Start at the very beginning
An overview of First in Series books: find them for sale in our online store.
We’re offering these first in series titles for a couple reasons – one, some are hard to find and mystery readers like to read a series in order! And secondly, while many of you may be familiar with these series, you may have only read the later books. These are all incredible starts to great characters and stories. Reading through all of them will give you a great overview of contemporary mystery fiction, in all its many threads – private eye, police, cozy, British procedural, historical. Setting has proven to be key for the modern mystery as has a broader array of character types, ranging from Tony Hillerman’s iconic Joe Leaphorn to James Lee Burke’s P.I. Dave Robichaux to Laura Lippman’s kick-ass Tess Monaghan to Dorthy Gilman’s sweet old lady CIA agent Mrs. Pollifax. If you had walked in to our store, we would have recommended these titles to you depending on your interest. One of our all time bestsellers was Deborah Crombie’s spectacular debut, A Share in Death. We hope you’ll dig in! Here’s a list, and you can find them for sale on the online store page.