Delaney Books in Order

The Delaney books begin with a strong premise: what happens when a private investigator who thought he was finished with the police is dragged straight back into the middle of everything. Vincent Delaney is an ex-cop in New Orleans, smart, bruised, and not especially interested in being told what to do. That makes him a good guide through a story world built on corruption, grief, and bad choices that refuse to stay buried.

At the moment, this page starts with just one Delaney novel, And So It Began.

Even so, the setup is rich enough to feel like the opening move of a much bigger series. Delaney is asked back by his old boss and the FBI when a killer begins targeting children linked to beauty pageants across the American South. That case would be enough on its own, but Mullen does not make life easy for him. Delaney is also dealing with extortion aimed at local shopkeepers, and the people behind it appear to be the police themselves. At the same time, a violent man connected to Delaney's past is out and looking for revenge.

That three-strand structure gives the book a restless, urgent feel. One case is about hunting a predator. One is about rot inside law enforcement. One is personal, angry, and close to home. The tension comes from watching Delaney juggle all three without ever really getting ahead of any of them. He is not a superhero detective. He gets tired, he makes hard calls, and he knows that any mistake can hit the people around him as well as himself.

New Orleans is a big part of the appeal. Mullen uses the city for mood, rhythm, and local pressure, not just scenery. The book leans into the French Quarter, the wider Louisiana setting, and the sense that official power and street power are never as far apart as they should be. There is heat in the background, music in the air, and a lot of history sitting just below the present-day plot. That makes the story feel different from Mullen's Glasgow work while keeping the same interest in loyalty, corruption, and the long shadow of violence.

In tone, Delaney sits somewhere between a PI thriller and a police corruption novel. You get the lone investigator feel, but you also get institutional rot, overlapping cases, and a wider web of pressure than one man can comfortably handle. If you like American-set crime with a battered but capable lead, a strong city atmosphere, and several moving parts that slowly lock together, this is what to expect.

It starts with one book, but it starts loudly.