Erica Spindler Books in Order
See the Erica Spindler thrillers in order, with book lists, series notes, summaries, and background on her romantic suspense novels for readers who enjoy Alex Kava–style crime fiction.
Last updated: December 24, 2025
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Publication Order
42 books
The Detective’s Daughter
by Erica Spindler
2022
New Orleans detective Quinn Conners has never forgiven herself for dismissing her father’s drunken claim that he solved the Hudson kidnapping, only to find him dead the next day. An anonymous message insisting he did not kill himself pulls Quinn into a cold case and a powerful family’s secrets that could cost her life.
The Look-Alike
by Erica Spindler
2020
Raised in the shadow of her mother’s paranoia, Sienna Scott returns home years after stumbling onto a college‑town murder. Old fears that she—not the victim—was the killer’s intended target resurface, and as new threats close in she must decide whether she is losing her grip on reality or finally seeing the truth.
Fallen Five
by Erica Spindler
2018
When a millionaire developer leaps from his new luxury hotel on opening night, detectives Micki Dare and Zach Harris suspect more than suicide. A mysterious package from Micki’s long‑dead mentor and echoes of an old, unsolved murder reveal a dark force stalking New Orleans—and targeting the Lightkeepers themselves.
The Other Girl
by Erica Spindler
2017
Officer Miranda Rader has rebuilt her life from a troubled teen in rural Louisiana to a respected cop. A ritualistic murder of a beloved college professor drags her back into the secrets of a night no one believed, and when evidence points toward her, Miranda must clear her name and stop a killer.
Random Acts
by Erica Spindler
2017
Rookie New Orleans detective Micki Dare is called to a Garden District mansion where a former Carnival queen has been beaten to death with her own scepter. Three bizarre, seemingly unrelated acts of violence nag at Micki’s instincts, leading her toward an unseen evil that will shape her future as a Lightkeeper.
Triple Six
by Erica Spindler
2016
Miraculously healed from a near‑fatal injury, Micki Dare returns to duty with Zach Harris and is thrown into a series of brutal home invasions. Witness accounts, sleeping guard dogs and attackers branded with a pattern of sixes point to a familiar supernatural enemy bent on striking those closest to Micki.
The Final Seven
by Erica Spindler
2016
New Orleans detective Micki Dare is furious to be saddled with Zach “Hollywood” Harris, a young agent from an experimental federal program. When college women vanish and the number seven is carved into a victim’s door, their uneasy partnership collides with a terrifying evil that suggests something more than human at work.
The First Wife
by Erica Spindler
2015
Newlywed Bailey Browne wakes in a hospital with a head injury and no memory of the accident—or of the missing days before it. Back at her husband’s isolated estate, whispers about his first wife’s disappearance and a string of misfortunes make Bailey wonder if she has married a savior or a predator.
The Starling Project: An Audible Drama
by Erica Spindler
2014
Created directly for audio, this full‑cast drama follows war‑crimes investigator Harold Middleton as he tracks the flow of illicit fuel money and a shadowy figure called Starling. With cinematic sound and quick scene changes, the story delivers Deaver’s twists through performances instead of pages.
Justice for Sara
by Erica Spindler
2013
At seventeen, Katherine McCall woke to find her sister Sara murdered and herself named the prime suspect. A decade after her acquittal, still haunted by doubt and anonymous hate mail, Kat returns to small‑town Louisiana to uncover the real killer, teaming with a wary local detective who may be her only ally.
Watch Me Die
by Erica Spindler
2011
Before Hurricane Katrina, stained‑glass artist Mira Gallier had a thriving business and a loving husband whose body was never found in the storm. Years later, church windows she restored are defaced, a priest is murdered and cryptic messages point toward Mira, forcing her to question her sanity as a obsessed killer closes in.
Slices of Night
by Alex Kava
2011
This collaborative novella follows three investigators in three cities, all circling the same elusive predator. In Alex Kava’s section, FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell hunts a killer targeting homeless people in Omaha, racing to catch him before he slips away to claim another victim elsewhere.
Blood Vines
by Erica Spindler
2010
San Francisco therapist Alexandra Clarkson is plagued by terrifying, ritual‑tinged visions she cannot explain. After her mother’s suicide, she learns of a long‑ago missing baby in her family’s former Sonoma vineyard, and joins detective Daniel Reed in investigating old bones, buried scandals and a killer who still has unfinished business.
