Allen Crane's Reed Templeton Books in Order

The Allen Crane's Reed Templeton books shift the tone toward a harder-edged detective story, while keeping Rodney Riesel’s coastal pull. Reed Templeton is a veteran detective with a messy personal life and a habit of landing in cases that don’t let him breathe.

In The Missing Wife, Reed is told by his doctor to slow down and take a break. He heads to an island expecting rest, and instead finds himself pulled into a missing-wife mystery surrounded by eccentric locals and half-truths. It’s the kind of case where everyone knows something, but no one wants to say it out loud.

Reed’s idea of a vacation is still a case file.

The Big Adios drops Reed into an even rougher moment. After accidentally shooting his unfaithful wife, who had been having an affair with his police captain, Reed faces internal investigations and public scrutiny, and the possibility of losing the badge that has defined his life. Before he can deal with the fallout, two people from his past are murdered, and the case drags him back into old secrets.

Reed teams up with Detective John Rice, whose steadier approach doesn’t always match Reed’s spiraling emotions. He also gets help from his Uncle Boyd, a retired officer with decades of street-honed instincts and a long memory for the kinds of details departments forget. Complicating everything is the return of Reed’s former girlfriend, stirring up unfinished business at exactly the wrong time.

What ties these books together is pressure. Reed isn’t just chasing a killer, he’s trying to hold his life together while dealing with betrayal, department politics, and the pieces of the past that keep resurfacing. The coastal settings matter too, small communities with long memories, where a single rumor can move faster than an official report.

If you like detective stories that mix personal fallout with a high-stakes case, start with The Missing Wife and then move to The Big Adios. The books reward reading in order because Reed’s emotional state and professional standing are part of the tension, not just background noise.