Dawn Merriman Books In Order

Publication Order of Harper Lakes Murder Thrillers Books

Publication Order of Maddison, Indiana Supernatural Thriller Books

Publication Order of Magnolia Thrillers Books

Publication Order of Messages of Murder Books

Publication Order of Rylan Flynn Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Dawn grew up as a girl on a small farm located in Indiana. She spent much of being a young adult sitting and writing stories into notebooks.

She is married and lives with her husband and their children on a small farm in northeastern Indiana where they focus on raising pigs. Some of her hobbies include auctions, animals, reading, going snorkeling, and of course, writing murder mystery books set in small towns.

She first completed a novel when she was in middle school. She went on to finish some more books while in high school and later college. In 1990, she won the first place in a short story contest put on by the Northeast Indiana Young Writers. She took a brief break from writing in order to raise her children and then got right back into it.

Dawn enjoys writing murder mysteries that creep the reader out, but tries not to write anything too graphic in them. Her debut novel Field of Flies (published before under the title How Murder Saved My Life) was written partly as therapy after going through a period of depression.

Dawn Merriman is the creator and the author of the Message of Murder series. This series of fictional novels first debuted in 2019 with the publication of the debut novel, Message in the Bones. It was followed by a sequel titled Message in the Fire. The third novel made it a trilogy and Message in the Grave was published in 2020. If you have been searching for an intriguing mystery series that won’t keep you up all night after reading, check out this trilogy.

Message in the Bones is the first novel in the Message of Murder series of fictional novels by author Dawn Merriman. It is in this book that readers get to meet the main character of Gabby for the first time and will have them hooked until they get to the end!

In this story, there’s everything from psychic visions to bones that have been buried, a tattoo that contains messages sent from above, and even a murderer with a clown mask running through a corn maze.

For Gabby, she’s never particularly warmed up to the idea of the word freak. She thinks it’s too nasty to use. But the problem is that there are many people living in the same small town that she does that have no issue at all with using words like that. They’re perfectly comfortable applying the term or worse to Gabby.

Gabby takes it to heart, sensitive about the situation. She didn’t ask to wake up with an ability. After her father was killed and she nearly was murdered too, she came alive with a strange ability to sense things. It’s not just sense, either. When Gabby touches specific items, she’s often able to get visions related to them that can be terrible.

She can understand why people would be scared of something like that and why they call her names. But that doesn’t mean that it’s any easier to deal with. It’s even people within her family that are afraid of her ability. She feels that Dustin, her brother, is one of those people. She actually doesn’t have to use her abilities to sense this one: she knows it for a fact.

Dustin works for the police department in River Bend and is the head detective. He deals in facts and logic, and he would prefer to pretend that his sister doesn’t even exist than choose to believe that she has an ability. But then things change when he needs help more than he wants to act like his sister is invisible.

The bones of a victim that has been murdered lead to Dustin asking Gabby to help out. She has her reservations about whether she should help or not. She even tells herself that she should know better. It would be easier to hide away and not expose herself to additional scrutiny. Staying comfortable would be nice, but it’s not going to solve any cases.

She knows that people don’t believe in her abilities anyway. But there is one person out there that thinks that what she heard from the bones is authentic. The only problem with that is the person is the killer. Now she’s being hunted by this person. Can Gabby figure out the murder case and still get away with her life? Read this exciting thriller to find out!

Message in the Fire is the second novel in the Message of Murder series by Dawn Merriman. If you enjoyed the first story in this series, be sure to check out the enthralling sequel for yourself!

When readers last left Gabby, she was working on a murder case. Now she’s had another vision. This one involves a burning ritual where a woman has her hands tied and blood is going down her back. She had fallen to the side while under a tree with her hands holding her newborn baby. The abilities Gabby has show her what the young woman went through, but it was a horrible experience.

She was too scared to touch the woman. But she picks the baby up and sees that the young woman moves, still alive. She’s alive after, too, but in a coma. The mystery of it all is too much.

It turns out that there are already people working the case, detectives that include Gabby’s brother and his partner. They all want information about the case and Gabby is the only person there that has the ability to get through to the woman and communicate. What she sees is horrible.

The woman had been in a cult and held captive for a very long time, years in fact. The details are difficult for Gabby to pin down. She doesn’t know the details about this cult or who the people are inside of it. However, she knows that what she feels from the woman scares her. The cult may try to come after Gabby, but she may come after them as well.

Find out what happens by getting your hands on this engaging book for yourself!

5 Responses to “Dawn Merriman”

1. sandra burns: 9 months ago

   Your books are great, Hope I can find all of them,

   Reply
2. Sally Kaleta: 1 year ago

   I hope the series doesn’t end. Maybe a wedding?

   Reply
3. Mary Maley: 1 year ago

   Love your Message in…books. I was raised in NE IN also on a farm. Now I am retired & live in Cegas with my # 2 Grandson. Keep your books coming. I am going to read all of ur earlier books also, if I can find them. Thank you.

   Reply
4. Beverly Cumings: 2 years ago

   I love your series Message in…I am on book seven and I am already wishing the series wouldn’t end.

   Reply
5. Betty sommers: 2 years ago

   I love your books

   Reply