The Copper Bracelet
by Erica Spindler
2009
Harold Middleton and the Volunteers return when a terrorist plot involving “heavy water” and a mysterious copper bracelet threatens to ignite conflict in South Asia. As different thriller authors take turns advancing the story, Middleton races across continents to identify a faceless mastermind known only as the Scorpion.
Breakneck
by Erica Spindler
2008
A string of seemingly wholesome young victims are dying in Illinois, linked by secrets hidden in the online world. Detectives Kitt Lundgren and M.C. Riggio race a remorseless killer moving at breakneck speed, even as the case tears at their fragile partnership and drags M.C.’s private life into danger.
The Chopin Manuscript
by Erica Spindler
2007
In this collaborative thriller, conceived and framed by Deaver, former war‑crimes investigator Harold Middleton acquires a rare Chopin score that others are willing to kill for. What seems like a music‑lover’s treasure pulls him into a global chase involving old secrets, new threats and a conspiracy with deadly reach.
Last Known Victim
by Erica Spindler
2007
In Katrina’s aftermath, New Orleans police discover a refrigerator filled with severed right hands, evidence of a killer dubbed the Handyman. Two years later, captain Patti O’Shay finds a skeleton missing its right hand—beside her late husband’s badge—and breaks every rule to unmask a murderer who may have claimed him too.
Killer Takes All
by Erica Spindler
2005
After a friend is brutally murdered in New Orleans, former homicide detective Stacy Killian is drawn into the investigation of White Rabbit, a violent role‑playing game that seems to script real‑world killings. Teaming uneasily with detective Spencer Malone, she must beat a cunning player who believes winning means murder.
See Jane Die
by Erica Spindler
2004
Nearly killed as a teen by a hit‑and‑run boater, sculptor Jane Killian has rebuilt her life and face, and is happily married to a Dallas plastic surgeon. When one of his patients is murdered and Jane is stalked by someone claiming to be her attacker, she must question both her memories and her husband.
In Silence
by Erica Spindler
2003
When journalist Avery Chauvin learns her physician father has died by apparent suicide, she returns to their Louisiana hometown for answers. Whispers of missing neighbors, an old unsolved murder and fresh bloodshed suggest the truth is far darker than depression, and the town’s polite silence may be hiding a killer.
Dead Run
by Erica Spindler
2002
A frantic message from her sister—“I’m in trouble, Liz. They’re watching”—is the last thing Liz Ames hears before Rachel vanishes from Key West. Traveling south to search, Liz finds a banker’s suicide, a murdered teen and echoes of a notorious serial killer, forcing her to trust a jaded ex‑cop with his own scars.
Bone Cold
by Erica Spindler
2001
As a girl, Harlow Grail was kidnapped and mutilated by a madman, then escaped and built a new life as thriller writer Anna North. When a disturbed fan, a string of murders and familiar mutilations surface in New Orleans, Anna and detective Quentin Malone must confront the nightmare she never outran.
Copycat
by Erica Spindler
2000
Five years ago the Sleeping Angel Killer murdered three girls and posed them like little angels, a case that nearly destroyed detective Kitt Lundgren. When similar killings begin again, Kitt suspects a copycat—and then the original killer contacts her with a chilling offer to help catch his imitator.
All Fall Down
by Erica Spindler
2000
Small‑town cop Melanie May sees a pattern where others see accidents: men in and around Charlotte dying in bizarre mishaps. Convinced a serial killer is targeting those who escaped justice, she risks her career to draw in a troubled FBI profiler and hunt a murderer nobody else believes exists.
Cause for Alarm
by Erica Spindler
1999
Kate and Richard Ryan seem to have it all—money, status and a beautiful adopted baby girl. But their child’s troubled birth mother is hiding from a contract killer, and her obsession with the Ryans draws a deadly professional back into their orbit, turning parenthood into a fight for survival.
Shocking Pink
by Erica Spindler
1998
As teenagers, Andie, Julie and Raven secretly watched a glamorous couple play dangerous sexual games, until the woman they called Mrs. X was murdered. Fifteen years later someone is stalking Andie, forcing the three women to revisit what they really saw and what loyalty is worth when lives are at stake.
