Bruce Hammack Books in Order

Steve Smiley suspects murder when a friend's death in an exercise pool is dismissed as an accident. Working with inexperienced detective Heather McBlythe, he follows overlooked clues into a case that could restore his career or end his life.

After a hunter is shot amid Christmas shoppers, his adopted daughter asks Steve Smiley and Heather McBlythe to find her birth parents. Their search uncovers family secrets that may explain why her adoptive father was killed.

Texas trooper David Harper has concealed his father's conviction for murdering his mother. When DNA evidence clears his father, David defies orders to investigate, risking his marriage and career as the real killers move against them.

A teaching engagement at a Miami mystery writers' conference offers Steve Smiley an escape from Christmas memories. When a missing organizer and a death expose bitter rivalries, he and Heather McBlythe must identify a killer among storytellers.

A lethal drug spreads through the university where CJ Harper serves as assistant police chief. When the investigation points toward a criminal tied to her past, she must confront old fears while trying to prevent more student deaths.

Campus car thefts become a murder investigation when one of CJ Harper's officers is killed and her chief is hospitalized. Forced into command, she follows organized crime connections into a confrontation that demands more than routine police work.

Serving as executor of a Texas rancher's estate, Steve Smiley confronts a suspicious death and a murdered foreman. Four feuding siblings want the property, and a buried family secret may make Smiley the killer's next target.

On maternity leave, CJ Harper joins the investigation into a local judge's murder. A sniper's attack reveals that she is also a target, forcing her to uncover the connection before a vengeful killer reaches her family.

Steve Smiley's South Padre Island visit turns dangerous when his friend's abusive former husband is found dead in the dunes. Determined to clear her, he follows evidence into corruption and cartel connections that threaten his own safety.

An oil baron hires Steve Smiley to investigate threats tied to an old family feud. When someone else dies inside the tycoon's home, Smiley must untangle generations of hostility before Christmas brings another killing.

Steve Smiley helps a former partner whose career depends on solving an eighty-year-old murder. As he and Heather McBlythe investigate a feud spanning generations, a new killing makes the old case urgently relevant to the present.

Steve Smiley joins an insurance investigator's search for a missing millionaire and suspects a staged death. When evidence points to murder instead, an attack on the man's widow forces him to uncover who is eliminating the family.

Tampered eye drops turn Heather McBlythe's routine appointment into an investigation for her and Steve Smiley. A death at another optometrist's office deepens the mystery, leaving Smiley to navigate conflicting stories when his partner is called away.

A destination wedding takes Steve Smiley to a Caribbean resort where a prospective property buyer is murdered. Asked to help a guest who fears being framed, he investigates competing ambitions before the celebration becomes another tragedy.

Investigating extortion against East Texas loggers, Fen Maguire goes undercover and follows clues to a paintball team. When its leader dies during a match, he must break through the community's silence to uncover a killer.

A drug dealer's body in the Brazos pulls retired sheriff Fen Maguire away from painting and back into investigation. Evidence points toward corruption surrounding his successor, forcing him to confront what has happened to his former county.

Fen Maguire doubts the arrest made after a woman's murder beside the Guadalupe. When a second victim looks remarkably like the first, he must connect their deaths and clear an innocent suspect before public pressure overwhelms the investigation.

While substituting for an art professor, Fen Maguire investigates a broker who vanished after defrauding local residents. A reporter's murder suggests the old scam remains dangerous, but the police resist his efforts to connect the cases.

Steve Smiley and Heather McBlythe arrange an island retreat to expose suspected corporate espionage after an employee is attacked. When the assault becomes a murder case, their staged investigation traps them among increasingly dangerous suspects.

Human remains halt a development project connected to Steve Smiley's partner, and a young construction worker becomes the suspect. Hired to clear him, Smiley investigates old school rivalries and guarded friendships to discover what stayed buried.

With his business partner occupied, Steve Smiley teams up with a dog rejected from police training to investigate a poisoning. An arson attack raises the stakes, suggesting that someone will use violence to keep a larger secret hidden.

With retirement approaching and grief clouding his judgment, Sheriff Fen Maguire investigates a hunter shot in his deer stand. Evidence implicates his own ranch manager, putting an innocent man's freedom and Fen's reputation at risk.

A corpse recovered from the Colorado River interrupts Fen Maguire's search for painting locations. Recruited after a questionable arrest, he poses as an art teacher to sort through local feuds and discover who actually committed the murder.

Fen Maguire investigates a rancher's apparently accidental death in a house fire, only for the man's body to appear elsewhere. With a valuable inheritance dividing the family, another attack turns the inquiry into a race to prevent further killing.

An oil magnate's son is found dead in a Texas monument's reflecting pool, but Steve Smiley questions the official explanations. His investigation uncovers political tensions, environmental disputes, and family secrets surrounding a death others dismiss too quickly.

Fen Maguire discovers a body while sketching beside the Medina River, then helps uncover a second victim. Doubting the case against an arrested suspect, he investigates concealed connections while a powerful grieving father demands answers.

A technology millionaire's body surfaces in a lake shared by two counties, sparking competing police investigations. Fen Maguire must work through jurisdictional disputes and the victim's many enemies to establish where the crime happened and who committed it.

Entertainer Candy Caine seeks Steve Smiley's help after an extortionist calling himself Krampus threatens her life. When the threats become an attack, Smiley and his team must expose the culprit before her Christmas performances turn fatal.

Steve Smiley and Heather McBlythe search for a missing husband so his estranged wife can obtain a divorce. A murdered journalist draws them into Miami's political corruption and cartel money, where their investigation makes them targets.

Posing as an art instructor aboard an Alaskan cruise, Fen Maguire investigates two suspects in a Texas river murder. As their stories unravel, he must identify the killer before the voyage ends and the passengers disperse.

Visiting the Sulphur River to paint, investigator Fen Maguire discovers a deer hunter dead beside her kill. With the sheriff incapacitated, he investigates a ranch where every suspect has a rifle, a motive and a reason to hide the truth.