Aloha Lagoon Mysteries Books in Order

The Aloha Lagoon Mysteries are part of a shared series set in a resort town on Kauai, which means the big draw is the place as much as the puzzle. Aloha Lagoon is sold as paradise, warm weather, beaches, tourists, local businesses, music, wedding chapels, and plenty of reasons to stay a little longer. The joke, of course, is that this pocket of paradise also has an alarmingly reliable murder problem.

Leslie Langtry's entries in the series follow Nani Johnson.

Nani arrives with a solid hook of her own. She moved from the Midwest to Kauai hoping to build a life around music, especially the ukulele, and to manage the unpredictable presence of her eccentric mother in the bargain. That already gives the books a slightly off-center rhythm. Nani is not a police officer or seasoned detective. She is a working musician trying to find her footing in a beautiful place that keeps refusing to stay peaceful.

In Ukulele Murder, competition in the local music scene turns ugly when one of Nani's rivals dies and suspicion lands on her. In Ukulele Deadly, things have not exactly calmed down. A dead man tied to her hometown turns up in her backyard, and once again Nani and her mother are much too close to the crime. Those plots capture what Langtry brings to the larger series, a comic voice, a heroine with ordinary goals, and a knack for dropping her straight into chaotic circumstances.

The setting does real work in these books. Kauai is not just there to look pretty. The island's local scene, visitor economy, tight social circles, and contrasts between postcard beauty and private stress all feed the mysteries. Even the smaller details, gigs, chapels, local celebrities, hometown ties, and neighborhood gossip, help ground the crimes in a specific world.

Because Aloha Lagoon is a multi-author series, the town itself acts like the through-line. Different books follow different leads, but there is a shared sense of place and tone. Langtry's Nani books fit comfortably inside that framework while still sounding like Langtry, funny, brisk, and willing to let family chaos sit right next to a murder investigation.

So if you want a tropical cozy with a little more musical flavor, a heroine who is trying to reinvent herself, and a setting that feels bright even when things go badly, this is a good branch of Langtry's work to explore. It is mystery as vacation reading, except the vacation keeps tripping over corpses.