Flynn & Levy Books in Order

Frank Flynn and Christine Levy are not natural partners, which is exactly why these books work. Flynn is an NYPD homicide detective. Levy comes out of Internal Affairs. From the moment they meet over a dead cop, both have reasons to mistrust the other, and DeLee uses that friction to power the whole series.

This is police procedural fiction, but it is never only about procedure. The cases turn on how police departments protect themselves, how city politics shape an investigation, and how hard it can be to find the truth when every witness, every boss, and sometimes every cop has a stake in the answer. New York matters here. The city is crowded, loud, and quick to turn a case into a public spectacle.

The early stories, Cop Shot, Re-Homed, and Policing for Profit, sketch out the partnership in smaller but still sharp cases. A murdered officer, a missing girl, a shadowy re-homing network, and possible corruption tied to asset forfeiture all test Flynn and Levy before they know if they can trust each other at all.

The full novels go bigger. Moral Misconduct turns a murdered officer into a wider look at corruption and an illegal child adoption ring. While the City Burns pushes Flynn and Levy into the fallout from a police shooting and the unrest that follows. Between Truth and Lies raises the temperature again with attacks on police, public anger, and the feeling of a city edging toward chaos.

What makes the series stand out is that neither lead is clean or easy. Flynn has old baggage. Levy does too. They make mistakes, argue, and sometimes doubt each other at exactly the wrong moment. That gives the cases weight. Solving the mystery is only part of the job. Surviving the politics, the press, and the department can be just as hard.

So if you want DeLee at his most procedural, this is the place to go. These books are gritty, city-centered, and full of uneasy alliances. They ask a good crime-fiction question again and again: what do you do when following the rules may not be enough, but breaking them comes with a cost?