Born in 1943 to Samuel and Elisabeth Johnson, Carolyn graduated from Scotch Plains High School of New Jersey. She was a Peabody scholar at the now-non-existent Western College for Women

Western College for Women

Western College for Women was a women's college in Oxford, Ohio between 1855 and 1974.-History:Western College was founded in 1853 as Western Female Seminary. It was a daughter school of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Its first principal Helen Peabody and most of the early...

. She graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin. In Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

, Carolyn met Jim Hougan

Jim Hougan

Jim Hougan , is an American writer.Hougan's mother was a model and father a paratrooper. His mother and he moved to Reno, Nevada, where his mother found work at a casino...

 in the philosophy course “Freedom, Fate, and Choice.” She became Carolyn Hougan in 1966.
The Hougans lived in Alexandria and Washington from 1980 until August 2006.

Works

She herself authored four thrillers: Shooting in the Dark (1984), Blood Relative, The Romeo Flag, and The Last Goodbye. Carolyn Hougan died from cancer February 25, 2007, in Virginia at age 63. She was survived by her husband, Jim, a daughter, son, and two grandchildren.
The series of books written under the pseudonym John Case were written jointly by Carolyn and Jim Houghan, and have not continued without Carolyn. The titles of the John Case works are: The Genesis Code, The First Horseman, The Syndrome (Trance State), The Eighth Day, The Murder Artist, and Ghost Dancer.