Erica Wright Books In Order

Publication Order of Kat Stone Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Erica Wright is a popular American writer of crime fiction, thriller, and mystery novels. She is particularly famous for writing the Kat Stone book series. She made her debut in the field of writing in 2014 with the first Kate Stone novel called The Red Chameleon. This book has been hailed as a riveting novel by many critics. Erica followed the success of her first book with a few more novels featuring Kate Stone as the lead protagonist. She intends to add more titles in this series in the coming years. Additionally, Erica has penned the poetry collections called Instructions for Killing the Jackal and All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned. Erica has also written a standalone novel called Famous in Cedarville. The poems penned by Erica have featured in various literary magazines and journals such as Denver Quarterly, Blackbird, The Rumpus, Gulf Coast, Spinning Jenny, Crazyhorse, New Orleans Review, and several others.

Besides writing novels and poems, Erica serves as a senior editor and poetry editor at the Guernica Magazine. She developed an interest in the genre of crime writing while working at the John Jay Criminal Justice College on the post of an Engish teacher. Erica has also taught at the continuing studies program at New York University and at Marymount Manhattan College. She is also believed to be running a writers’ group called OneRoom. Author Erica was born and brought up in Wartrace, Tennessee. Currently, she resides in Washington, DC along with her beloved husband and a dog named Penny. When Erica was younger, she wanted to become a zoologist. This dream was shattered in the 8th grade when she carried out the dissection of a frog and passed out. Shortly after, she found her passion for writing poems. She claims to have been writing stories and poems for as long as she can remember. However, Erica never gave serious thought to pursuing publication until she reached her twenties.

Erica’s hometown consisted of very few people during her younger days, probably less than a thousand and they followed different kinds of professions. As there was no novelist in her town, Erica realized that if she becomes a novelist, she could write for a large audience than herself. The authors who were her early influences in the genre of crime fiction include Mary Downing Hahn, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, Janet Evanovich, M.C. Beaton, Sue Grafton, Sara Gran, Megan Abbott, M.R.C. Kasasian, etc. It was Mary Downing Hahn’s book called Wait Till Helen Comes that set the tone for Erica’s gothic interests. During college, she mostly read the works of Edgar Poe and Arthur Doyle. When Erica was teaching in John Jay College’s English Department in 2006, she asked her students about their future aspirations out of curiosity. And when they told her that they wanted to be forensic specialists, FBI agents, detectives, CIA operatives, etc., she got the idea of writing a story revolving around a private investigator as a chief protagonist who fights crime in the city. This led her to create Kathleen ‘Kat’ Stone’s character and thereby enabled her to write her first book.

Every week, Erica takes out some time from her schedule for the business aspect of her writing. In this time, she tries to reach out to literary agents, publishing houses, and bookstores in relation to her books’ publications. Erica is quite satisfied with the success she has achieved in her writing career so far and aims to become much more successful in the coming years. Until then, she expects her fans to help in the publicity of her already published books by bringing them to the notice of other readers.

The Kat Stone series written by author Erica Wright started in 2014. This series features the central characters in the form of Kathleen Stone, Dolly, Salvatore Magrelli, Jeffry Hook, and a few others. Kathleen “Kat” Stone is introduced in the role of a private investigator, who takes on cases of murder mysteries, criminal activities, and other such cases to investigate. She is assisted by her street-smart friend named Dolly to carry out the investigations. Dolly is described as a drag queen, who works as a wig-maker in New York City. Erica has set the plots mostly in New York City. The first book of this mystery/thriller series is entitled ‘The Red Chameleon’. It was released by the Pegasus Books in 2014. Initially, Kat Stone is depicted as a private investigator who relies more on her ability of blending in and not getting detected. Her best friend Dolly makes sure that she is able to blend in easily by styling her with different kinds of wigs.

Later, a cheating husband, whom Kat Stone was trailing, is found dead under suspicious circumstances. This lands her in trouble and gets her enlisted as one of the prime suspects. This shocking twist makes Kat wonder if someone she might have angered in the past job has decided to take revenge. Previously, Kat Stone was employed as an undercover cop and used to bust drug dealers and gangs, thereby making many enemies. Now, the only way forward is to join hands with her ex-colleagues in the police department and find out who killed the victim. Time is running out for Kat Stone and she must find the culprit before another innocent person ends up dead or her own life falls into danger.

The second volume of this series is known as ‘The Granite Moth’. It was also published by the Pegasus Books in 2015. This book begins by showing that a loud bang is heard at the Halloween Parade and people start panicking. Kat Stone was present at the time of this incident. She was watching the performances of Dolly and other drag queens at the Parade when the float exploded and spread chaos among the audience and the artists. The owner of the club where the function was organized approaches Kat Stone and asks for her help in catching the culprit. But, Kat already has a case at hand in which she is trying to bring to justice a dangerous gangster named Salvator Magrelli. She has even taken up a new identity so that she doesn’t get recognized by any of the henchmen of Salvatore Magrelli. As she is already working on a very important case, she cannot risk blowing her identity and put her life in danger by going after the culprit of the club explosion. While navigating through the glamour and grit of the city, Kat comes to the realization that sometimes it is hard to tell apart love and hate.

One Response to “Erica Wright”

1. David-Mark Campbell: 2 years ago

   I really like Ms. Wrights’s works and enjoy them immensely. I think Kat Stone is the best recurring
   protagonist since Len Deighton” Harry Palmer or
   Benard Samson.
   How do I write to her?
   Thank you,
   David-Mark Campbell

   Reply