Sandra Scoppettone Books In Order

Publication Order of Faye Quick Books

Publication Order of Lauren Laurano Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Deadly Allies Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Sandra Scoppetino is an American writer from New Jersey best known for the writing of popular crime fiction and young adult novels. The most popular of her novel series are the Lauren Laurano series and the three freestanding novels she wrote in her pseudonym of Jack Early. Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Scoppettone has had a long career that spanned from the early 1960 right to the beginning of the millennium. Sandra was born in 1936 New Jersey, at a time when not many women made a name for themselves writing crime fiction. Despite the forbidding environment, she pulled herself literally by her bootstraps to write some of the most popular young adult and crime fiction, even if she had to write her crime fiction under the pseudonym Jack Early. Her Jack Early novel “A Creative Kind of Killer” in 1984 made the shortlist for the Shamus Award and an Edgar Award nomination in 1985. She had started her writing career very early when she got into writing aged 18 after moving to New York from her native New Jersey. Her first ever-published work was “Suzuki Beane” published in 1961, that she wrote with Louise Fitzhugh an illustrator. During the 1970s, she wrote a series of freestanding young adult novels such as the Emmy Award-winning “The Late Great Me” in collaboration with Fitzhugh. She would come out as a lesbian in the 70s though it was not until the 90s that she revealed her real names after publishing the Lauren Laurano series of novels. She currently resides on Southold, New York with author and life partner Linda Crawford.

Growing up in South Orange New Jersey, Sandra Scoppetino knew she was going to be a writer from the time she was five. She would read everything she could get her hands on, influenced by her writer uncle and father that wrote pulp and crime fiction respectively. Right from that very young age, her parents encouraged her ambition to one day become a published author by telling her that she could do it. They were supportive of her reading habits and would regularly get her the Sunday newspaper that she loved for its crime section that was titled “Justice Triumphs”. The Sunday paper certainly did play a huge role in developing her taste for crime/mystery fiction. After she cleared her high school studies, she went to New York City to pursue her passion in writing. She would move from job to job in the city before she turned back to professional writing when she was thirty. She got together with Louise Fitzhugh to write “Suzuki Beane” and “Bang Bang You’re Dead”. During this time, she was also writing for stage, film, and television, which she hated as she had very little control over the manuscript. Over time, she moved away from young adult novels that focused on MS, homosexuality, rape, and alcoholism and started writing private investigator novels. By the time the 90s came around, she felt she had said all she could in YA, and took up the male sounding name Jack Early, so that she could write crime fiction.

The Lauren Laurano series of novels is arguably Sandra Scoppetino most popular series. The debut novel in the series was “Everything You Have Is Mine” that was first published in 1991. Scoppetino writes about Laurano Lauren, a short Italian girl in her early forties who is an articulate feminist, articulate, and chocolate loving lesbian in the mold of the author. Lauren is a wisecracking amateur sleuth who packs a pistol, as she attempts to resolve several cases in the little village of Greenwich in England. The lead character lives with Kip, her longtime lover and psychologist whose family finds it hard to accept their relationship. When a girl is raped, Laurano dives head first into the case to find a family story full of lies. Writing at a lively pace, the novel captures the essence of Greenwich with the characters smart sassy talk and quirky behaviors. In “I’ll Be Leaving You” Lauren finds herself having to deal with resolving the murder of one of her best friends. Similar to her previous novel, Scoppetoni writes an entertaining novel that involve her lead character Laurano working to resolve mysterious murders of her close friends or their loved ones. In other novels such as “Lets Face the Music”, the tables are turned when her friend becomes the lead suspect in a murder investigation. The narratives are spiced-up with the troubled relationship between Laurano and Kip her girlfriend, which offer insights into lesbian relationships.

“My Sweet Untraceable You” sees Lauren try to solve a small town America murder mystery that goes back thirty years. Boston Blackie has hired the chocoholic, computer-literate, and hip Lauren Laurano to find out what happened to her mother, who was killed three decades past. What seemed to have been a cold case suddenly turns into a full-blown case of small towns and haunted families. Boston has to solve a perplexing case of too many questions and very few answers, as she follows a set of murky clues that branch into ever more bizarre angles with each passing day. She knows that she is getting closer to the resolution of the case when a new string of murders is reported near her home. She believes the murders to be a warning to her, but remains determined to pursue the murder mystery to its very end. Taking advantage of the resources and knowledge of the neighborhood, will she survive a cunning killer who taunts her at every turn?

“Let’s Face the Music and Die” is another excellent novel in the Lauren Laurano series of novels. Lauren’s relationship with her lover Kip is going through a rough patch just when Lauren is dealing with a menace from her past, a new love interest, and a new case. Elissa her newest client reports that her aunt was brutally stabbed to death, and that the police have listed her as the chief suspect in the murder. It is a precarious situation given that she is best placed to inherit the wealth of the deceased and has no tangible alibi. Undaunted, Lauren believes she can find the real killer using her street smarts and electronic expertise. Going online to find any clues, she stumbles into more than she could ever have imagined. The investigation grows in complexity, even as she meets a woman whom she feels a powerful attraction to. Even as she starts getting closer to resolving her case, she finds herself in danger from an unknown person that is sending her death threats.