Author Guide · Historical Fiction
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On 6 August 1930 a New York judge named Joseph Crater got into a taxi in Manhattan and was never seen again. Ariel Lawhon, who lives outside Nashville, Tennessee, made that unsolved case her first novel, and has kept to the same kind of subject since: real people, mostly women, whose part in a documented event was never fully recorded or believed. A Russian grand duchess who may have survived, a resistance fighter with a price on her head, a midwife in 1789 Maine whose diary turned into evidence. The Frozen River (2023) won the 2024 Nero Award and had sold almost two million copies by early 2026. This guide covers her seven key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 2014–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Ariel Lawhon has published seven novels, one of them co-written: The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress (2014), Flight of Dreams (2016), I Was Anastasia (2018), Code Name Hélène (2020), When We Had Wings (2022), The Frozen River (2023) and The Pirate Queen (2026). Start with The Frozen River, her best-known book, a murder investigation built on the real diary of the midwife Martha Ballard.
Where to Start with Ariel Lawhon
If you want her best-known book
→ The Frozen River (2023) — the 1789 Maine murder case, a 2024 Nero Award winner.
If you want a Second World War story
→ Code Name Hélène (2020) — the life of the resistance fighter Nancy Wake.
If you want an unsolved case
→ The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress (2014) — her debut, about the disappearance of Judge Crater.
If you want a puzzle with two timelines
→ I Was Anastasia (2018) — the woman who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov.
7 Ariel Lawhon Books, in Order
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
Her debut is built on the 1930 disappearance of Joseph Crater, a New York Supreme Court judge who vanished after an evening out in Manhattan; the case was never solved. Lawhon tells it through three women who each knew part of the story: his wife Stella, his maid Maria and his mistress, the showgirl Ritzi. The novel grew from Stella Crater’s yearly ritual at Club Abbey, where she raised a glass to her missing husband.
Flight of Dreams
The last voyage of the airship Hindenburg, from Frankfurt to Lakehurst, New Jersey, where it burst into flames on 6 May 1937. Lawhon tells the three-day crossing through five people on board, crew and passengers, each with something to hide, and offers a fictional answer to the question of what caused the fire.
I Was Anastasia
Anna Anderson spent most of her adult life claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Russian tsar, and German courts heard her case for decades. The novel alternates between Anastasia’s story and Anderson’s, with one timeline running forwards and the other backwards until the two meet.
Code Name Hélène
The life of Nancy Wake, a New Zealand-born journalist raised in Australia who married a Frenchman, Henri Fiocca, and became one of the most wanted members of the French Resistance. The novel follows her from escape lines in Marseille to Special Operations Executive training in Britain and her return by parachute in 1944 to organise Maquis fighters in the Auvergne.
When We Had Wings
Three nurses in the Philippines are caught by the Japanese invasion in December 1941, work through the siege of Bataan and Corregidor, and are held prisoner until 1945. Lawhon wrote it with Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner, each author taking one of the three women. It draws on the real army and navy nurses known as the Angels of Bataan.
The Frozen River
Hallowell, Maine, 1789: a man is found dead in the frozen Kennebec River, and the midwife Martha Ballard is called to examine the body. He had been accused, with the local judge Joseph North, of raping the minister’s wife, and Martha uses her own diary to build the case. It was a Good Morning America Book Club pick, won the 2024 Nero Award, was longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for the 2026 CWA Gold Dagger. Film rights were optioned by Maven Screen Media in January 2026.
The Pirate Queen
A novel about Gráinne O’Malley, or Grace O’Malley, the sixteenth-century chieftain and sea captain from the west coast of Ireland who in 1593 sailed to England to meet Elizabeth I in person. Published in September 2026.
In What Order to Read Ariel Lawhon
There is no series and no recurring character, so publication order is only a convenience. Each novel is a standalone about different real people in a different period, from 1789 Maine to 1930s New York and wartime France, and you can start with any of them.
One thing to know before you choose: When We Had Wings is co-written with Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner, each writing one of the three nurses, so it is not the best sample of Lawhon on her own. Most readers begin with The Frozen River and work back.
A reading path
1. The Frozen River (2023)
2. Code Name Hélène (2020)
3. The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress (2014)
4. I Was Anastasia (2018)
5. The Pirate Queen (2026)
Everything Else Ariel Lawhon Published
Beyond the 7 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Short fiction
2
2 books · 2017–2024
- 2017Dead Ends: Stories from the Gothic Southanthology edited by J.T. Ellison, with a story by Lawhon
- 2024Barriers to Entryan Amazon Original short story; Edgar Award nominee for Best Short Story, 2025
The years · 2009–2026
Quick facts about Ariel Lawhon
- Known for
- Historical novels about real people, mostly women, at the centre of a documented mystery, above all The Frozen River (2023).
