Harris, Charlaine 1951–

PERSONAL: Born November 25, 1951, in Tunica, MS; daughter of Robert Ashley (a principal) and Jean (a librarian) Harris; married Hal Schulz (a chemical engineer), August 5, 1978; children: two sons, one daughter. Education: Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), B.A., 1973. Hobbies and other interests: Animals, gardening, cooking, weightlifting, karate, movies, reading, unsolved murder cases.

ADDRESSES: Home—1185 Sheppard Rd. N.E., Orangeburg, SC 29115.

CAREER: Writer, novelist, and typesetter. Bolivar Commercial, Cleveland, MS, offset darkroom operator, 1973–74; Clarksdale Press Register, Clarksdale, MS, typesetter, 1974–76; Delta Design Group, Greenville, MS, typesetter, 1975–77; Federal Express Corp., Memphis, TN, typesetter, 1977–78; writer.

MEMBER: Mystery Writers of America, American Crime Writers League, Sisters in Crime (member of board), Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance (served as president), Mensa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Agatha Award nomination for best novel and Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original, both 2002, both for Dead until Dark.

WRITINGS:

"AURORA TEAGARDEN" MYSTERIES

Real Murders, Walker (New York, NY), 1990.

A Bone to Pick, Walker (New York, NY), 1992.

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, Scribner (New York, NY), 1994.

The Julius House, Scribner (New York, NY), 1995.

Dead over Heels, Scribner (New York, NY), 1996.

A Fool and His Honey, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1999.

Last Scene Alive, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2002.

Poppy Done to Death, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2003.

"LILY BAIRD" MYSTERIES

Shakespeare's Landlord, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1996.

Shakespeare's Champion, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1997.

Shakespeare's Christmas, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1998.

Shakespeare's Trollop, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2000.

Shakespeare's Counselor, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2001.

"SOUTHERN VAMPIRES" MYSTERY SERIES

Dead until Dark, Ace Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Living Dead in Dallas, Ace Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Club Dead, Ace Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Dead to the World, Ace Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Dead as a Doornail, Ace Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Definitely Dead, Ace Books (New York, NY), 2006.

OTHER

Sweet and Deadly, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1980.

A Secret Rage, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1984.

Grave Sight, Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor of fiction to anthologies, including Night's Edge, HQN Books (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Author's books have been translated into several foreign languages.

SIDELIGHTS: Charlaine Harris's first novel, Sweet and Deadly, concerns the efforts of a journalist to solve the murder of her parents in a small Southern town. "In this small, self-contained world, everyone seems to know everything about the neighbors," stated a Washington Post reviewer. The critic praised Harris's handling of racial issues and summed up Sweet and Deadly as "more than a well-plotted mystery."

Harris began a successful mystery series with Real Murders, featuring Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, a librarian and amateur detective who returns to her home town in Georgia. The third book in the series, titled Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, finds Aurora assisting her mother, a realtor, by showing a house, only to discover the corpse of another realtor inside. A subplot finds Aurora romantically torn between a dependable minister and a mysterious, possibly dangerous businessman. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Three Bedrooms, One Corpse a "high-spirited" mystery. In The Julius House, Aurora has married and moved into a home which, years before, was the scene of a mysterious disappearance. The past reaches out and she is soon drawn into another mystery, one in which "the author's brisk, upbeat style keeps tension simmering under the everyday surface," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Many critics felt the series reached a new level with A Fool and His Honey, which features an abandoned baby, a mystery drug, and yet another murder. Booklist reviewer John Rowen noted that after starting out in a "cozy" style, "Harris ambushes the reader with a stunning ending that carries the impact of Sherlock Holmes falling into the Reichenbach Falls." The Publishers Weekly commentator praised the author's "skill and panache."

In Poppy Done to Death, the widowed Aurora discovers her stepbrother's wife, Poppy, brutally murdered. Her investigation uncovers unpleasant and embarrassing aspects of her stepbrother's married life with Poppy, including plenty of extramarital flings and worse. Complicating matters are the appearance of Roe's teen-aged half-brother, who has hitchhiked across the country to get away from his parents; her main suitor, mystery writer Robin, who has decided it is time that Aurora meet his mother—at Thanksgiving; and other potential love interests who may or may not be adequate competition for Robin. The mystery deepens as Roe discovers more and more people who would have a reason to see Poppy dead. Library Journal reviewer Rex E. Klett called the book a "delightful cozy," while Booklist critic GraceAnne A. DeCandido found it to be "entertaining fare."

