Hartley Featherstone Books in Order

The Hartley Grace Featherstone Mysteries shift Gemma Halliday's comic mystery style to high school. Hartley is smart, impulsive, and not especially interested in letting school gossip decide what counts as the truth. When a classmate dies, she takes the problem personally and starts looking for answers.

The first book, Deadly Cool, begins when Hartley learns that her boyfriend has cheated on her. Then she finds the body of the other girl in his closet. Her now ex-boyfriend becomes the main suspect, and Hartley has to deal with a murder investigation while navigating the social fallout of a very public breakup.

High school is the series' pressure cooker. Popularity, cliques, rumors, school papers, crushes, and awkward family situations all matter because they shape who knows what and who has something to hide. Halliday uses those familiar teen concerns without losing sight of the central mystery.

Hartley has help, although it does not always arrive in a neat package. Her best friend and the bad-boy editor of the school paper become important partners as she follows clues, talks to suspects, and gets in over her head. The adults are around, including law enforcement, but Hartley is the one determined to connect the dots.

The books are teen mysteries with real stakes and a light touch. The cases involve murder, but the stories avoid graphic detail. Humor, friendship, and romance are as much a part of the reading experience as red herrings and evidence.

Hartley is not a detective in a trench coat. She is a teenager with a notebook, a strong opinion, and bad timing.

Deadly Cool is the natural starting point, followed by Killer Looks and Wicked Games. The third book takes Hartley to a major gaming convention, where a killing turns what should have been a fun school-reporting assignment into another dangerous investigation.

This is a good fit for readers who want a youthful sleuth, brisk pacing, and mysteries rooted in the messy social world of school.