CW McCoy Books in Order

The CW McCoy series follows Candace "CW" McCoy, a former police officer trying to start over in Spanish Point, Florida. After a traumatic shooting costs her confidence, badge, and old life, she leaves the Northeast for a job selling luxury real estate near the Gulf Coast. She also has a family responsibility close to home: caring for her ailing grandfather, Pap.

Spanish Point looks like a place built for escape. It is wealthy, sunny, crowded with tourists, and full of expensive property. It is also a place where money, ambition, storms, and old grudges can turn dangerous fast. The fictional town draws on the atmosphere of Florida's Sarasota and Bradenton area, which gives the series its mix of beaches, development deals, local politics, and residents who know more than they say.

The series begins with Peak Season, when fugitive financier Bobby Lee Darby forces CW back into investigative work after kidnapping Pap. In Tourist in Paradise, a gunman mistakes her for a wealthy visitor, and attacks on tourists point toward a wider threat. Curb Appeal puts CW in the middle of a murder among rival real estate agents, while hurricanes bear down on the coast.

Paradise has a way of making trouble look presentable.

In Permanent Vacation, rising seas and real estate speculation sit behind another deadly case, and CW must challenge influential people in Spanish Point. Burning Man turns the focus inward. When police arrest a suspect in the long-ago killing of CW's mother and brother, she is forced to revisit the family tragedy that has shadowed her for nearly thirty years.

CW is not a polished, all-knowing detective. She is a former cop with good instincts, a stubborn streak, and a habit of being pulled into situations she would rather avoid. Her friendship with mentor Walter Bishop gives the books a steady center, while her work as an agent keeps her connected to the town's wealthy clients, property disputes, and social pecking order.

These are crime novels with a warm-weather setting and hard-edged problems. Each case has its own mystery, but the books build on CW's efforts to make peace with her past, protect the people she loves, and decide what justice means when official channels are not enough. Start with Peak Season to meet CW at the moment her supposedly quieter life begins to come apart.