Baxter and Holt Books in Order

The Baxter and Holt books take Leslie Wolfe's crime writing into Las Vegas, which turns out to be a very good fit. These are police procedurals, but they are also city books, full of hotels, casino floors, political ambition, money, surveillance cameras, and the feeling that somebody is always performing for somebody else. At the center are Detectives Laura Baxter and Jack Holt, two strong personalities who do not naturally work as a pair, which is exactly why the pairing works.

Baxter is British, stylish, and used to reading a room fast. Holt is American, tougher around the edges, and just as stubborn. They are both used to working alone, and the series gets a lot of energy from watching them learn how to trust each other without really lowering their guard. Wolfe is upfront about the tension: these two would trust each other with their lives, just not with their darkest secrets. That ongoing push and pull gives the trilogy more than a simple case-of-the-book structure.

Vegas is not just scenery here. It is motive.

Las Vegas Girl opens with the murder of a young girl in a luxury hotel, in a city covered by witnesses and cameras, and still full of blind spots. Casino Girl moves deeper into the world of high rollers, dancers, and hidden flights, where the right secret can buy silence or start a killing spree. Las Vegas Crime raises the stakes again with a school kidnapping and a trail that leads out into the Mojave Desert. Across all three books, the crimes are tied to the city's mix of glamour, corruption, and people who think money can outrun consequence.

The tone is fast and glossy on the surface, but the undercurrent is darker. These are books about what power looks like when it thinks nobody can touch it. They also make good use of the desert itself. Las Vegas is bright and crowded, but just beyond it is open space, isolation, and the sense that a person can vanish very quickly.

Nothing stays buried for long in a city built on spectacle.

Because the series is only three books long, it is easy to get into and easy to finish. Start with Las Vegas Girl and read straight through. If you like detective duos with friction, chemistry, and complicated trust, plus murders set against one of the most artificial and dangerous backdrops in American crime fiction, Baxter and Holt are a strong place to land.