Harris created a unique new character in Lily Bard, a cleaning lady with a top-flight education and a horrible past. A savage attack years ago left Lily physically and emotionally scarred, wary of people, and obsessed with self-defense. She lives in the tiny town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. In the debut novel, Shakespeare's Landlord, Lily witnesses the disposal of a dead body. Through careful questioning of her clients, Lily begins to unravel the mystery, but she is also being stalked by someone who wants to do her harm. Shakespeare's Landlord is a "finely tuned, colorful and suspenseful tale, filled with vigorous and unique characters," according to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Lily's adventures continue in Shakespeare's Champion, Shakespeare's Christmas, Shakespeare's Trollop, and Shakespeare's Counselor. The series was praised by several reviewers for its tight plotting and brisk pace, but a Publishers Weekly contributor pointed out that "Lily has such an engaging voice, full of pain and redemption, that the collecting of clues and the unfolding of the crime take a back seat to her personal story." Concluded Stuart Miller in Booklist: "Lily Bard is one of the best-drawn and most compelling characters in contemporary mystery fiction—complex, smart, streetwise, tough…. Harris has reached a new high."

With her "Southern Vampires" series, Harris combines supernatural elements with her usual mystery stories. The series stars Sookie Stackhouse, a telepath and cocktail waitress from Louisiana who yearns to be normal but who consistently finds herself embroiled in the politics and the conflicts of the local vampire community. In the third book of the series, Club Dead, Sookie begins to feel that her vampire boyfriend, Bill, is hiding something important from her. Her anxiety is ratcheted up when Bill leaves on a supposed business trip which is transparently not what it seems. After a werewolf tries to kidnap Sookie at work, she encounters Bill's boss, Eric, who reveals to her that Bill has been abducted by vampire femme fatale Lorena. Emotionally drained but still willing to fight for Bill, Sookie traces him and Lorena to the posh Club Dread in Jackson, MS, where the southern supernatural crowd can relax and be themselves. Still unsure of Bill's motives, Sookie must locate him, discover who abducted him, and save him from either the forces of evil, or himself. "Club Dead is ideal for readers who like their vampire fiction light, humorous, and fast-paced," commented Kristine Huntley in Booklist.

Dead to the World, the series' hardcover debut, is a "frothy fusion of romance, mystery and fantasy," remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer. On the outs with undead boyfriend Bill after he cheated with Lorena, the alluring female vampire, Sookie is surprised to encounter Bill's boss Eric, naked, in distress, and on the run. Eric does not remember who he is or what he does, nor does he remember Sookie or Bill. Eric, she discovers, has been hexed out of his memory by Hallow, a witch once spurned by him. Hallow and a coven of other witches have recently arrived in town, looking for trouble and finding it. When Sookie's brother Jason disappears, she fears the coven is responsible. She reluctantly agrees to shelter Eric at her home, and to her surprise she finds her attraction to him deepening. Meanwhile, Sookie is also becoming unwillingly involved in the vampire community's plans to attack Hallow and the coven. Huntley, in another Booklist review, remarked that "the first hardcover in Harris' series is gripping and spicy."

In Dead as a Doornail, Sookie finds herself once again caught up in the political, and sometimes physical, struggles between the local vampires and were-folk. A werewolf pack leader has recently passed away, and Sookie becomes reluctantly involved when Alcide Herveaux asks her to accompany him to the funeral. There, Alcide's father announces his candidacy for pack leader, in competition against a particularly vile and depraved rival. Worse, a sniper is at large who seems to be targeting random victims—specifically, were-people of the local supernatural community. The werewolves suspect Sookie's brother Jason, himself a newly turned shape-shifter, but she does not believe he is the culprit. When someone sets fire to Sookie's home, she realizes that she is not only involved in the local conflicts, but that some other participant wants her dead. "Harris's southern vampire series remains one of the best of the breed," Huntley stated in another Booklist review.

