Denise Swanson Books in Order

Returning to Scumble River as the new school psychologist, Skye Denison hopes to keep a low profile. Then a local celebrity turns up dead during festival season, and evidence points straight at her brother Vince.

... And the Dying is Easy is a summer-themed mystery anthology that includes Denise Swanson's Scumble River story Not a Monster of a Chance. It is a quick side trip for readers who want an early extra case.

When Skye's grandmother dies in her sleep, everyone calls it natural causes except Skye. Her doubts lead her into family secrets, small-town resentments, and a murder case that feels far too close to home.

A popular teen cast as Sleeping Beauty in the school play is found dead, and Skye starts asking hard questions. The investigation exposes ugly rivalries and shocking secrets behind Scumble River's polished public faces.

Trying to widen her social circle, Skye joins a local club and stumbles into a very public double murder. The victims looked perfect from the outside, but their glossy life hid more enemies than anyone guessed.

Skye's personal life is already tangled when another murder shakes Scumble River. As gossip swirls and loyalties shift, she has to sort out which familiar face is hiding the most dangerous secrets.

When Skye's brother helps launch a band called Pink Elephant, the attention quickly turns ugly. A stalker, a murder, and growing suspicion around Vince send Skye digging for the truth.

Skye organizes a huge yard sale that brings crowds, complaints, and no shortage of bad behavior. When her former boss is murdered, the event turns from community fun to a hunt for a killer.

Skye hires charming contractor Beau Hamilton to renovate the old house she inherited, even though his reputation worries her. When Beau ends up dead, she has to untangle desire, deceit, and a long list of women with reasons to hate him.

A Thanksgiving weekend at a new health spa sounds miserable enough before murder enters the schedule. Trapped among beauty treatments and forced togetherness, Skye has to figure out who turned relaxation into homicide.

Skye enters a high-profile cooking challenge and expects kitchen nerves, not a corpse in a chocolate fountain. With tempers flaring and rival contestants everywhere, she has to solve a very messy culinary murder.

During a Halloween fundraiser, pushy prom chair Annette Paine is found dead in a witch costume identical to Skye's. Suddenly the biggest question is whether the killer meant to strike Annette, or Skye herself.

Skye heads to California to help with her cousin's over-the-top wedding and winds up juggling far more than flowers and seating charts. When the wedding planner is murdered, every guest becomes a possible suspect.

A new bookstore should be a dream addition to Scumble River, until Skye finds a body crushed by a bookcase. To catch the killer, she has to read past the town's polite surface and into its darker chapters.

Plans for a country music theater promise big change for Scumble River, right up until a singer is murdered. Skye's search for answers leads into old grudges, buried history, and a very long memory for scandal.

At Bunny's spring break bash, a glamorous former showgirl named Ruby arrives with trouble close behind. After vandalism, fire, and growing fear at the bowling alley, Skye starts digging into the secrets Ruby won't share.

Dev Sinclair hopes opening an old-fashioned dime store in Shadow Bend will give her a fresh start. Instead, the murder of her ex's fiancee puts her at the center of suspicion almost immediately.

Bunny Reid's cat show and speed-dating weekend brings strangers pouring into town and chaos to the bowling alley. When a judge is strangled with a cat toy, Skye has to sort through plenty of claws-out suspects.

Working as a summer lifeguard, Skye thinks the season will be quiet until a drowning victim seems to vanish. Rumors of the Scumble River Monster spread fast, but the truth may be even stranger.

Just days before her wedding to Wally, Skye has to deal with the murder of Scumble River's sexy new librarian. Between holiday chaos and a growing suspect list, her happy ending starts to look worryingly fragile.

A deal on antique chocolate molds turns sour when the seller is shot and Dev's friend Boone is blamed. To clear him, Dev has to pry into divorce drama, hidden ownership, and Easter-season greed.

Dev opens her store to a local book club and expects good publicity, not a dead poet outside the door. Saving her business means solving the case before the killer turns the final page on her.

Skye and Wally's honeymoon cruise goes badly off course when a knitting expert is stabbed and Skye becomes a prime suspect. Even at sea, Scumble River trouble somehow manages to tag along.

Recent widow and former reporter Stephanie Danielson is living with her mother in a 55-plus community when a run-in with the developer ends badly. Once the man turns up dead, Stephanie becomes the police's favorite suspect.

