Serenity’s Plain Secrets Books In Order

Publication Order of Serenity's Plain Secrets Books

Serenity’s Plain Secrets (Series by Karen Ann Hopkins)
Author Karen Ann Hopkins writes the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series of mystery novels.

The books star Sheriff Serenity Adams, and they are set in an Amish community called Blood Rock. Some Amish communities aren’t so cozy.

“Lamb to the Slaughter” is the first novel in the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series and was released in 2014. The death of one teen Amish girl in some cornfield appears to be an accident, however Sheriff Serenity Adams suspects foul play. In order to solve this murder, she has to investigate the close by Amish community with help from a guy that was shunned years ago.

This is the story about the intertwining lives of three rather unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results once a rebellious teen girl is discovered shot to death in a cornfield during the harvest.

Serenity’s the newly elected young sheriff in the country town of Blood Rock and besides dealing with her predecessor’s threatening behavior, she’s now has a dead Amish girl on her plate. Upon first glance, this case appears to be an obvious one. This poor girl probably got shot by accident during hunting season, however when the elders of the Amish community and even the girl’s parents react with uncaring subdued behavior, she gets suspicious. While diving deeper into this secretive community that she grew up next to, she learns about a gruesome crime from the past which might very well be related to this girl’s shooting.

She gets the help of Daniel Bachman, a handsome bad boy building contractor, who left when he was nineteen and has dark reasons of his own to help out this spunky sheriff solve this crime which friends and family that shunned him are attempting desperately to cover up. Serenity’s persistence takes her to a stunning discovery which not only threatens to her wreck her blossoming romance with Daniel, but might even take her life by the end.

“Whispers From the Dead” is the second novel in the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series and was released in 2015. Serenity and Daniel are partnered up again in a criminal investigation, when they travel to a northern Amish settlement which has been riddled by arsons for the previous two decades. Serenity soon learns that there’s much more going on than just barns being torched in the touristy community of Poplar Springs. And that this group of Amish has got secrets of their own to hide.

Serenity starts unraveling an extensive criminal underworld which threatens to destroy everything that the simple folk of Poplar Springs hold dear, and once again puts her own life in jeopardy.

Even though she attempts to hide it desperately, things start to heat up between her and Daniel, making her wonder if happiness and true love could actually be within her grasp.

“Secrets in the Grave” is the third novel in the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series and was released in 2015. Right when Sheriff Adams believes life is returning to normal, the young, pregnant Amish woman’s death rocks the whole community. Could it just be circumstance, or murder? It is up to Serenity and her former-Amish boyfriend, Daniel, to learn the truth about this new shaman-like medicine man that has brought his dark secrets to Blood Rock.

However Serenity’s got some secrets of her own, and if she and Daniel do not work things out, the reappearance of a woman from his past might threaten to wreck their relationship.

The deeper that Serenity dives into the magical world of Amish herbal medicine, the phenomenon of laying of the hands as well as other cultural healing oddities, the more that she wonders if miracles are, in fact, real. What she witnesses with her own two eyes might just be two fantastical for her to even believe.

“Hidden in Plain Sight” is the fourth novel in the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series and was released in 2016. A cold case heats up, Serenity’s not gonna quit until she finds out the truth.

Serenity has to work with US Marshals to reveal the truth behind a shockingly savage fifteen year old cold murder.

Serenity, while desperate for answers, finds herself in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she unravels some secrets which threaten to rip her and Daniel apart. However digging the past up is a dangerous thing, and the quaint Amish settlement is not quite as safe as it appeared.

If she chooses to trust the guy that she has come to love, it might mean a happily ever after. Or a final act.

“Paper Roses” is the fifth novel in the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series and was released in 2017. When an archaeological team digs up Blood Rock’s sinister past, one forbidden romance starts up, and Serenity races to stop a serial killer before he can kill again.

A mutilated corpse of a young Amish woman is found in Blood Rock, Serenity goes on her most horrifying case to date, facing off against a murderer unlike anything she’s ever seen before. Law enforcement and the Amish join together to unravel the truth and find whomever is terrorizing this community, and right when Serenity believes she has solved this case, she learns the nightmare’s far from being over.

“Evil in my Town” is the sixth novel in the “Serenity’s Plain Secrets” series and was released in 2019. After a tragic mass shooting in Blood Rock, Sheriff Adams is stunned to find connections to the local Amish settlement, and her teen niece, who was barely able to survive the carnage.

The investigation takes her from the horror of a massacre to an equally horrific crime that relates to a missing woman in the community. Serenity has to risk her own life again to bring law, order, and safety to this town that she loves. This time around, she’s joined by a US Marshal, who may just have his own agenda when it comes to helping her out on this case.

While the case plays out, long buried secrets are going to be revealed, and the climax is sure to keep you flipping the pages until the riveting finish.