Darci Hannah
Darci Hannah has published 13 books across 4 series. The recommended reading order starts with The Exile of Sara Stevenson (2010).
Darci Hannah writes cozy mystery and historical fiction novels. Her debut as a novelist came in 2010 with The Exile of Sara Stevenson, a historical fiction work. Hannah turned to cozy mysteries in 2018 with Cherry Pies & Deadly Lies, the first of her Beacon Bakeshop series, which began in 2021 with Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop. She grew up around Chicago and graduated from Indiana University. Hannah, a native of the Midwest, now lives in a small town in Michigan. The Great Lakes inspire many of her stories, and she can often be found exploring picturesque lakeside villages with her husband, sampling baked goods and coffee. When she is not writing, Hannah enjoys hiking with her dogs, Ripley and Finn, and baking for friends and family.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of Beacon Bakeshop Books
- TagsmysteryhorrorDescriptionLindsey Bakewell traded Wall Street for a life of pastry and small-town charm in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, hoping to start fresh in a lighthouse bakery. But her new beginning is quickly soured when her ex-fiancé and his girlfriend crash her opening, leading to a chaotic confrontation where the girlfriend chokes on a donut and dies. With cyanide confirmed in the victim's system and Lindsey as the prime suspect, she must sift through the town’s hidden history to find the real killer before she’s baked into a corner. Can Lindsey uncover the truth and clear her name, or will this small-town mystery be her last recipe?Publication dateFebruary 23, 2021Amazon rating4.6/5Print length354LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
- TagscrimemysteryDescriptionLindsey Bakewell's first Christmas in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, was meant to be merry and bright, especially with the town's annual cookie bake-off. But her plans crumble when murder arrives under the mistletoe. With her bakeshop already struggling with staffing and family visits, Lindsey faces fierce competition from the self-appointed Christmas know-it-all, Felicity Stewart, who's determined to win at any cost. As the competition heats up, disaster strikes when the judge is found dead, covered in crumbs from Lindsey's signature cookie. Solving a murder was not on Lindsey's wish list, but with her reputation on the line, she must sift out the true culprit before the holidays are ruined.Publication dateOctober 5, 2021Amazon rating4.6/5Print length304LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington
- TagsmysterycrimeDescriptionLindsey Bakewell traded Wall Street for a bakery café in the lakeside village of Beacon Harbor. Her summer highlight is the upcoming blueberry festival, complete with a pie-eating contest her café is hosting. But the festival plans go awry. Pranks escalate from water balloons to sabotage. Rampaging goats turn the event into a debacle. Then, a man dressed as a Viking is found dead in a boat. Mischief has become murder, and Lindsey’s former SEAL sweetheart begins to investigate the dark currents beneath the festive surface.Publication dateJuly 26, 2022Amazon rating4.6/5Print length352LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington
- TagscrimehorrormysteryDescriptionHalloween weekend in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, means a packed schedule, including the annual Pumpkin Pageant. Lindsey Bakewell, owner of the local bakery and café, lives in the lighthouse, a place rumored to be haunted. She allows her friend Kennedy to host a live ghost-hunting investigation there, a prospect that makes Lindsey uneasy. The investigation takes a dark turn. As Kennedy flees the lighthouse, she collides with a clown costume hanging from a tree. Lindsey's dog, Wellington, whines, revealing a body inside the costume. Now, Lindsey and her friends must uncover the truth before the killer strikes again.Publication dateJuly 25, 2023Amazon rating4.5/5Print length353LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
- TagscrimemysteryDescriptionThe shores of Lake Michigan are dusted with sugar cookies and the scent of shamrock as Beacon Harbor prepares for its St. Patrick’s Day bash. At the Beacon Bakeshop, Lindsey Bakewell, aided by her Newfoundland, Wellington, is hard at work, filling the air with the sweet aroma of festive treats. Her boyfriend’s uncle, Finnigan O’Connor, has just arrived from Ireland, opening his new Irish import shop, The Blarney Stone, just in time for the celebrations. But Finn’s arrival is marked by more than just new beginnings. He boasts of a pot of gold, claiming it was pilfered from a leprechaun himself. His luck soon sours when he’s arrested for the bludgeoning of a small, unidentified man found dressed as a leprechaun, with his own shillelagh missing and rumored to be the murder weapon. While Finn may relish his tall tales, he’s no killer. Lindsey knows her uncle is no deluded fool, and certainly not one to strike another with his walking stick. To clear Finn’s name, she’ll need more than the luck of the Irish. It’s time to seize a golden opportunity and uncover the truth behind the Blarney Bash murder.Publication dateJanuary 23, 2024Amazon rating4.5/5Print length353LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