Stephanie has barely settled into teaching and life in her mother's retirement community when holiday rules spark a residents' revolt. Then the hated HOA president is murdered, and Stephanie starts asking questions.

Hosting a cupcake contest seems like great fun until a contestant's assistant dies before the first batch is even finished. Dev has to uncover old sins and present-day sabotage before someone else gets iced.

After a broken engagement, cruise critic Darcy Simons boards a luxury ship planning to change her luck and maybe her love life. Then Captain Mitch James makes the trip far more complicated than a simple review.

Delaney Smallwood never expected a birthday lottery ticket from her long-absent father to change her life. New money throws her closer to cynical attorney Spencer DeWitt, and their chemistry is harder to ignore than ever.

A fresh case pulls Skye into another knot of secrets, suspects, and bookish clues just when life should be settling down. In Scumble River, even an open book can hide plenty.

Feminist author Sheridan Davis returns to Sutton Falls to care for her estranged father and runs straight into Ridge Sutton. Old hurts, stubborn pride, and fresh attraction make home feel dangerous in unexpected ways.

Special education teacher Lucy Wheeler is tired of being the sweet one everyone takes for granted. When her old feelings for Reverend Curt Campbell flare again, a second chance suddenly looks possible and risky.

Dev is thrilled when a donor offers to reopen Shadow Bend's library, until she learns the man is tied to her long-lost mother. When he ends up dead, family history becomes impossible to avoid.

Back at work and trying pet therapy with some difficult students, Skye already has enough on her plate. Then a notoriously cranky school board member turns up dead, and the suspect list grows just as fast as the town's gossip.

Venture capitalist Deanna Sloan is sent to assess celebrity chef Nico Thorne's business and expects to stay cool and professional. Their attraction, and Deanna's old insecurities about power, looks, and appetite, make that difficult.

A tornado tears through Scumble River and leaves the town reeling, but the storm is only the start. When councilman Zeke Lyons seems to have died in the disaster and Wally disappears investigating, Skye knows something is very wrong.

Dev gets pulled into a case involving a missing philanthropist's wife and a bitter fight over a proposed wildlife park. The deeper she digs, the wilder Shadow Bend starts to feel.

Wildlife veterinarian Sage DeSantis lives for the animals in her care, not romance. When nightclub manager Marco Thorne wants exotic animals for a Las Vegas venue, sparks and arguments fly in equal measure.

While Scumble River struggles to rebuild, a bombing at the bowling alley kills an insurance inspector who had plenty of angry enemies. On maternity leave with newborn twins, Skye still can't stay out of the investigation.

Dani Sloan inherits a huge old house in a college town and turns it into the base for her new Chef-to-Go business. Her fresh start sours fast when a boarder's friend is murdered and Dani becomes a suspect.

After losing her job and fleeing a deranged ex, Lexie Green takes refuge in a strange inheritance from a great-aunt she never knew. Echo Springs, Kansas, comes with magic, a candy store, and a murder tied to her own past.

Skye tries to balance work, marriage, and life with young twins when another death throws Scumble River into turmoil. The investigation sends her and Wally back into a tangle of secrets, suspects, and small-town pressure.

Orientation week at Normalton University brings Dani plenty of hungry students, but also carjackings, a murder, and rumors of a creature in the campus pond. Business and sleuthing collide once again for Chef-to-Go.

Dani lands a huge catering job for a wealthy man's engagement party, only to watch the celebration turn deadly. With the bride murdered and tensions everywhere, she has to keep her business alive and her head clear.

Skye's first day back after maternity leave brings a school lockdown, her godfather's arrest, and a dead superintendent. The case quickly turns personal, complicated, and impossible for her and Wally to ignore.

A new death pulls Dev into a mystery tangled up with buried secrets and the long memory of Shadow Bend. To find the truth, she has to dig into the past before the danger settles over her store.

Normalton heats up when the Route 66 Rally's Chili Challenge rolls into town and Dani enters the competition. Sabotage, local outrage, and murder force her to chase clues while trying to keep the contest from exploding.

Frannie and Justin return to Scumble River to get married, but the wedding week doesn't stay peaceful for long. Old trouble, fresh chaos, and a homicide from the past stir everything up at once.