Lisa Jackson Books in Order

Below is the complete list of Lisa Jackson books in order of publication. This is the recommended reading sequence for the series.

The Cahills / San Francisco Series

1. If She Only Knew (2000)
2. Almost Dead (2007)
3. You Will Pay (2017)
4. You Betrayed Me (2020)

Colony Series

1. Wicked Game (2009)
   (With Nancy Bush)
2. Unseen (2009)
   (By Nancy Bush)
3. Blind Spot (2010)
   (By Nancy Bush)
4. Wicked Lies (2011)
   (With Nancy Bush)
5. Something Wicked (2013)
   (With Nancy Bush)
6. Wicked Ways (2014)
   (With Nancy Bush)
7. Wicked Dreams (2022)
   (With Nancy Bush)

Dark Jewels Trilogy Series

1. Dark Ruby (1998)
2. Dark Emerald (1999)
3. Dark Sapphire (2000)

Forever Family Series

1. A Family Kind of Guy (1998)
2. A Family Kind of Gal / A Family Kind of Girl (1998)
3. A Family Kind of Wedding (1998)

Historical Trilogy Series
as Susan Lynn Crose

1. Enchantress (1993)
2. Kiss of the Moon (1994)
3. Outlaw (1995)

Love Letters Series

1. A Is for Always (1994)
2. B Is For Baby (1994)
3. C is for Cowboy (1994)
4. D is for Dani’s Baby (1995)

Maverick Series

1. Forbidden Secrets / He’s a Bad Boy / Dangerous Revelations (1985)
2. He’s Just a Cowboy / Breathless Innocence (1993)
3. He’s the Rich Boy (1993)
4. He’s My Soldier Boy / Tender Absolution (1994)

The McCaffertys Series

1. Thorne / Best-Kept Secrets (2000)
2. Matt (2001)
3. Slade (2002)
4. Randi / Best-Kept Lies (2004)

Medieval Trilogy Series

1. Impostress (2003)
2. Temptress (2004)
3. Sorceress (2007)

Mercy Series

1. Without Mercy (2010)
2. The Life and Death of Lauren Conway (2011)

Platinum Mystery Series

1. You’ll Find Out (2025)

New Orleans Series

1. Hot Blooded (2001)
2. Cold Blooded (2002)
3. Shiver (2006)
4. Absolute Fear (2007)
5. Lost Souls (2008)
6. Malice (2009)
7. Devious (2011)
8. Never Die Alone (2015)
9. The Last Sinner (2023)

Savannah Series

1. The Night Before (2003)
2. The Morning After (2004)
3. Tell Me (2013)
4. The Third Grave (2021)

Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli Series

1. Left to Die (2008)
2. Chosen to Die (2009)
3. Born to Die (2011)
4. Afraid to Die (2012)
5. Ready to Die (2013)
6. Deserves to Die (2014)
7. Expecting to Die (2016)
8. Willing to Die (2019)

West Coast Series

1. Deep Freeze (2005)
2. Fatal Burn (2006)
3. After She’s Gone (2015)

Wyoming Series
with Nancy Bush, Rosalind Noonan

1. Sinister (2013)
2. Ominous (2017)

Standalone Novels Series

1. A Twist of Fate (1983)
2. The Shadow of Time (1984)
3. Pirate’s Gold / Secrets (1984)
4. Dark Side of the Moon (1984)
5. Tears of Pride (1984)
6. Missing (1985)
7. High Stakes (1985)
8. A Dangerous Precedent (1985)
9. Innocent by Association (1985)
10. Midnight Sun (1985)
11. Devil’s Gambit (1985)
12. Zachary’s Law (1986)
13. Mystic (1986)
14. One Man’s Love (1986)
15. Renegade Son (1987)
16. Snowbound (1987)
17. Summer Rain (1987)
18. Stormy Nights (1988)
19. The Brass Ring (1988)
    (As: Susan Lynn Crose)
20. Hurricane Force (1988)
21. In Honor’s Shadow (1988)
22. Montana Fire (1989)
23. Aftermath (1989)
24. Tender Trap (1989)
25. Sweet Revenge (1990)
26. His Bride To Be (1990)
27. Strangers (1991)
28. Sail Away (1991)
29. Obsession (1991)
30. Mystery Man (1991)
31. Million Dollar Baby (1992)
32. Treasures / See How She Dies (1994)
33. Wishes / Running Scared (1995)
34. Intimacies / Final Scream (1995)
35. New Year’s Daddy / Remembering You (1995)
36. All I Want from Santa (1995)
37. Whispers (1996)
38. Twice Kissed (1998)
39. Unspoken (1999)
40. Wild and Wicked (2002)
41. Most Likely to Die (2007)
    (With Beverly Barton, Wendy Corsi Staub)
42. Abandoned (2011)
43. You Don’t Want to Know (2012)
44. Confessions (2012)
45. Memories (2013)
46. Close to Home (2014)
47. Illicit (2014)
48. Light of Day (2015)
49. Lost Lives (2017)
50. Ruthless (2018)
51. The Sun Rises at Midnight (2018)
52. One Last Breath (2018)
    (With Nancy Bush)
53. Liar, Liar (2018)
54. Paranoid (2019)
55. Last Girl Standing (2020)
    (With Nancy Bush)
56. Distrust (2021)
57. The Girl Who Survived (2022)
58. Retribution (2024)
59. Our Little Secret (2024)
60. It Happened on the Lake (2025)