- Tags---DescriptionLindsey Bakewell’s lighthouse bakeshop in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, is hosting a celebrity cookbook author from the UK. The diva, Vivi Lemonberry, is to be the guest of honor at a tea party. But Vivi is in town to escape recent scandals, and her presence quickly sours. She banishes Lindsey’s dog and flirts with Lindsey’s boyfriend. During a demonstration, a woman slaps Vivi. Soon after, Vivi disappears. While some speculate she ran off, Lindsey finds a body in Lake Michigan. Lindsey must find the truth among the clues.Publication dateNovember 26, 2024Amazon rating4.6/5Print length314LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
- TagscrimeDescriptionLindsey Bakewell trades her lighthouse bakeshop for a glamping trip with her mother, Ellie, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. While the bears leave them alone, a killer does not. Ellie, a former model, sees a business opportunity in the woodsy getaway with the Mitten Kittens Glamping Club, where the ladies enjoy chic vintage campers and a campfire cookout contest. Lindsey, persuaded by her mother, whips up gourmet camping fare like pizza and berry cobbler. But the festive mood vanishes when a body is discovered in Ellie’s camper. What initially seems accidental becomes clear murder when everyone’s tires are slashed, trapping them at the crime scene. With no cell service, Lindsey must uncover the killer among the campers before they can strike again. Can she smoke out the murderer before anyone else is lost in the woods?Publication dateJune 30, 2026Amazon rating4.6/5Print length351LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
Order of Food & Spirits Mysteries Books
- Tagsmysteryhorrorcrimefantasyparanormal-romanceDescriptionChef Bunny MacBride’s first reality TV show, Food & Spirits, is meant to be her big break. Filming at the famously haunted Bramsford Manor in Hampshire, England, Bunny prepares a historic holiday wedding feast, hoping to lure the resident ghost, the Mistletoe Bride, to the table. But her carefully crafted meal is interrupted when a boning knife vanishes from her kit. The filming takes a deadly turn when the knife is found plunged into a dinner guest. Suddenly, Bunny is the prime suspect. With a manor full of suspects—living and spectral—Bunny must find the killer before the English estate claims another victim, and adds another ghost to its history.Publication dateAugust 20, 2024Amazon rating4.4/5Print length321LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
- TagshorrorcrimemysteryDescriptionWhen chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride signed on for the reality show Food & Spirits, she imagined a focus on cocktails. Instead, she's tasked with preparing meals designed to summon the departed, and to her astonishment, she finds she can communicate with the Other Side and solve murders. Her newfound connection to the supernatural proves useful when her grandmother, who is friendly with the owners of a haunted Scottish castle, arranges for Bunny and her ghost-hunting, psychic co-stars to visit Dundoon Castle. The annual bagpipe competition, held in honor of a legendary ghostly piper, promises excellent television. After Bunny prepares a feast fit for a 17th-century monarch, a ghost hunt commences. But in the dense fog, a tragic fall from a clifftop overlooking the loch ends a life. A mournful, otherworldly bagpipe melody echoes, and when the body of a piper is recovered, Bunny vows to solve this Highland homicide and unmask a killer before they can escape justice.Publication dateJanuary 27, 2026Amazon rating4.7/5Print length328LanguageEnglishPublisherKensington Cozies
Order of Standalone Novels
- TagsmysteryDescriptionIn 1814, Sara Stevenson, daughter of a Scottish lighthouse engineer, falls for a common sailor. Their elopement crumbles when he vanishes, leaving her heartbroken, pregnant, and at her family's mercy. She is banished to a remote lighthouse, placed in the care of its reclusive keeper, William Campbell. Sara finds herself drawn to the man she distrusts, even as she searches for her lost love. A mysterious package arrives, containing his watch and clues from an Oxford antiquarian. As Sara uncovers the truth of her sailor's fate, she must also confront her growing feelings for Campbell. But these revelations unravel more than just the past. The letters she exchanges forge an incredible connection across time and space, blurring the lines of reality.Publication dateJuly 27, 2010Amazon rating4.1/5Print length386LanguageEnglishPublisherBallantine Books
- TagssuspensehorrorthrillerDescriptionLady Isabeau Blythe arrives at Blythe Hall, her ancestral fortress in the Scottish border country, determined to restore her family’s name. But the castle holds dark secrets and otherworldly creatures that shake Isabeau’s sense of reality. An epic power struggle begins for Scotland, her family, and her heart. Sir George, a rogue knight, covets her land and her love, while her brother Julius seeks power of unearthly origin. Isabeau surrenders to visions of a remarkable man she longs for. As an army amasses outside her gates, she summons help from Gabriel, the man of her dreams. Does he hold the secrets of the castle and her destiny?Publication dateJuly 26, 2011Amazon rating3.5/5Print length512LanguageEnglishPublisherBallantine Books
Order of Very Cherry Mystery Books
