Getaway Bay Books in Order

The Getaway Bay mysteries are Catherine Lee’s lighter crime series, originally published under the name Grace York. They follow Addison Lake, a widow in her fifties who leaves Sydney for the Queensland coastal town where she spent childhood holidays with her cousins. Addison wants a fresh start, a quieter life, and a beach house she can renovate into a welcoming place to live and work.

Naturally, the quiet life does not last.

In Arson at the Art Gallery, Addison has barely settled in when her cousin Layla’s gallery burns down and a body is found in the rubble. Addison is determined to clear Layla’s name, and that first investigation pulls her into the town’s friendships, family tensions, small-business rivalries, and long-held grudges. The beach house soon becomes a center for visitors, boarders, meals, and amateur detecting.

Getaway Bay is a seaside town with a strong sense of community. That warmth is a big part of the series, but it also means everyone knows someone connected to the victim, the suspect, or the latest piece of gossip. Addison works alongside friends and local detective Wilcox, following clues without losing sight of the fact that the people involved still have to live beside one another after the case ends.

The mysteries keep changing the setting. The Body in the Beach House turns Addison’s new boarding house and writer’s retreat into a locked-room murder scene. The Corpse at the Carnival brings a travelling carnival to town, while Death at the Dog Show finds competition and tempers running high at a local event. Later books involve a dead surfer, a funeral that produces an unexpected second body, and a mysterious arrival that unsettles the town.

Food, art, and friendship sit beside the crimes. Addison’s cousin Layla is an artist, and the beach house kitchen is often busy with baked goods and shared meals. The books are cozy mysteries, so the atmosphere stays more companionable than grim even when a murder interrupts the day. There are suspects, secrets, and danger, but also neighbors who show up to help.

The series eventually takes Addison beyond Queensland. In The Holiday Homicide, she and Layla are on an art tour in Italy when murder finds them again. An Ill-Fated Invitation sends Addison, Layla, and Olivia to a Melbourne wedding where a guest’s apparent allergic reaction does not look accidental.

Start with Arson at the Art Gallery to meet Addison at the beginning of her new life. The books are quick, approachable mysteries, but reading in order lets the beach house, the town, and Addison’s circle of friends grow naturally from one case to the next.