Detective Matthias Honeywell Mysteries Books in Order

The Detective Matthias Honeywell books move Annette Dashofy from rural Pennsylvania to Erie, where the shoreline, old neighborhoods, and working-city atmosphere give the series a different feel from Zoe Chambers. These are police procedurals first, but they keep a close eye on the people caught in the middle. The result is a series that feels a little tougher, a little colder, and still very interested in trust, history, and what people are running from.

Matthias Honeywell is an Erie City police detective, serious, persistent, and not especially quick to let people in. He does not work alone, though. His partner, Cassie Malone, is a steady presence in the investigations, and freelance photographer Emma Anderson quickly becomes central to both the cases and the larger emotional arc of the series. Emma first comes to Erie trying to escape a stalker-filled past while searching for her missing sister, so from the start the books connect public crimes with private fear.

Lake Erie matters here.

The setting is not just backdrop. The rocky shore, early mist, abandoned spaces, quiet residential streets, and shifting weather give these stories a cool, uneasy mood. Dashofy uses the city well, from crime scenes near the water to neighborhoods where everyone seems to know a piece of the story but not the whole thing. Erie feels big enough for danger to hide and small enough for the fallout to land close to home.

Across the series, the cases lean toward high-pressure investigations: home invasions that turn to murder, decomposed bodies in forgotten buildings, double homicides, snipers, kidnappings, and old grudges that refuse to stay buried. Matthias and Cassie handle the official police work, but Emma is never just standing at the edges. As a photographer, and later a crime beat journalist, she often ends up close to the action, sometimes closer than is safe, and her personal ties can open doors detectives cannot easily reach.

That closeness is what gives the series its pull.

Alongside the investigations, Dashofy builds an ongoing relationship between Matthias and Emma that starts with suspicion and slowly hardens into trust. Both characters carry damage, and the books do not rush them past it. Family trouble, professional boundaries, and the danger surrounding Emma's sister keep the personal stakes alive even when a case seems separate at first. Cassie also becomes more than a supporting cop, adding backbone, sharp judgment, and a welcome steadiness when everything else gets messy.

If you like mysteries with solid procedure, a strong sense of place, and character relationships that grow under pressure, this series has a lot to offer. Erie gives the books a fresh texture, less rolling farmland, more cold water, concrete, and city shadows. People in these stories are always carrying something. The question is whether it is grief, guilt, or the truth.