Icy Curtis Mystery Books in Order

The Icy Curtis Mystery series steps into darker territory, blending traditional crime investigation with elements of spiritual warfare. Isabel "Icy" Curtis is a Chicago widow who relocates to Wichita, Kansas, hoping distance will soften the grief of losing her husband. Instead she discovers that evil can travel.

In Malevolence, Icy is still adjusting to single motherhood and a new city when a close friend is found brutally murdered. The crime scene is shocking, marked not only by violence but by a single word written in blood on the wall. When more bodies appear, each tied in some way to Icy’s life, she realizes that she is not just near the investigation, she is central to it.

Icy volunteers at a shelter for battered women, and that compassion pulls her even closer to danger. Some of the women she serves become targets, while her teenage son is drawn into the edges of the case. Detective Milt Barbarino believes someone connected to Icy is orchestrating the killings, but the clues point beyond simple human evil. Nightmares, eerie coincidences, and an overwhelming sense of being watched push Icy toward questions she has tried to avoid.

A local priest helps her see that what she is facing is not only a flesh and blood killer but the demonic forces driving him. As she confronts memories she has long buried, the line between past and present blurs. The story becomes a race to uncover the true identity of the killer before he destroys everyone she loves and before fear convinces her to give up.

Unlike Nancy Mehl’s lighter cozies and small town romances, the Icy Curtis story leans into suspense, horror imagery, and the reality of unseen spiritual conflict. Yet it still carries her hallmark themes. Ordinary people, often unsure of their own strength, are forced to decide whether they believe God can protect and rescue them in the darkest places.

Readers who appreciate mysteries with a supernatural edge, honest conversations about fear, and a heroine who feels like a neighbor suddenly shoved into a nightmare will find this series a memorable detour in Mehl’s body of work.