Criminal profilers book series in reading order

by Alex Kava

by Alex Kava

Maggie O'Dell, a criminal profiler, and Ryder Creed, who works with search dogs, carry Alex Kava's two thriller series. A Perfect Evil (2000) opens the O'Dell run, and the catalogue reaches 27 books with Chasing Creed in 2026. Criminal profilers, women detectives, veterans and search dogs are the catalogued subjects, with Washington D.C. among the settings.

Alan Jacobson is an American author of mystery, suspense and action thrillers. His 18 catalogued books run from False Accusations (1999) to Only the Killer Knows (2026), organised into three sequences: the Karen Vail novels, built on an FBI profiler, plus OPSIG Team Black and the Mickey Keller Thrillers. The 7th Victim (2008), Velocity (2010), Inmate 1577 (2011) and Hard Target (2012) sit in the middle of the run. Serial murderers, criminal profilers and women detectives recur as subjects. Jacobson also publishes short stories, film reviews, photographs and nonfiction articles in magazines and newspapers, and is still publishing.

Cynthia Eden writes romantic suspense and paranormal romance, and the catalogue runs from The Vampire's Kiss (2005) to Ice Covered Heart (2026). Subjects include vampires, serial murder investigation, the FBI and Atlanta. Series include Wilde Ways, Ice Breaker Cold Case, Shadow Agents: Guts and Glory, LOST/Last Option Search Team, Killer Instinct, Lazarus Rising, Battling McGuire Boys, Bad Things, Trouble For Hire and Phoenix Fire. Early titles include The Wizard's Spell (2006), Hotter After Midnight (2008) and Midnight Sins (2008). The listing also carries several volumes of the Secrets anthology from 2005 to 2008.

Max Allan Collins

199 books• 34 series

Max Allan Collins, born March 3, 1948, is an American mystery writer who also works in comics, graphic novels and screenplays. Collins created the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics, the second of which became a film, and the series characters Quarry, a hitman, Nolan, a thief, and private investigator Nate Heller. Collins wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for years, and the Mystery Writers of America named Collins a Grand Master in 2017. Catalogue entries run from Bait Money (1973) to Quarry's Reunion (2026), with Eliot Ness, Mallory and Disaster among the other series.

Anne Frasier is the pen name of Theresa Weir, an American author born in 1954 who writes across many genres. The catalogue lists 22 books, from Hush (2002) to The Day I Died (2024), with Sleep Tight (2003), Play Dead (2004) and Pale Immortal (2006) among them. Criminal profilers, serial murders, police procedurals and Chicago appear in the subjects. Series include Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, Detective Olivia Welles, Inland Empire and Land of the Dead, and some titles appear under the Theresa Weir name.

Kathryn Casey

21 books• 2 series

Kathryn Casey works both sides of the crime shelf: true crime case studies and mystery novels. Twenty-one catalogued books run from Evil Beside Her in 1995 to Bone Cold in 2024, with Texas murders, the Texas Rangers and criminal profilers as recurring subjects. She Wanted It All, published in 2005, is the best known of the non-fiction, recounting how Celeste Beard married an Austin multimillionaire and then persuaded her lover Tracey Tarlton to kill him. The Sarah Armstrong and Detective Clara Jefferies books make up the fiction.

Laura Griffin writes romantic suspense around forensic investigators, police officers and FBI cases. One Last Breath (2007) opens a catalogue of 38 books, and the Tracers series and the Texas Murder Files are the central strands, with Alpha Crew, Wolfe Security, Borderline and the Glass Sisters alongside them. Serial murder investigations carry much of the work, which continues into 2026.

Romantic suspense and police procedural mysteries appear among the subjects attached to Elizabeth Heiter's 16 catalogued books, published from 2013 to 2022. Criminal profilers and thrillers are tagged too. Heiter's series are Profiler, K-9 Alaska and Lawmen: Bullets and Brawn. Hunted (2013) is the first title and Sniffing Out Danger (2022) the latest, with Vanished, Stalked and Police Protector in between. No newer book is listed, so Heiter is marked dormant.

Camilla Grebe

11 books• 2 series

Camilla Grebe is a Swedish crime writer, born in 1968, who has taken both the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award and the Glass Key. Eleven titles are catalogued, from Some Kind of Peace (2009) to Flickorna och Mörkret (2024), across the Siri Bergman and Hanne Lagerlind-Schon series. Criminal profilers, homicide investigation, domestic abuse and family violence recur as subjects, and several books appear under both Swedish and English titles.

Jay Bonansinga is an American writer and director, with a short film, City of Men, and a feature, Stash, among the directing credits. Bonansinga co-wrote several novels based on The Walking Dead comics, The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor (2011) among them, and The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury followed in 2012. Both fiction and non-fiction sit in the wider body of work. The 23 books catalogued here run from The Black Mariah (1994) to The Shadow Society (2023), taking in Sick (1995), The Killer's Game (1997), The Sleep Police (2001) and Frozen (2005). Ulysses Grove, Stan Lee's The Devil's Quintet and Oswald Means are the series recorded, and the subjects cover suspense thrillers, horror, serial murderers, criminal profilers and the FBI.

Laura Bickle / Alayna Williams is a combined listing for two bylines, covering 23 books from 2010 to 2021. The series list includes Wildlands, Anya Kalinczyk, Crow's Curse, Hallowed Ones, Mane Shift and Hellbrary. Dark Oracle (2010) and Rogue Oracle (2011) sit beside Embers and Sparks. Tarot cards, criminal profilers, the Amish and coming of age all appear in the subjects. Shifting Summer (2021) is the most recent title.

Carole Lawrence writes mystery and thriller fiction. Catalogue subjects record criminal profilers, serial murderers, murder and investigation, women sleuths, Edinburgh and New England, with Claire Rawlings named as a recurring fictional character. Three series are listed: Lee Campbell Mystery, Claire Rawlings and Ian Hamilton Mysteries. The 13 catalogued books run from 1999 to 2022, taking in Silent Screams (2009), Silent Victim (2010), Silent Kills (2011), Edinburgh Twilight (2017) and Edinburgh Dusk (2018), and closing with Cleopatra's Dagger (2022). Three titles from 1999 to 2001 are listed under the name Carole Bugge.

Ellison Cooper writes serial-killer suspense with a woman criminal profiler at the centre. Three books make up the Agent Sayer Altair series: Caged in 2018, Buried in 2019 and Cut to the Bone in 2020. Serial murder investigation and crimes against young women are the recurring subjects. Nothing new has appeared since 2020.