Hobby Lobby Mystery Books in Order

The Hobby Lobby Mysteries move Dustin Stevens into a smaller, more local kind of suspense. Instead of federal agents or globe-spanning threats, these books center on Erika Wernick, a reporter who returns to Big Bear Lake after a devastating car accident and finds that recovery is not going to be quiet.

That shift in scale is the point.

In The Exchange, Erika is battered physically and emotionally when she comes back to the mountain town she knows best. That homecoming gives the series its shape. Big Bear Lake is not just a backdrop. It is a place full of memory, local politics, old relationships, and the kind of secrets that can hide in plain sight because everyone thinks they already know everyone else.

By Badger Games, Erika is more settled, but the sense of unease has not gone away. Stevens uses her reporter instincts well. She notices things, asks questions, and keeps pushing when a story does not line up cleanly. That makes the series feel less like a pure amateur sleuth setup and more like a small-town mystery with a professional investigator's habits.

The tone is also a little different from his harder-edged action work. These books still have danger, but they leave more room for town texture, personal recovery, and the slow realization that a close-knit place can keep some very ugly truths under the surface.

If you like mountain settings, returning-home stories, and mysteries that grow out of community life rather than nonstop violence, this is a good series to try. Erika is a practical guide through the world, and the Big Bear Lake setting gives the books a distinct identity inside Stevens's wider catalog.