- 2009
- Co-founds the online book club She Reads
- 2020
- Code Name Hélène
- 2023
- The Frozen River
- 2026
- The Pirate Queen
- Writes
- Historical fiction about real people and documented events
- Lives
- The hills outside Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and four sons
- Novels
- Seven, including one co-written with Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner
- Co-founded
- She Reads, an online book club that ran from 2009 to 2020
- Award
- Nero Award 2024 for The Frozen River
- Book club
- The Frozen River was a Good Morning America Book Club pick
- Translated
- Into more than thirty languages, according to her publisher’s biography
The red mark is 2023: The Frozen River, her best-known novel.
How Ariel Lawhon Writes: Real Cases, Invented Insides
Every Lawhon novel starts from a documented person or event with an open question attached: a judge who disappeared, an airship fire whose cause was never settled, a woman whose identity courts argued about for decades. The dates, places and outcomes are the historical ones; what she invents is the conversation and the inner life between them. Her author’s notes say where the record ends, and they are worth reading after each book.
She plans before she writes. For her first novel she said she laid out the whole book scene by scene before writing a word, and took several false starts to find the right narrators. The structures show it: three women who each hold part of the Crater case, five people aboard the Hindenburg, two timelines in I Was Anastasia that run in opposite directions. The books sit on the historical fiction shelf but work like mysteries, which is why The Frozen River won the Nero Award, a prize for crime fiction.
Her central figures are mostly women whose version of events was not written down or not believed: Stella Crater, Anna Anderson, Nancy Wake, Martha Ballard, Gráinne O’Malley. For novelists working the same ground, see Authors like Ariel Lawhon.
Watch
Ariel Lawhon at The Poisoned Pen
Lawhon discusses her work at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Frequently asked questions about Ariel Lawhon’s books
How many books has Ariel Lawhon written?
Seven novels: The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress (2014), Flight of Dreams (2016), I Was Anastasia (2018), Code Name Hélène (2020), When We Had Wings (2022, co-written), The Frozen River (2023) and The Pirate Queen (2026). She has also published two short stories, one in the anthology Dead Ends (2017) and Barriers to Entry (2024), an Amazon Original.
What are Ariel Lawhon’s books in order?
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress (2014), Flight of Dreams (2016), I Was Anastasia (2018), Code Name Hélène (2020), When We Had Wings (2022), The Frozen River (2023) and The Pirate Queen (2026).
Where should I start with Ariel Lawhon?
The Frozen River. It needs no background and is her most widely read book. If you would rather start with the Second World War, read Code Name Hélène; for an unsolved case, her debut, The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress.
What is Ariel Lawhon’s most famous book?
The Frozen River (2023). It was a Good Morning America Book Club pick, won the 2024 Nero Award and had sold almost two million copies by January 2026.
Is The Frozen River based on a true story?
Yes. Martha Ballard was a real midwife in Hallowell, Maine, who kept a diary from 1785 until 1812; the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich built her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Midwife’s Tale (1990) on it. The 1789 death and the rape accusation against Joseph North come from the historical record; the dialogue and the shape of the investigation are Lawhon’s.
Did The Frozen River win any awards?
It won the 2024 Nero Award, given for crime fiction. It was also longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for the 2026 CWA Gold Dagger.
Is The Frozen River being made into a film?
The film rights were optioned by Maven Screen Media, reported in January 2026. No release has been announced.
Do Ariel Lawhon’s books need to be read in order?
No. There is no series and there are no recurring characters. Each novel is a standalone about different real people in a different place and period.
Who co-wrote When We Had Wings?
Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner. Each of the three authors wrote one of the three nurses at the centre of the novel.
What is The Pirate Queen about?
Gráinne O’Malley, the sixteenth-century Irish chieftain and sea captain who in 1593 sailed to England to meet Elizabeth I. It was published in September 2026.
Footnotes
- About Ariel Lawhon — ariellawhon.com
- The Frozen River — Wikipedia
- Ariel Lawhon — FantasticFiction
- Ariel Lawhon — Festival of Faith and Writing 2026, Calvin University
- Ariel Lawhon — BookBrowse
- Debut author Ariel Lawhon researched and outlined — Women’s Fiction Writers, 2014
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I’m a huge fan of research and outlining.”
— Ariel Lawhon, interviewed by Amy Sue Nathan for Women’s Fiction Writers (2014)
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