Fortune
by Erica Spindler
1997
Skye Dearborn has three wishes: to learn the truth about her mysterious past, to find the mother she lost and to be loved. A sudden change in fortune seems to grant them all, until disturbing cracks in her new life suggest someone has been scripting her future for darker reasons.
Forbidden Fruit
by Erica Spindler
1996
In New Orleans, the powerful Pierron women have built a fortune on carefully managed sin. When an outsider begins digging into the secrets of three generations, buried scandals and dangerous obsessions rise to the surface, and exposing the truth could cost him—and them—everything.
Slow Heat
by Erica Spindler
1995
Television film critic Jill Lansing has finally sold her idea for a women‑focused movie‑review show, her big chance at a serious career. Teaming with thrill‑seeking cohost Jack Jacobs means instant sparks on‑screen and off, and Jill must decide whether risking her heart is worth the ratings.
Red
by Erica Spindler
1995
Becky Lynn Lee grows up on the wrong side of the tracks in Mississippi, dreaming of escape from an abusive home. In Los Angeles she reinvents herself in the cutthroat world of high‑fashion photography, but success brings new betrayals and forces her to confront the past she thought she’d outrun.
Baby, Come Back
by Erica Spindler
1994
Twelve years after widower Hayes Bradford broke her heart, Alice Dougherty is stunned when he appears on her sofa asking for advice about his now‑grown son. Drawn back into the family she once almost joined, Alice must decide whether she can forgive the past and believe in a future together.
Tempting Chance
by Erica Spindler
1993
Artist Elizabeth Waters dreams of becoming sophisticated and fearless, leaving her shy past behind. When a man who seems her total opposite pushes her to take real creative and emotional risks, she learns that the bravest canvas might be her own guarded heart.
Night Jasmine
by Erica Spindler
1993
Hunter Powell long ago gave up on being a husband and father, convinced he is not built for family life. Aimee Bourdeaux once tried to prove him wrong and got burned. When circumstances throw them together again, they must decide whether heartbreak is a reason to walk away or start over.
Magnolia Dawn
by Erica Spindler
1993
Haunted by questions about his past, Rush Cousins heads to Ashland Plantation disguised as a handyman, hoping to uncover long‑buried secrets. Instead he falls for Annabelle Ames, the estate’s lonely mistress, and must choose between exposing the truth and protecting the fragile new life they are building.
A Winter's Rose
by Erica Spindler
1993
Rugged single father Jackson Reese has every reason to distrust society princesses. When pampered Bentley Cunningham arrives as his daughter’s latest sitter, her warmth and determination slowly soften them both, forcing Jackson to question whether he can risk his guarded heart one more time.
Baby Mine
by Erica Spindler
1992
A couple who have waited forever to adopt finally reach the top of the list just as their marriage is falling apart. Pretending to stay together long enough to qualify, they begin to rediscover what being a family might mean for both of them and the child they hope to welcome.
Wishing Moon
by Erica Spindler
1991
Practical environmental advocate Lance Alexander is searching for the perfect, no‑nonsense wife. Fund‑raiser Madi Muldoon wants motherhood without marriage and treats romance as a joke. Working together on his sea‑turtle charity, a wish under a full moon changes everything, forcing them to face what they truly want.
Longer Than...
by Erica Spindler
1991
Ten years after bad‑boy Ryder Hayes left town and broke her heart, Jennifer Joyce is stunned to see him return as a powerful man who can decide Hazelhurst’s future. Determined not to be hurt again, she vows to fight him in public and ignore their unfinished business in private.
Rhyme or Reason
by Erica Spindler
1990
Order‑loving Boston physician and single father Dr. Walker Ridegeman believes in schedules and control. Alex Clare is a carefree red‑head with a wide‑open heart who overturns his neatly ordered world, challenging him to trade rules and regret for forgiveness and a second chance at love.
Read Between the Lines
by Erica Spindler
1989
Professor Katherine Reed’s research on cohabitation needs real‑world data, so she takes a male roommate to observe. She never expects sexy bad boy Michael Tardo, the man who once broke her heart, to volunteer, or that sharing close quarters will rekindle everything she tried to forget.
