AJ McCarthy Books in Order

A.J. McCarthy was born in Quebec City and grew up in Quebec. She later built a career in finance and accounting, staying in the province while raising two daughters with her husband. That everyday work life sits a long way from murder investigations and people on the run, which may be part of why her fiction likes to upset orderly plans.

Mystery was there early. McCarthy grew up reading Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, and other writers of mystery and suspense. Those books gave her a lasting taste for hidden motives, troubling secrets, and the uneasy feeling that someone in the room isn't telling the whole truth.

Writing became a new challenge alongside her professional life. Her early novel Betrayal was followed by Sins of the Fathers, published in 2017, and she continued to build a body of standalone thrillers as well as the Charlie and Simm mysteries.

She has a practical eye for what happens when safety slips.

In Sins of the Fathers, Montreal pub owner Charlene, known as Charlie, receives anonymous letters that pull her into a dangerous investigation. The book also introduces Simm, the private investigator who helps her. Their shared story continues in The Other Side, where the couple takes on a missing-person case in Quebec's Gatineau region. The series makes room for crime, family history, and the messy business of learning whom to trust.

Montreal matters in these books.

McCarthy's standalones travel through other Canadian settings while keeping the pressure close to the characters. Cold Betrayal follows Victoria Anderson as her search for a man takes her from Florida into a harsh Quebec winter and the orbit of organized crime. In Legacy of Fear, Emily Burton's peaceful life on Vancouver Island is shattered by an attack and a murder with possible roots in the past. By the Book moves to Ottawa, where detectives hunt a killer using a novel as a blueprint.

Faux Friends centers on Quebec police officer Chantal Pouliot, who hopes a cybercrime assignment will help restore her career after a case goes wrong. Instead, she finds murder, organized crime, and a threat tied to her own past. Across these stories, McCarthy returns to people who are pushed into danger before they have all the facts.

Her work has brought recognition, including a 2019 American Fiction Award for Cold Betrayal. She is also associated with Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers, groups that fit naturally with a writer drawn to crime and suspense.

When she isn't writing, McCarthy has said she is likely reading. It makes sense. Her books are built for readers who enjoy following clues, questioning loyalties, and watching ordinary lives take a sharp, dangerous turn.