Dr. Charlotte Stone Books In Order

Publication Order of Dr. Charlotte Stone Books

Karen Robards was born on the 24th day of August, 1954, in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a bestselling author, having written well over 30 novels under the romance genre. She first started with historical romance, which gained her a lot of recognition. She then became the first author of historical romance novels to make a successful switch to the contemporary romance genre of fiction. Karen Robards has seen her works translated into 11 different languages. She has won several awards—from the Affaire de Coeur and the Romantic Times.

1973 was the year in which Karen Robards sold her very first story. When she was in her teen years, Robards did part-time work in her father’s orthodontic practice. She came across a Reader’s Digest request for funny sketches from its readers. Robards jotted down her story and submitted it to the digest. She was paid $100 some weeks later for her story, which appeared in the December 1973 issue of Reader’s Digest. All her later attempts at selling more stories to the magazine were turned down.

Years later, when Karen Robards was attending creative writing classes at the University of Kentucky, her professor gave her a challenge; she was to write a 50 page piece that could probably get published. This was to be her first foray into the world of novel-writing.

She did her reaearch, trying to find out the types of books that do well on the market. Afterward, she finally settled for the historical romance genre. When she chose this genre, she had no idea that she would be asked, later on, to read her work out to the rest of the class. Her classmates and professor thought her choice was strange, but it was that 50-page project that would form the backbone of her very first book, named Island Flame. This novel was published when Robards was just 24 years old, in 1981.

During that time, a book such as hers, historical romance, would be kept on book store shelves for only three weeks. After this time, such novels were taken off the shelves. For this reason, Karen Robards’ publisher had reservations about buying any more of her works without seeing how the current book was doing on the market.

This did not stop Robards. She determinedly dropped out of law school to go about her career as a writer. So that she could earn money to support herself, she got a job in another orthodontic clinic. During her lunch break, she wrote her novels in the ladies’ room. To Love a Man, her second book, in the contemporary romantic suspense genre, was completed in just three months. She used a different publisher this time; who bought the book and launched Karen Robards’ career as a writer.

The next seven years saw three more historical romance novels published. These books included Island Flame’s original sequel, Sea Fire, which was the sequel before To Love a Man was released officially.

When To Love a Man was released, the new publisher gave Robards a contract for two novels a year; one would be contemporary romantic suspense, and the other would be historical romance. As time went on from the late 1980s and into the 1990s, publishers concluded that the contemporary romance genre was no more, meaning Robards was now to write only historical romance books.

In the 1990s, she moved to Dell publishers and convinced them to accept contemporary romance books. They did, and eventually published One Summer, which was the first hard cover contemporary romance novel. The book was rather successful, and Dell asked Robards to stick to contemporary romance.

In 2001, she switched publishers yet again.

The Dr. Charlotte Stone Series

There are three books that comprise this series; The Last Victim, The Last Kiss Goodbye and Her Last Whisper.

1. The Last Victim

This is a paranormal romantic thriller that kicks off the Dr. Charlotte Stone Series. Dr. Charlotte Stone is an expert on serial killers. She sees things that others in her field do not (or cannot). She is an expert in criminal pathology who is sought after for her skill and know-how. She regularly sits down with serial killers, trying to decipher their reasons for the heinous crimes they commit. As a matter of fact, she is obsessed with knowing what it is that makes these killers tick.

The reasons for her obsession stretch back to her teenage years, when she was a victim of a serial killer’s madness. The information that Charlie gave the police caused the serial killer to go into hiding.

Now, a family has been butchered, and their teenage girl has gone missing. Tony Bartolli is an FBI agent (a rather handsome) who works with Charlie to uncover the secrets and hunt the killer.

2. The Last Kiss Goodbye

Dr. Charlotte Stone is not only an expert on serial killers, she also sees ghosts of victims of those brutally murdered.

In this book, Charlie is in love with Michael Garland, the ghost of a dead serial killer. Before his death, Garland killed seven women. Dr. Stone was interviewing him after he had been captured. Not long after that, Garland was stabbed, and killed. Michael Garland seems to be bound to Charlie and he will not leave her because his next life seems bleak—essentially, it’s hell.

Charlie wants to be with Agent Tony Bartolli, the gorgeous FBI man, but the story involving Michael Garland is in the way.

Still, this whole romance has to be put on hold for a while as there is a case she needs to work on. A young woman has run away from a psychotic murderer when Charlie saves her life. This paints a bull’s eye on her back. The madman wants her to be the queen in a fatal chess game he plays with his pawn victims. If Charlie doesn’t play, more people will die. She will have to put her wits up against this sadistic man. Even with Tony Bartolli and Michael Garland watching her back, Charlie is essentially on her own against the Gingerbread Man.

3. Her Last Whisper

Charlie wants to leave this life before it is too late for her. After all, she has just cheated death. However, her dedication to the job—and to Agent Tony Bartolli—may be her downfall. Women are disappearing from hotels in Las Vegas on a number of nights. Something is going on in the city. Lena Kaminsky, Tony Bartolli’s colleague in the FBI, has a missing sister. She is exactly the type of beautiful young woman the Cinderella Killer likes.