In Grave Sight, the first book in a new series, protagonist Harper Connelly is a loyal, honest, and hardworking woman who also possesses a very unusual ability: ever since surviving a searing lightning-bolt strike, Harper has been able to find dead people, her instincts leading her unerringly to overlooked corpses and long-dead victims of accidents and crimes. Harper and stepbrother Tolliver, who serves as her manager and bodyguard, travel to Sarne, Arkansas, to help look for the body of a missing teenage girl. The unpleasant task is quickly discharged, but Harper and Tolliver discover that there are persons in Sarne who are willing to murder to conceal the secrets the girl's death hides. Harper's life is threatened and Tolliver ends up jailed on bogus charges, and it takes all of their wits and talents to escape before they end up as hidden corpses. Harris "delivers a knuckle-gnawing tale populated with well-developed, albeit edgy characters," commented a Publishers Weekly critic. Reviewer Jenny McLarin, writing in Booklist, called the novel "A strong debut that will have readers dying for more."

Harris told CA: "I have always identified myself as a writer internally and have never wanted to do anything else in my life. I have written at least since I was nine years old. The necessity of earning a bare living kept me from writing full time until I was twenty-seven, which was probably a very good thing. I read about eight books per week, both in and out of my genre.

"I chose to write in the mystery genre because I have always enjoyed mysteries myself. It is a multi-level genre, providing not only an intellectual puzzle, but also a study of life and death, however lightly treated. The mystery is also one of the few truly American art forms."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Armchair Detective, spring, 1995, review of The Julius House, p. 211.

Booklist, November 1, 1992, review of A Bone to Pick, p. 491; July, 1996, Stuart Miller, review of Shakespeare's Landlord, p. 1808; September 15, 1998, review of Shakespeare's Christmas, p. 204; September 1, 1999, John Rowen, review of A Fool and His Honey, p. 72; May 1, 2000, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Shakespeare's Trollop, p. 1599; April 15, 2003, Kristine Huntley, review of Club Dread, p. 1456; July, 2003, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Poppy Done to Death, p. 1869; April 15, 2004, review of Dead to the World, p. 1432; May 1, 2005, Kristine Huntley, review of Dead as a Doornail, p. 1576; October 1, 2005, Jenny McLarin, review of Grave Sight, p. 38.

Chronicle, May, 2003, Don D'Ammassa, review of Club Dread, p. 47.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 1994, review of Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, p. 176; December 15, 1994, review of The Julius House, p. 1523; June 15, 1996, review of Shakespeare's Landlord, p. 860; September 1, 1996, review of Dead over Heels, p. 1277; December 1, 1997, review of Shakespeare's Champion, p. 1739; October 1, 1998, review of Shakespeare's Christmas, p. 1416; August 15, 1999, review of A Fool and His Honey, p. 1263; July 1, 2000, review of Shakespeare's Trollop, p. 921.

Library Journal, March 1, 1994, review of Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, p. 122; January, 1995, review of The Julius House, p. 142; October 15, 1996, review of Shakespeare's Landlord, p. 112; November 1, 1998, Rex E. Klett, review of Shakespeare's Christmas, pp. 127-128; August, 1999, Rex E. Klett, review of A Fool and His Honey, p. 145; August, 2003, Rex E. Klett, review of Poppy Done to Death, p. 139.

Publishers Weekly, September 28, 1992, review of A Bone to Pick, p. 67; February 21, 1994, review of Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, p. 237; January 9, 1995, review of The Julius House, p. 58; June 24, 1996, review of Shakespeare's Landlord, p. 48; September 2, 1996, review of Dead over Heels, p. 116; October 6, 1997, review of Shakespeare's Champion, p. 77; September 7, 1998, review of Shakespeare's Christmas, p. 88; August 23, 1999, review of A Fool and His Honey, p. 51; July 3, 2000, review of Shakespeare's Trollop, p. 52; April 5, 2004, review of Dead to the World, p. 46; August 22, 2005, review of Grave Sight, p. 40.

Washington Post Book World, July 19, 1981, review of Sweet and Deadly; December 20, 1998, review of Shakespeare's Christmas, p. 4.

ONLINE

BookBrowser, http://www.bookbrowser.com/ (March 25, 2006), Harriet Klausner, review of Shakespeare's Champion.

Charlaine Harris Home Page, http://www.charlaineharris.com (March 25, 2006).

Mississippi Writers Page, http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/ (March 25, 2006), biography of Charlaine Harris.