Detective Conor Reid Books in Order

The Detective Conor Reid books shift Luanne Rice’s coastal world toward crime fiction while keeping her usual focus on families and long friendships. Conor is a Connecticut detective who never quite lets go of the people he has promised to protect.

In Last Day he is still haunted by an old art‑gallery robbery that left two little girls bound to their mother as she died. Decades later one of those sisters is murdered and the same painting disappears again. Conor works alongside the surviving sister and their childhood friends to untangle a case that mixes domestic violence, greed, and the wounds of the original crime.

The Shadow Box moves the spotlight to artist Claire Beaudry Chase, who is attacked in her seaside home just before an exhibit that quietly accuses her well‑connected husband of a violent act. Conor leads the official investigation while Claire uses her art, her knowledge of the shoreline, and a small network of allies to stay ahead of people who would rather see her silenced.

In Last Night, a blizzard traps guests and staff inside a grand Rhode Island hotel after the body of a celebrated artist is found in the snow and her young daughter goes missing. Conor, his Coast Guard commander brother Tom, and the victim’s sister dig through glamorous surfaces to expose grudges that have been building for years.

Across the series, the tone is more overtly suspenseful than in Rice’s earlier novels, but the same elements are still there coastal weather, old houses, friends who might as well be family. You can read the books as standalones, yet starting with Last Day lets you follow Conor’s relationships and obsessions as they deepen from case to case.