Goodnight Mysteries Books in Order

The Goodnight Mysteries follow Matilda Dare, a woman who cannot sleep and has no interest in settling down until an inheritance changes everything. She receives a house, a small newspaper, and two elderly dogs in Goodnight, New Mexico, a quirky town with a name that becomes an ongoing joke for someone with insomnia.

Then a reporter is murdered.

Matilda arrives in Goodnight planning to sort out the estate and decide what comes next. Instead, she finds herself surrounded by local secrets, a new job at the newspaper, and a crime that is hard to ignore. Her reporter’s instincts and natural curiosity make her a poor candidate for staying out of the investigation.

Goodnight is a small community where everyone seems to know everyone else’s history, even when that history is incomplete or a little suspicious. Matilda’s new home is not entirely straightforward either. She has two old dogs to care for, a mysterious handsome man named Boone in her orbit, and Sheriff Goodnight, a cowboy lawman who has his own questions about why Matilda has suddenly appeared in town.

The first book, Die Noon, introduces Matilda and the town as she investigates the reporter’s death. A Doom with a View keeps her up at night when a coded letter reaches the newspaper and its sender winds up dead. Jurassic Dark and Coal Miner’s Slaughter continue the series with new local mysteries and the increasingly complicated web of relationships around Matilda.

The tone is warm, silly, romantic, and murder-minded all at once.

Like the Matchmaker books, these stories make room for banter, romantic tension, strange neighbors, and increasingly ridiculous situations. Matilda is not a professional detective, but her connection to the newspaper gives her a reason to ask questions, follow leads, and notice the stories that do not add up. Her insomnia also gives the books a slightly offbeat rhythm, since she has plenty of time to think when the rest of Goodnight is supposed to be asleep.

The Goodnight Mysteries share a world with Sax’s Matchmaker Mysteries, but Matilda has her own setting, supporting cast, and story. New readers can start here without needing Gladie Burger’s earlier adventures. Begin with Die Noon to meet Matilda at the moment her life is uprooted and to see why Goodnight quickly becomes much more than a temporary stop.

Expect desert-town oddities, romantic uncertainty, newspaper clues, and a heroine who keeps finding reasons to stay awake.