Brick Lansky Books in Order

Brick Lansky is part of Joanna Campbell Slan's wider Kiki Lowenstein story world, but his books shift the focus from amateur-sleuth cozies to clean, character-driven suspense. Brick is a family man in suburban St. Louis, with a wife, a young son, a rescue dog, and a furniture business he is trying hard to keep alive.

Then the numbers stop adding up.

In All In, Brick discovers that his business partner has been stealing and that the company is deeply in debt. The crisis leaves him with a desperate option: return to the high-stakes poker world he left behind years ago. It is not simply a question of money. Old connections and dangerous people make every decision riskier.

Brick's story is built around responsibility. He loves his family and wants to protect the stability they have made together, but the secret pressures on him threaten that very peace. The series asks what a decent person does when every available choice seems likely to hurt someone.

The stakes are higher here than in a typical cozy.

Poker, debt, organized-crime tension, and the fear of losing a home or family give Brick's story a tauter feel. At the same time, it remains connected to Slan's larger interests: community, faith, second chances, loyal friends, and people trying to do right after making mistakes.

Readers familiar with Kiki's St. Louis will recognize the shared atmosphere, but Brick is his own protagonist. His practical concerns, marriage, fatherhood, business struggles, and past as a card player give this corner of the universe a more domestic-thriller shape.

Start with All In. It is designed as Brick's first standalone adventure, while still rewarding readers who already know the Kiki Lowenstein books.