Karen Katchur Books In Order

Publication Order of Northampton County Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Author Karen Katchur has a master’s in education and a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice.

For research on her novels, she has many books she relies on for forensic techniques and police procedures. Of course, there is also the internet. She is fortunate, too that she has active duty and retired state police homicide investigators that will answer questions she has about specific scenes and her plot lines.

Karen write between the hours of 9 am and 2 pm. She is sometimes able to squeeze another hour or two in the evenings. This is the plan, but it does not always work out this way. This helps her get a book written in about twelve months, on average, although it can sometimes take longer.

Karen writes the “Northampton County” series and some stand alone novels. She writes suspense and mystery novels. Her debut novel, “The Secrets of Lake Road” was released in the year 2015.

“The Secrets of Lake Road” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2015. Jo has been keeping the truth hidden about the role she played in the drowning of her high school boyfriend for sixteen years. Each summer, she drops her kids off with her mom at the lakeside community where she spent each summer growing up, but is unable to stay herself anymore.

The lake reminds her of the guilt that she always feels. For Caroline, Jo’s daughter, the lake is a precious world apart; the sameness and familiarity comfort her each year, despite all of the changes in her life outside its bounds. At just twelve years old and caught in between adolescence and childhood, she wants to win her mom’s love and cannot understand why Jo still runs away.

Sara Starr, seven years old, disappears from the community beach. Rescue workers are unable to find any sign of her, but instead they dredge up the bones Jo hoped would not ever be found. It shattered the quiet tranquility of the lakeside community. Caroline was actually one of the last people that saw Sara alive on the beach, and she feels responsible for her going missing. She is the one that takes it upon herself to find out what happened to Sara. While Caroline goes looking for the little girl, she finds the secrets that her mom has been hiding, which unravels the foundation of all that she knows about both her family as well as herself.

“The Sisters of Blue Mountain” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2017. A small town, Mountain Springs, Pennsylvania, thrives on the migration of snow geese. Every year, the birds go to the dam, and the tourists follow it, filling up Linnet’s Bed and Breakfast.

One morning Linnet wakes to find hundreds of dead geese near the B&B and her life gets tossed into a media frenzy when her dad, who used to be an ornithology professor, is asked to look at the case. While the tourists all cancel their plans and her dad’s health gets worse, the last thing she is expecting is to see Myna, her estranged sister, standing on her doorstep.

Myna had never stayed in a single place too long after running away from Mountain Springs. She and Linnet were close when they were growing up, but a family secret shattered their bond. Myna’s return has brought memories back that both of the sisters have attempted to leave buried.

A reporter comes to town that might have a connection to the sisters’ past, Myna and Linnet become forced to confront that event that tore them apart. A young professor that was helping their dad on the case winds up dead, with their dad the prime suspect, Myna and Linnet both realize that the secret is not going to remain hidden for too much longer.

“River Bodies” is the first novel in the “Northampton County” series, which was released in the year 2018. A body turned up recently in the tiny town of Portland, Pennsylvania. The crime is similar to a cold case from twenty years ago: some other victim that was brutally killed, and found in the Delaware River. Parker Reed, the lead detective is intent on linking the two murders, but locals are on lockdown and are not revealing anything.

The present and the past meet as Becca Kingsley, who comes back to Portland to be with her dying and estranged dad, bumps into her childhood love, Parker. Being that she is the former chief of police’s daughter, Becca is quickly pulled into the case. Coming back home has brought something rather ominous bubbling to the surface. Memories long ago buried, and secrets that are better kept hidden. Becca begins to question all of her past relationships, including one with a guy that has watched over her for many years. Now, she begins to wonder if he is more predator than a protector.

In a tiny town where the darkness hides right in plain sight, the truth might change Becca’s life. Or it could simply end it.

“Cold Woods” is the second novel in the “Northampton County” series, which was released in the year 2019. The long-buried bones of a male are found in the middle of December, and Pennsylvania homicide detective Parker Reed knows that he is in for a cold case.

Trisha and the rest of her buddies were teens when Trisha’s stepfather disappeared. Thirty years later, his remains have been discovered in the mountains. The women have realized from the start there was more to his disappearance than met the eye, and they have to confront their dark past. Secrets can stay a secret a long time in the Appalachian foothills, just not forever.

Parker and his partner identify the remains, and their investigation takes them to Trisha’s childhood home. The more Parker digs into the crime, the more he realizes the truth is not so simple. In fact, it is so complex that even Trisha and her friends do not entirely understand just what happened in those frigid woods.