Chances Are
by Erica Spindler
1989
Reckless New Orleans heiress Veronique Delacroix loves shocking polite society, but her wild image hides old wounds. A dangerous dare from disciplined businessman Brandon Rhodes links them through a buried act of deceit, forcing both to risk their hearts as well as their reputations.
Heaven Sent
by Erica Spindler
1988
Ambitious Jessica Mann is determined to prove she can run her father’s Los Angeles ad agency, leaving no room for distractions. When free‑spirited Clay Jones crashes into her well‑planned life, she must decide whether success without love is really enough.
Where should I start?
If you want her classic romantic suspense: Shocking Pink → Cause for Alarm → Bone Cold
If you prefer a detective series arc: See Jane Die → Killer Takes All → Last Known Victim → Watch Me Die
If you like supernatural crime thrillers: Random Acts → The Final Seven → Triple Six → Fallen Five
If you want twisty standalones: Justice for Sara → The First Wife → The Other Girl → The Look-Alike → The Detective’s Daughter
If you’re curious about her early romances: Chances Are → Read Between the Lines → Rhyme or Reason → Wishing Moon → Tempting Chance
Author bio
Erica Spindler was born in Illinois and grew up in Rockford, a Midwestern childhood that did not immediately point toward crime fiction. For years she planned on being an artist, not a novelist, filling sketchbooks instead of notebooks and imagining gallery walls rather than bookshelves.
She followed that plan for quite a while. Spindler earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Delta State University and then a Master of Fine Arts in visual arts from the University of New Orleans. She painted, taught, and built a life in Louisiana, where the heat, music, and layered history of New Orleans would later seep into her fiction.
Then came the cold that changed everything.
In June 1982, stuck in bed and tired of daytime television, she picked up a paperback romance purely for distraction. The escape worked a little too well. By the time she turned the last page she was hooked, not just on reading but on the idea of trying to write one herself. That impulse nudged her away from the easel and toward the keyboard.
Her early books were contemporary romances, including the Opposites Attract novels and the Blossoms of the South miniseries. Those stories leaned into mismatched couples, Southern settings and emotional second chances, themes that still echo through her work. They also gave Spindler a crash course in pacing, character and tension, lessons she carried with her when her stories began to darken.
In 1996 she made a decisive shift with Forbidden Fruit, moving from pure romance into romantic suspense. Soon came books like Red and Shocking Pink, where dangerous secrets and past trauma sit just beneath the glossy surfaces of fashion shoots or teenage dares. Readers responded to the mix of heart and menace, and Spindler found herself more and more drawn to stories where crime, psychology and relationships are impossible to separate.
From there she leaned fully into crime fiction. Standalones such as Bone Cold, Dead Run and In Silence follow journalists, doctors and ordinary women pulled into investigations that turn their lives inside out. Her Stacy Killian novels track a former homicide detective through cases that connect Dallas art studios, New Orleans streets and the online subcultures of dark, immersive games. Across series, Spindler tends to return to the same questions: what people will do to protect their families, how old wounds warp present choices, and how hard it is to tell who can be trusted when everything is on the line.
More recently she has played at the border of crime and the supernatural with the Lightkeepers books, beginning with The Final Seven and continuing through Triple Six and Fallen Five. Those novels pair New Orleans detective Micki Dare with Zach Harris, a partner whose uncanny instincts hint at something otherworldly, and pit them against evil that cannot be explained by forensics alone.
Along the way Spindler’s work has picked up a shelf of recognition. Bone Cold received the Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence in mystery and suspense. She has been a four‑time finalist for the RITA Award, is on the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll, and has earned Kiss of Death honors for both Forbidden Fruit and Dead Run. The audio edition of Shocking Pink was singled out as one of the year’s best mystery recordings and awarded a Listen Up Award. Her books have been translated into many languages, and Red even made the jump to manga and daytime television in Japan.
Today Spindler lives just outside New Orleans with her husband, an advertising executive, and their two sons. She still loves the city’s moody streets and storm‑heavy skies, and New Orleans remains a frequent backdrop in her fiction. Away from the page she has a weakness for coffee, chocolate and red wine, and she is known for an easy laugh and a dry, slightly wicked sense of humor when she meets readers at events or online.
At this point in her career she has written more than thirty novels, but the core of her work remains the same: ordinary people, often women, facing extraordinary danger and finding out what they are capable of when the past refuses to stay buried.
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