Family Secrets (Linda Castillo) Books in Order

Family Secrets is a multi author continuity about a shadowy program that created a line of extraordinary siblings and the dangerous fallout years later. Linda Castillo’s books in the miniseries drop readers into that larger world but can be enjoyed on their own, blending high concept conspiracy with grounded, emotional romance.

In her novel originally published as The Phoenix Encounter and later reissued as The Secret Encounter, CIA agent Robert Davidson returns to the war torn country of Rebelia on a mission he knows may cost him his life. Years earlier he saw the woman he loved, journalist Lily Scott, die there in an explosion. When he discovers Lily alive, hiding with a small son and leading an underground newspaper, Robert must confront not only his grief and anger but a brutal regime that wants her silenced.

Lily has spent years risking everything to expose a dictator’s crimes, convinced she had to keep Robert far away to protect him. Their reunion is intense and bitter, but the danger surrounding them forces an uneasy partnership. As soldiers close in and the city erupts in violence, they fight to escape Rebelia with Lily’s child and the evidence that could topple a tyrant.

Uncharted Waters connects back to the wider Family Secrets storyline from a very different angle. Drew Evans is a former navy search and rescue pilot carrying the weight of a failed mission on his conscience. His adopted brother is tied to the genetically engineered “Extraordinary Five,” and Drew has seen firsthand what the secret program cost the people involved. When Alison Myers, his best friend’s widow and the woman he has quietly loved for years, reenters his life with a desperately ill son, old guilt collides with new risk.

Alison never expected to ask Drew for help, but her child’s survival may depend on the strange legacy that surrounds the Extraordinary Five. Their search for answers pulls them into a web of corporate and government interests that would rather erase the past than own up to it, even if that means eliminating witnesses.

Taken together, Castillo’s Family Secrets stories mix intense personal stakes with a slightly larger than life plot. Readers can expect dangerous missions, secret research, found families and couples who have to learn to trust each other in the middle of chaos. Even with the science fiction tint, the heart of these books stays firmly in relationships and the question of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.