Lois Duncan Books In Order

Publication Order of Hotel for Dogs Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Lost Treasures Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Lois Duncan is an American writer and novelist. Her full name is Lois Duncan Steinmetz, and she was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 28, 1934. She is known most well for her books written for children and young adults as well as crime thrillers for adults. She is also known by the pen name Lois Kerry.

She had parents that were famous for being photographers for magazines– Lois and Joseph Janney Steinmetz. Duncan was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Sarasota in Florida, the Sunshine State. She began writing when she was ten years old and began submitting her manuscripts to magazines around the same time. She sold her first story when she was thirteen years old.

She attended and dropped out of Duke University, got married, and had a family. She continued to write and submit magazine articles, over 300 of which were published. Duncan has had her work published in the Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s Redbook, Reader’s Digest, and more. She first became a published author of novels when her novel Debutante Hill was published in 1958.

Her first marriage ended in divorce. She had three children from the marriage. When it ended in divorce, she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. There she taught journalism at the University of New Mexico. There she had earned a B.A. in 1977 in English. She married Don Arquette in 1965 and they had two children together.

She is best known by readers for her suspense novels for young adults and teenagers. Some of her books have been adapted into film and television movies. The most famous movie to come out of one of Lois Duncan’s novels was the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. The 1997 movie was a big hit and starred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe, and Freddy Prinze Jr.

Duncan says that she is drawn to the genre of psychological suspense because those are the books that she enjoys reading. She says that her writing technique is not the same as authors that begin writing with a general idea in mind and allow the stories to evolve as they go on.

Because her books are so carefully constructed and tightly plotted, every sentence “is there for a reason”. Duncan relates that she can’t picture writing a book without knowing how it’s going to end– it would be akin to going on a trip cross-country without so much as a roadmap.

Her other books were made into movies for television that include Don’t Look Behind You, Summer of Fear, Gallows Hill, Killing Mr. Griffin, and Stranger with My Face. Her novel Hotel for Dogs came out in 1971 and was turned into a full-length feature movie starring Emma Roberts in 2009. The book has been published once more by Scholastic and two sequels to it have also come out, News for Dogs and Movie for Dogs.

Tragedy struck Duncan’s life when in 1989 her daughter was found murdered in New Mexico. Kaitlynn Arquette was her youngest child and the death was under suspicious circumstances. Duncan compiled the facts about the case as well as conjecture about it into Who Killed My Daughter. The case remains unsolved. Duncan wrote another book about the murder that picked up after the first one and contained new information that the family had gained through a private investigation. It was called One to the Wolves.

Her suspense novel Down a Dark Hall was optioned to be filmed as a movie. It was a Gothic suspense genre book. It is being released in 2018 and stars Uma Thurman, AnnaSophia Robb, Isabelle Fuhrman, Noah Silver, Jim Sturgeon, David Elliott, and more. When a young student named Kit Gordy confronts the supernatural occurrences going on at Blackwood Boarding School, she is going to have to take on an evil headmistress and deal with a lot more besides.

She passed away June 15, 2016. She died at her home in Bradenton, Florida. The causes were undisclosed but her husband Donald Arquette disclosed that she had suffered some strokes in the years prior to her death.

Debutante Hill is her first book. It deals with the main character of Lynn Chambers, who seems to have a lot going for her. Not only is she popular when it comes to school, she’s beautiful, young, wealthy and her family has money. When she is on the verge of going steady with a college boy who is really cute, it seems like she has just about everything.

Lynn makes a crazy choice when she decides that she doesn’t want to be a debutante. While she sees this as her choice, it, in fact, propels her slowly to the outside of the circles in high school. Could choosing not to be a debutante and bucking the habit of following tradition really ruin her social standing like that? Lynn can’t believe that her choice is having such crazy effects.

This classic for young adults will have you turning the pages to find out what happens next! Will Lynn be able to regain her popularity and standing among her classmates? Or has she tanked her standing and popular status for good? You’ve got to pick up this book about a young girl in a small town in order to find out!

A Gift of Magic first came out in 1960. Nancy is the main character in this novel. Her grandmother passes away as a very old woman, but she also left something precious to Nancy: the gift of magic.

Now Nancy is without her grandmother, but she can do all sorts of things that make her different from most people. She can read people’s minds whenever she likes and knows all of their thoughts. In addition this power, she also has the ability to make anyone do whatever she wants.

Can Nancy use her gift for the purpose of good? Or will she be swayed to the dark side and begin using it to get what she wants? It’s a dangerous line to walk, and one that Nancy is at risk of crossing. Want to find out what happens? Pick up A Gift of Magic from bestselling author Lois Duncan to find out!