Short Stories/Novellas Series

1. The Man from Pine Mountain (1993)

Babies & Bachelors USA Series Series

1. Double Exposure (1990)

Western Lovers Series

1. Yesterday’s Lies (1986)
2. With No Regrets (1990)

Fortune’s Children Series

1. The Millionaire and the Cowgirl (1996)
2. Angel Baby: A Classic Romance Novella (2017)

The MatchUp Collection Series

1. Deserves to Be Dead (2017)
   (With John Sandford)

Born in the USA Series Series

1. Renegade Son (1987)

Dangerous to Love USA Series Series

1. Devil’s Gambit (1985)

For Her Eyes Only Series

1. First Love (1993)

Montana Mavericks Series

1. Lone Stallion’s Lady (2000)

That Special Woman Series

1. A Husband to Remember (1993)

About Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson has built one of the longer and more commercially durable careers in contemporary popular suspense, but her bibliography makes the most sense when seen as a blend of two strengths rather than one. She is a thriller writer, certainly, but she also comes from a romance tradition that never fully disappeared from her work. Even in her darkest suspense novels, there is usually a strong emotional undertow: damaged families, old betrayals, sexual tension, buried secrets, and relationships under pressure. That combination is a large part of what made her stand out. She does not write cold procedural puzzles. She writes suspense with heat, fear, memory, and personal fallout built into it.

She is widely identified as a number-one New York Times bestselling author with a very large body of work, now running to well over ninety novels. Her career spans standalones, family-centered romantic fiction, and multiple recurring suspense lines. That scale matters because Jackson is not an author who built her name on one defining franchise alone. Instead, she created a broad shelf of books that can be grouped into recognizable clusters: the New Orleans novels featuring Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya, the Montana “To Die” books, the Alvarez and Pescoli novels, the Savannah books, the McCafferty family novels, and numerous standalones. The result is a bibliography that feels both expansive and structured.

Her suspense fiction is the clearest center of her reputation. The New Orleans books, in particular, helped establish her as a major name in serial-killer and investigative suspense. Those novels are darker and more procedurally rooted than some of her other work, but they still carry her characteristic interest in family damage, obsession, hidden history, and emotional vulnerability. The same is true of the Montana and Northwest-centered books, where landscape often plays a major role. Jackson is especially good at settings that feel isolating or watchful: places where storms, forests, snow, old houses, and remote roads intensify the fear already present in the plot. Her thrillers often depend as much on atmosphere as on revelation.

At the same time, her bibliography still shows the shape of her earlier romance and women’s fiction career. She wrote contemporary and historical romance before suspense became the dominant label around her name, and that background helps explain why even her thrillers tend to care so much about personal history. Her characters are rarely just investigators, victims, or villains moving pieces across a plotboard. They are usually carrying old grief, family estrangement, desire, guilt, or unresolved love. Jackson understands that danger is more compelling when it collides with emotional need.

Another important part of her bibliography is collaboration. She has co-written books with her sister Nancy Bush and also worked with other authors on selected projects. That collaborative side fits her larger career well. Jackson has always seemed less interested in protecting one narrow literary identity than in telling stories across adjacent popular forms, whether that means family sagas, suspense lines, or joint thriller projects.

Her bibliography is best approached by series groupings rather than straight through from first book to latest. That is partly because the shelf is so large, but also because her work naturally falls into tonal families. Readers looking for harsher serial-killer suspense may gravitate to Bentz and Montoya. Readers wanting female-led investigative thrillers may prefer the Montana books. Others may begin with a standalone and work outward from there. That flexibility is part of her longevity.

What ties the whole career together is momentum. Lisa Jackson writes books that are meant to pull readers forward, but she does not rely on pace alone. Her fiction is built on dread, family fracture, attraction, and the fear that the past is never as buried as people hope. That combination made her more than prolific. It made her dependable in the strongest commercial sense: a writer readers return to for suspense that feels both dangerous and emotionally charged.