Cat McKenzie Books in Order

The Cat McKenzie books drop you into a version of urban fantasy that moves fast, talks smart, and never lets its heroine get too comfortable. Cat starts the series as a rookie cop whose first day goes spectacularly wrong. After tragedy on the job, she is pushed into the Paranormal Investigative Group, where the cases are stranger, the coworkers are less human, and her old ideas about the supernatural stop being useful very quickly.

Cat is the engine of the whole thing. She is sharp-tongued, stubborn, scared more often than she wants to admit, and funny in the way people get when sarcasm is doing part of the emotional heavy lifting. Because the books stay close to her point of view, the series feels quick and personal even when the cases get big. You are learning the rules of the world when she is, and that makes the supernatural side feel lively instead of overexplained.

Her partner matters a lot too. Sawyer is one of those supernatural heroes who shows up already dangerous, competent, and hard to ignore, which is exactly the sort of thing Cat does not need. Their relationship is one of the main threads running through the series. It never fully takes over the books, but the tension, distrust, attraction, and gradual loyalty between them give the cases a lot more weight.

Cat talks first and worries later.

Each book has its own main investigation, which helps the series keep a good procedural rhythm. Bad Vampire opens with baby vampires causing havoc. Bad Witch pulls Cat into murder and black magic. Bad Fae leans into fae politics and revenge. Bad Wolf brings in shifter killings and pack trouble. Bad Kitty goes darker with linked murders and an underground fight club. The exact monster problem changes, but the shape of the appeal stays steady: a human heroine trying to keep up with a dangerous magical world that keeps getting weirder.

The setting matters because this is not just fantasy wallpaper. Dawes builds a city where supernatural politics spill into police work, criminal investigations, clubs, neighborhoods, and hidden corners of daily life. Humans and supernaturals are forced into uneasy overlap, and Cat ends up stuck right in the middle of that friction. That gives the books a nice mix of case-of-the-week energy and larger world-building.

The tone is probably the biggest hook. These are not cozy mysteries, and the violence can be real, but the books still have bounce. The banter is lively, Cat's inner voice is entertaining, and even grim situations usually move with purpose instead of gloom. If you like urban fantasy with a mouthy heroine, a strong romantic thread, and enough monster chaos to keep things messy, this series delivers that balance really well.

It is best read in order. Cat changes, her relationships deepen, and the later books land better when you have watched her stumble, adapt, and get sharper one disaster at a time.