In A Dark Wood Books in Order

The In A Dark Wood books are a small series in size, but not in emotional weight. They center on travel writer Timothy O'Shay and NYPD detective Luke O'Brien, who first collide under deeply unhelpful circumstances and then spend the rest of their story trying to figure out whether they can ever meet each other at the right time.

The first book, In a Dark Wood, has one of Lanyon's better premises. A first date turns into a hike through the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and what should have been awkward in an ordinary way becomes frightening in a much less ordinary one. Tim is not just dealing with a bad outing. He is being forced back toward fears and memories he has done his best to avoid.

That gives the book a tense, psychological feel. Luke is a cop, which means he naturally wants to assess, protect, and push forward. Tim does not always experience that as comfort. Their chemistry is real, but so are the reasons it cannot simply fix everything.

The Parting Glass revisits them later, which is exactly the right move for a pair like this. The attraction is still there, but time has not magically removed Tim's ghosts or made Luke easier to read. That second-chance shape gives the series its identity. These are not books about effortless compatibility. They are books about fear, memory, and whether affection can survive the very things that make intimacy hard.

If you like Josh Lanyon when she is intimate, tense, and a little more emotionally bruised than cozy, the In A Dark Wood books are worth seeking out.