Anna Smith & Nick Dade Thrillers Books in Order

The Anna Smith and Nick Dade books show a more suspenseful side of Gemma Halliday's writing. The series centers on Anna Smith, whose ordinary name hides a dangerous past. Before becoming Anna, she was Anya Danielovich, a woman trained by a Yugoslavian intelligence agency and used to surviving by skills most people never need.

In Play Nice, Anna is trying to live quietly in California when her past catches up with her. Nick Dade knows enough about Anya to understand that she is in danger, but he has reasons of his own for staying close. Their partnership begins with suspicion, sharp edges, and the knowledge that neither of them is telling the whole truth.

This is not a cozy mystery world. The stakes are higher, the threats are more direct, and Anna's history shapes every decision she makes. Halliday still keeps the prose moving and gives the central relationship room to develop, but the tone is darker than the High Heels or Wine & Dine books.

Anna wants a future that is not controlled by the life she escaped. That goal becomes harder as old enemies, hidden loyalties, and violent people reappear. Nick is both a possible ally and another question Anna has to solve, which gives their scenes a steady tension.

The series works as romantic suspense and as a thriller. Readers get action, evasions, and a heroine capable of defending herself, but also the gradual question of whether Anna can trust anyone enough to build a different life.

Anna's past is not finished with her.

The best place to begin is Play Nice, originally published under that title and later republished as Play Dead. It introduces Anna and Nick, their uneasy connection, and the dangerous history that drives the series.

Readers who enjoy Halliday's quick pace but want less comedy and more danger will find this a useful change of pace. It keeps her interest in capable women and complicated relationships, then raises the consequences considerably.