Callie McFee Books in Order

The Callie McFee books sit in a more grounded, contemporary part of Conrad's work. Callie is an investigative reporter in Texas, smart, stubborn, and good at following threads other people would rather leave alone. The problem is that the biggest thread in her life is her own family.

Her father is the sort of man who can still change other people's lives with a phone call.

Buddy McFee was once one of the most powerful fixers in Texas, a political operator and behind-the-scenes problem solver who knows where the bodies are buried, sometimes almost literally. By the time these books begin, his reputation is cracked, his judgment is less reliable, and he is hiding early dementia. Callie still loves him, but she no longer fully trusts what he is doing or who he is protecting. That emotional split gives the series its engine.

In The Fixer's Daughter, a brutal case involving a wealthy suspect, a murdered young woman, and disappearing evidence forces Callie to weigh her reporter's instincts against her loyalty to Buddy. In Sins of the Family, what looks like a suicide sends her into the world of glossy wellness branding and buried scandals, while old damage from Buddy's past keeps spilling forward. The mysteries matter on their own, but they always hit the McFee family directly.

The books are not cozy in the tea-shop sense, though Conrad still keeps them readable and fast. Think family drama, corruption, journalism, and suspense, with just enough dry humor to stop the stories from feeling heavy. Callie solves problems by asking questions, reading people, and refusing to accept the easiest explanation. She is not a professional detective, but she is exactly the kind of person murder finds.

Buddy is both her best lead and her biggest liability.

Reading the series in order makes a real difference. Callie's understanding of her father changes from book to book, and the hidden history around him becomes a long-running mystery of its own. If you like stories where the crime scene opens into questions about power, memory, and family loyalty, this is Conrad in a sharper and more personal register. Start with The Fixer's Daughter to meet the McFees at the point where private damage starts turning public.