Cat and Mouse Books in Order

Cat and Mouse is H. D. Carlton's viral dark romance universe, mixing gothic horror, vigilante justice, and an obsessive love story that runs across multiple books. At its core is the relationship between Adeline Reilly, a successful author, and Zade Meadows, the stalker who decides she is his. Around them, an underground war against human trafficking and occult power turns their romance into a high-stakes battle.

In Haunting Adeline, Adeline moves into her late grandmother's crumbling estate, Parsons Manor, in Washington state. While she works on her writing and digs through old journals about her great-grandmother Gigi's unsolved murder, she realizes someone has been watching her for months. Roses appear, doors are left unlocked, and the anonymous presence circling the house slowly reveals itself as Zade.

Zade runs a covert organization known simply as Z that targets traffickers, corrupt politicians, and members of an occult leaning group called the Society. His chapters sit inside his own moral code, where extreme violence is justified if it saves victims and exposes those in power. The first book lets readers sit uncomfortably in that space, as Adeline's fear, fascination, and attraction collide with his methods.

The companion novella Satan's Affair widens the universe. It follows Sibby, an unhinged survivor of a cult who travels with a Halloween carnival, using a haunted house and a team of masked henchmen as cover while she hunts abusers that wander inside. Her path briefly crosses Zade's, tying her bloody road trip to the larger fight against the Society.

Hunting Adeline picks up after the first book's cliffhanger, when Adeline is taken by traffickers linked to the Society. Much of the story is split between her struggle to endure captivity and plot an escape, and Zade's scorched earth search through safe houses, auctions, and backroom deals to get her back. The trauma of what she survives shapes their dynamic when they finally reunite, shifting the duet from pure chase to revenge and recovery.

Across the series, Carlton leans hard into taboo fantasy, graphic violence, and morally gray choices. The books contain many explicit scenes, frequent depictions of abuse and exploitation, and a stalker hero whose behavior would be unforgivable in real life but is explored on the page as fantasy. Readers who pick up Cat and Mouse tend to appreciate both the intense romance and the unflinching look at trauma, power, and survival.

If you are new to this world, expect a mix of gothic mansion vibes, secret tunnels, cult symbolism, hacker lairs, and found family among the vigilantes. The usual reading path is the novella Satan's Affair followed by Haunting Adeline and Hunting Adeline, which together tell the central story of Adeline and Zade while leaving room for spin offs that revisit side characters and unfinished business.