Stefanie Matteson Books In Order

Publication Order of Charlotte Graham Books

Stefanie Matteson is a renowned American writer of mystery, thriller, and suspense novels and a former journalist. She is particularly popular for writing the Charlotte Graham book series. Her creation of the chief protagonist Charlotte Graham is widely popular. Matteson was born in 1946 and currently resides in Hackensack, New Jersey. In addition to being an author, she serves as Beckerman’s vice president. In this job as a publicist, she represents clients in economic development, real estate sectors, and clean technology. Before joining Beckerman, Matteson used to work in the field of journalism. Author Matteson completed her graduation from Skidmore College and obtained a degree in the subject of chemistry. After this, she worked as a reporter and editor. Matteson has won awards for her work in covering topics based on the sciences. She made her debut as a writer in 1990 with the publication of her debut novel called Murder at the Spa. This novel is also the first one to introduce her lead character Charlotte Graham in the role of a former Hollywood legend and a current sleuth.

After the successful release and worldwide popularity of her first novel, Matteson went on to write and publish 7 more novels featuring Charlotte Graham. Numerous critics have praised Matteson for creating delightful characters in her books and describing picturesque, opulent surroundings. Matteson has not written a novel in a long time, her last novel came out in 1997, and hopes to come up with something interesting in the coming days. She is looking for an exciting new story to work on and attempt to revive her halted writing career. Author Matteson is completely satisfied with the amount of success and popularity she has received through her Charlotte Graham books. She is grateful to the readers, critics, reviewers, and her family members for motivating her throughout. These days, she is reading a lot of books of other authors to gain inspiration from them. Until she comes up with a new book, she is hopeful that readers will continue to read her published books and appreciate her work. The critics have praised her writing skills and storytelling abilities. Their kind reviews have always motivated her to write better stories and entertain her fans. She hopes that they will continue to shower their love on all her upcoming books.

The Charlotte Graham series written by author Stefanie Matteson is comprised of a total of 8 books released between 1990 and 1997. Each of the books of this series features the main protagonist in the role of a divorced, aging sleuth. Charlotte is depicted as an Oscar-winning former actress and an amateur sleuth. She seems to have an interest in dramatics and good detection skills. Whether she is performing on the silver screen or working at a crime scene, she never fails to show her class. She strives to prove to her peers that she is excellent in whatever she does and is getting better with her growing age. Author Matteson has set the mysteries of this series in various cities of America as well as in foreign countries like China and Japan. The events in every book depict Charlotte Graham as trying to work out the crime scenes, find clues, locate evidence, and go on the trail of culprits to catch them to serve justice. With her wonderful sleuthing skills, Charlotte helps solve many murder mysteries in New Jersey and outside.

Some of the important characters mentioned by Matteson in this series other than Charlotte Graham include Paulina Lagenberg, Tom, Iris Richards, Victor Louria, Jerry D’Angelo, and several others. The debut book of this mystery series is entitled ‘Murder at the Spa’. It was released by the Diamond/Charter publication in 1990. In this book, Charlotte Graham is seen giving up her personality as a Hollywood actress and going undercover at a sophisticated health spa to discover a saboteur. The health spa is owned by one of her old friends named Paulina Lagenberg. Initially, Charlotte is described as a silver screen legend. She is considered a bonafide star with worldwide success as a Hollywood heroine. Several Oscar awards lie on her shelf to showcase her talent. Also, there is a fortune in her bank account that shows that she has nothing to worry about in life. But, her interest in solving mysteries leads her to get involved in many murder investigations.

The first time she took up sleuthing was a few years back when someone had replaced a dummy revolver with a real one during a shoot she had ended up killing up her co-star. After she succeeded in finding the culprit, her friends started approaching her whenever they landed in any kind of trouble. Charlotte does not mind getting involved in sleuthing and sees it as a getaway from the stressful life of a Hollywood star. During her visit to the health spa of her friend Paulina Lagenberg, Charlotte witnesses that a fellow visitor loses her life due to barbiturate overdose. Suspecting foul play, she begins to investigate. Charlotte’s obsession of finding the solving the mystery enables her to find the culprit in the end. She is assisted by Paulina Lagenberg and her staff at the spa in the investigation. This book is a perfect read for the fans of Broadway, Hollywood, and glamor mixed with intrigue and mystery. The readers enjoyed Matteson’s depiction of beauty with brains in the form of Charlotte Graham a lot.

Another excellent volume of this series is known as ‘Murder Among the Angels’. It was published by Berkeley Hardcover in 1996. This book opens by mentioning that Charlotte Graham pays a visit to the Zion Hill community and gets a lot more than what she had bargained for. This community is located on the Hudson River’s east bank in New York. The residents of the Zion Hill community are Swedenborgians, who follow the tiny sect called the New Church and strongly believe in the existence of angels. One of the residents of this community is Dr. Victor Louria, a renowned plastic surgeon. At the age of 72, Charlotte thinks of getting a facelift and travels to Zion Hill to meet Dr. Louria in this regard. During her stay in the quiet community, Charlotte meets her an old friend named Jerry D’Angelo, who is the Police Chief and is stuck in a tough case. D’Angelo informs Charlotte that two skulls of young women were discovered from gravestones in a remote cemetery in Zion Hill. Charlotte becomes intrigued to know that both the victim had undergone plastic surgeries prior to their deaths, linking their murders to Dr. Louria. She begins to assist Jerry D’Angelo in the investigation and doesn’t rest until she gets to the bottom of the mysteries of the dual murders.