Dawn Lee McKenna Books in Order
Find Dawn Lee McKenna books in order, with complete series lists, short summaries, background notes, and tips on where to start reading.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
17 books
See You
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2014
Emma has loved Jack since childhood, but life moved on until he returns to Alabama with news that time is short. His plan may give them happiness, even if it cannot last.
Dead Wake
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2015
After two florists uncover a long-hidden body inside a shop wall, Maggie Redmond is pulled into a decades-old mystery. The cold case brings dark history into the middle of Apalachicola’s everyday bustle.
Landfall
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2015
As a hurricane bears down on Apalachicola, Maggie and her children are held prisoner by a man seeking revenge. With no one coming to help, they must survive the danger inside and outside.
Low Tide
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2015
Lt. Maggie Redmond investigates an apparent suicide on St. George Island, but she has a hidden connection to the dead man. His powerful uncle, Bennett Boudreaux, soon pulls Maggie into dangerous emotional waters.
Riptide
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2015
A fisherman hauls up a severed foot, reopening questions about Gregory Boudreaux’s death. Maggie must balance the investigation, her secrets, Wyatt’s trust, and her growing fascination with Bennett Boudreaux.
What Washes Up
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2015
When bodies wash onto St. George Island and a man is found tied to a burning boat, Maggie faces a grim case. Her suspicions about Bennett Boudreaux force hard questions about justice and revenge.
Awash
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2016
When a young girl is attacked, Maggie Redmond draws on her own trauma to help her. The case shakes her faith in the law, her judgment, and her strange bond with Bennett Boudreaux.
Apparent Wind
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2017
A dead woman is found in an alligator’s jaws, and Maggie discovers her old friend Axel in the victim’s hotel room. To clear him, she must trace Marisol Corzo’s secrets and a dangerous drug connection.
Dead Reckoning
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2017
Evan Caldwell moves to Port St. Joe with his comatose wife nearby, hoping for quiet work as an investigator. When the sheriff is murdered, Evan becomes interim sheriff and uncovers secrets tied to the swamp.
Dead Center
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2018
New sheriff Evan Caldwell investigates the stabbing of Jake Bellamy, a well-liked insurance agent with no obvious enemies. When the killer strikes again, Evan must find the motive before Port St. Joe panics.
Lake Morality
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2018
After Kristen Morgan leaves her baby locked in a car, Maggie Redmond expects anger, not murder. When Kristen’s body is found near Lake Morality, Maggie and Wyatt must untangle depression, lies, and homicide.
Overboard
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2018
Drug dealers dump Maggie Hamilton into the Gulf, forcing her to face a lifelong fear of sharks. As she fights to survive, Wyatt Hamilton and Bennett Boudreaux join a desperate search against time.
Squall Line
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2018
When a beloved officer is shot by a terrified bullied teenager, the whole Panhandle community reels. As videos spread online and two boys go missing, Maggie confronts a case shaped by fear, cruelty, and social media.
Back of the Bayou
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2019
This Forgotten Coast prequel follows Miss Evangeline, a Creole woman who cares for a Cajun boy after his mother is killed. Across the 1950s and 1960s, their bond becomes a lifelong anchor.
Black and White
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2019
In 1973, Jennifer Sheehan returns to Dismal, Florida, as the town’s first female police officer. She wants answers about a racist attack and her mother’s murder, but some locals will kill to keep the past buried.
Dead and Gone
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2019
A routine call about missing shrubbery turns into a murder case for Sheriff Evan Caldwell. When the medical examiner vanishes and then turns up dead, Evan faces two bodies, local politics, and a very difficult cat.
Ebb Tide
by Dawn Lee McKenna
2019
Set four years before Low Tide, Maggie Seward takes her first Franklin County investigator case after elderly Robert French is shot during a possible home robbery. The case tests her instincts while her marriage begins revealing secrets.
Where should I start?
For Apalachicola suspense in order: Low Tide → Riptide → What Washes Up → Landfall.
For a shorter Forgotten Coast entry: Ebb Tide → Back of the Bayou.
For a Port St. Joe police mystery: Dead Reckoning → Dead Center → Dead and Gone.
For 1970s Florida suspense: Black and White.
For Southern love stories: See You.
Author bio
Dawn Lee McKenna was born in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale, and grew up with salt water close by. Her childhood included Florida beach towns, time in the Keys, and even a stretch living aboard a boat with her mother. That early Florida stayed with her.
She started writing seriously as a teenager. For a long time, though, writing was something she fitted around the rest of life: children, jobs, money pressure, and the ordinary business of keeping a family going. She later moved to northeastern Tennessee, but the South never left the center of her work.
Before her own name began appearing on covers, McKenna worked as a ghostwriter. She learned how to write quickly, finish projects, and trust the rhythm of a scene. That practical apprenticeship mattered. It gave her the confidence to stop circling the book she wanted to write and finally write it.
Then Apalachicola clicked.
Her first novel, See You, is a Southern love story set in Alabama, built around Emma and Jack, two people who have known each other for years but only understand the depth of that bond when time is short. Readers often remember it for its mix of everyday humor, grief, family, and plainspoken tenderness.
In 2015, Low Tide opened the Forgotten Coast Florida Suspense series and introduced Lt. Maggie Redmond, Sheriff Wyatt Hamilton, and Bennett Boudreaux. The books that followed, including Riptide, What Washes Up, Landfall, and Dead Wake, turned Apalachicola into a living part of the story: shrimp boats, oyster bars, old houses, gossip, heat, storms, and secrets that refuse to stay hidden.
McKenna also co-wrote the Still Waters series with Axel Blackwell. Those books, beginning with Dead Reckoning, move the focus to Port St. Joe and Sheriff Evan Caldwell, a man trying to solve murders while his own life is quietly coming apart. Later, Black and White began the Dismal, Florida series, bringing her small-town suspense into the 1970s and into the long shadow of racial violence.
Her books come back again and again to damaged but stubborn people, dry humor at bad moments, Southern towns that feel lived in, and law officers who carry private pain into public danger. She liked characters who talked, sparred, hid things, loved badly, and kept showing up anyway.
McKenna died on September 25, 2021, after cancer. Her readers still talk about Maggie, Wyatt, Bennett, Miss Evangeline, Jack, Emma, and the Florida places she made feel close enough to visit.
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