Crang Mystery Books in Order

The Crang Mystery novels follow Crang, a Toronto criminal lawyer who has only one name, a quick mouth, and a habit of stepping beyond the usual limits of legal work. He takes on criminal clients, but he is also drawn to the questions nobody else seems eager to answer. That means fraud, blackmail, missing people, murder, and plenty of situations where asking one more question is a bad idea.

Crang is not a police detective, and that is part of the fun. He has legal training, useful contacts, and a willingness to bluff when the facts are thin. He can be impulsive, but he is not a superhero. His investigations tend to begin with a favour, a client problem, or an apparently minor complication, then widen into something more dangerous.

Toronto is central to the early books. Batten uses restaurants, streets, legal offices, newspapers, music, and the city's changing social scene to give the mysteries a lived-in setting. Crang also loves jazz, old movies, and vodka, details that add humour and personality without slowing down the cases. His girlfriend, Annie B. Cooke, is an important presence too, often sharing the banter and sometimes the risks.

The series starts with Crang Plays the Ace, when a request to look into a waste-disposal company's suspicious profits leads Crang toward corporate fraud and murder. Straight No Chaser brings a jazz musician friend and a cocaine-smuggling operation into his orbit. In Riviera Blues, Crang and Annie take a French Riviera holiday that turns into a case involving fraud and death. Blood Count gives the series a more serious edge as Crang tries to prevent further violence after a man seeks revenge for his partner's death.

Then Crang took a long break.

He returned more than two decades later in Take Five, still working Toronto cases and still getting in over his head. The later novels keep the basic formula while moving into newer territory: a marijuana grow-op case, a blackmail attempt aimed at a hip-hop performer, and a literary mystery involving rare books, stolen letters, and a suspect manuscript. The city changes, but Crang's instinct to meddle does not.

These are crime novels with a light, conversational feel, even when the stakes rise. Readers can expect smart talk, legal know-how, side characters who complicate the job, and mysteries that connect crime to everyday ambitions, money, reputation, and loyalty. Start with Crang Plays the Ace for the fullest introduction to Crang and Annie, or pick up Take Five if a later-era return to the character sounds more appealing.