and sometimes gets herself into trouble.
• Henrietta O’Dwyer “Henrie O” Collins is a widowed, retired journalist who investigates present and past deaths, including the long-ago death of her husband.
• Bailey Ruth Raeburn is a ghost of her former self who returns to her town with newly acquired powers to help solve mysteries.

Bibliography

Hart, Carolyn. "Author Bio." Carolyn Hart, www.carolynhart.com/author-bio.html. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.

---. “Southern Pleasures.” Mystery Readers International, vol. 18, no. 4, Winter 2003.

James, Dean. “Carolyn G. Hart.” Mystery Scene, vol. 43, 1994.

Lindsay, Elizabeth Blakesley, editor. Great Women Mystery Writers. Greenwood Press, 2007.

McDonnell, Brandy. “Busy Author Extols Virtues of Book Fest.” Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, 18 May 2007, p. 1.

Nichols, Max. “Mystery Writer Succeeds After Early Struggles.” Journal Record, 20 May 2002, p. 1.

Wall, Judith. “Hart of the Mystery.” Sooner Magazine, Winter 2007.