- TagsmysterycrimeDescriptionWhitney Bloom is baking her way into the heart of Chicago with her fabulous cherry pies when a desperate call from her mother pulls her back home. The annual Cherry Blossom Festival has just begun at the Cherry Orchard Inn in Door County, Wisconsin, but the celebration is cut short by a shocking discovery: the manager of the Bloom family orchard has been found dead beneath the cherry blossoms. Worse still, all evidence points to Whitney's father as the killer. Racing home to help clear her father's name, Whitney finds her efforts complicated by the return of Jack MacLaren, her old high school nemesis and now Cherry Cove's only police officer. Putting her cherry-tastic treats on hold, Whitney must match wits with Jack and sift through the secrets of the Bloom family orchard to find the real killer before her father is convicted.Publication dateJune 8, 2018Amazon rating4.4/5Print length384LanguageEnglishPublisherMidnight Ink
- TagsmysteryDescriptionAt the Cherry Orchard Inn, "cherry scones to die for" turns out to be all too true. Tainted by a recent murder, the inn struggles to attract guests until portrait painter Silvia Lumiere books a room for the summer. Whitney Bloom, the inn's new manager, sees her luck change as the inn becomes the center of the Cherry Cove art scene, thanks to her scrumptious scones and the painter's talent. But all is not the bowl of cherries it appears, as Whitney and her friends uncover a rotten core in the painter. Just as Whitney's baking skills and patience are pushed to their limits, another death occurs at the inn, and with all fingers pointing at her, Whitney realizes it will take all her cherry-tastic talents to bake her way out of this one.Publication dateJune 8, 2019Amazon rating4.6/5Print length360LanguageEnglishPublisherMidnight Ink
Frequently Asked Questions about Darci Hannah
Darci Hannah's books are best read within their series. For the Beacon Bakeshop series, the order is Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop (2021), Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off (2021), Murder at the Blueberry Festival (2022), Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant (2023), and Murder at the Blarney Bash (2024). The Very Cherry Mystery series includes Cherry Pies & Deadly Lies (2018) and Cherry Scones & Broken Bones (2019). The Food & Spirits Mysteries series begins with A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor (2024). Her standalone novels, The Exile of Sara Stevenson (2010) and The Angel of Blythe Hall (2011), can be read independently.
A good starting point for Darci Hannah's work is the Beacon Bakeshop series, beginning with Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop, published in 2021. This series introduces readers to her cozy mystery style. Alternatively, if you prefer historical fiction, her debut novel, The Exile of Sara Stevenson from 2010, offers a different facet of her writing. Both provide a solid introduction to her narrative approach and thematic interests.
While the standalone novels by Darci Hannah can be read in any order, her series are designed to be read sequentially. Reading the books within the Beacon Bakeshop, Very Cherry Mystery, and Food & Spirits Mysteries series in the order they were published will provide the fullest understanding of the character development and ongoing plotlines. This approach ensures a more cohesive reading experience.
Darci Hannah writes both standalone novels and series. Her standalone works include The Exile of Sara Stevenson (2010) and The Angel of Blythe Hall (2011). She is also known for her series, such as the Beacon Bakeshop series, the Very Cherry Mystery series, and the upcoming Food & Spirits Mysteries series. This variety offers readers different ways to engage with her storytelling.
Darci Hannah has written at least 13 books published as of late 2024. This includes the five books in the Beacon Bakeshop series, two books in the Very Cherry Mystery series, two planned books in the Food & Spirits Mysteries series, and two standalone novels. More books may be released in the future.
The first book Darci Hannah wrote was The Exile of Sara Stevenson, published in 2010. This historical fiction novel marked her debut as a novelist. It was followed by another standalone historical fiction, The Angel of Blythe Hall, in 2011. These early works established her ability to craft engaging narratives in historical settings.
As of late 2024, Darci Hannah's most recent book is Murder at the Blarney Bash, published in 2024, which is part of the Beacon Bakeshop series. She also has A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor scheduled for release in 2024, marking a new series. Her upcoming book A Spirited Supper at Dundoon Castle is slated for 2026.
Darci Hannah writes in two main genres: cozy mysteries and historical fiction. Her cozy mysteries are often set in charming locations and feature amateur sleuths, as seen in her Beacon Bakeshop and Very Cherry Mystery series. Her historical fiction, such as The Exile of Sara Stevenson, transports readers to different eras.
Ginger Bolton
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Kelly Lane
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We verified the reading order for Darci Hannah's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: July 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Darci Hannah Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/darci-hannah