James D Doss Books in Order
This page gathers James D Doss books in order, with Charlie Moon reading lists, short summaries, series background, publication order, and easy where to start advice.
Last updated: July 5, 2026
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Publication Order
17 books
The Shaman Sings
by James D Doss
1994
Chief Scott Parris faces his first homicide in Granite Creek after graduate student Priscilla Song is murdered in her lab. With help from Daisy Perika and reporter Anne Foster, he follows clues that logic alone cannot explain.
The Shaman Laughs
by James D Doss
1995
Missing buffalo and grotesque animal mutilations send Charlie Moon and Scott Parris into a case that feels wrong from the start. As Daisy consults the spirit world, cruelty against animals leads to human victims.
The Shaman's Bones
by James D Doss
1997
A ritual murder in Wyoming and an assault on a Granite Creek officer pull Charlie and Scott Parris into a case tied to sacred objects and old betrayals. Daisy's violent visions suggest the bloodshed is far from over.
The Shaman's Game
by James D Doss
1998
Death shadows the Sun Dance as healthy young men die without obvious injuries. Charlie hunts for a human killer while Daisy believes a great evil, maybe even witchcraft, has entered the ceremony.
The Night Visitor
by James D Doss
1999
A prehistoric skeleton found on a struggling dude ranch draws scientists, collectors, and opportunists to one Colorado valley. Charlie watches the dig with growing suspicion, and soon greed and murder begin to overtake the discovery.
Grandmother Spider
by James D Doss
2001
Strange attacks around Navajo Lake seem to point to a monstrous spider from tribal legend, but Charlie refuses the easy supernatural answer. With fear spreading and bodies turning up, he has to find the human truth.
White Shell Woman
by James D Doss
2002
At an archaeological dig beneath the Twin War Gods, a fresh corpse turns old legends into a modern crime scene. Charlie Moon must untangle treasure talk, tribal history, and murder in the shadow of the monoliths.
Dead Soul
by James D Doss
2003
Charlie is asked to look into the murder of Billy Smoke, a Southern Ute who worked for Senator Patch Davidson. As the case overlaps with trouble on the senator's ranch, Daisy's visions point toward still more danger.
The Witch's Tongue
by James D Doss
2004
In less than a day, a man vanishes, a museum is robbed, an Apache is arrested, and a sniper fires into town. Charlie Moon must connect the cases before the growing chaos in Granite Creek turns deadlier.
Shadow Man
by James D Doss
2005
After a sniper kills a man in a fancy restaurant, orthodontist Manfred Blinkoe fears he was the real target. Charlie takes the case, but a supposed lookalike, old enemies, and another killing make it far stranger than expected.
Stone Butterfly
by James D Doss
2006
Daisy dreams of a girl with blood on her hands, and Charlie soon learns the girl is Sarah Frank, now wanted for murder in Nevada. Chasing her across state lines, he tries to protect her before others do.
Three Sisters
by James D Doss
2007
A scream over the phone sends Charlie Moon and Scott Parris to a gruesome scene, where a rancher's daughter has been savaged to death. A powerful family, a TV psychic, and Daisy's visions muddy the line between animal attack and murder.
Snake Dreams
by James D Doss
2008
Charlie Moon is finally making room in his life for romance with FBI agent Lila Mae McTeague when visions of a murdered woman pull him back to work. Family tensions and fresh bloodshed complicate everything.
The Widow's Revenge
by James D Doss
2009
Charlie investigates widow Loyola Montoya's claims that witches are harassing her remote property. When she dies in a fire, what sounded like fantasy becomes a darker case of intimidation, greed, and revenge.
A Dead Man's Tale
by James D Doss
2010
Investor Samuel Reed claims he knows the exact time of his own murder and bets Scott Parris he cannot stop it. Charlie Moon sees a chance to help his ranch, then finds the wager spiraling into multiple killings.
Coffin Man
by James D Doss
2011
After a storm, Betty Naranjo, a pregnant teenager, disappears, and Charlie Moon is asked to find her. A body in the cemetery, a stranger at the ranch, and Daisy's failing visions turn a family crisis into murder.
The Old Gray Wolf
by James D Doss
2012
A purse-snatching gone wrong leaves Charlie Moon and Scott Parris with a dead thief and a much bigger problem. The man had mob ties, and his mother quickly sends an assassin west to settle the score.
Where should I start?
If you want the full series arc: The Shaman Sings → The Shaman Laughs → The Shaman's Bones
If you want Charlie, Daisy, and the mystery blend fast: The Shaman's Game → The Night Visitor → Grandmother Spider
If you prefer later, more stand-alone cases: Three Sisters → Snake Dreams → A Dead Man's Tale
If you want the closing stretch: Coffin Man → The Old Gray Wolf
Author bio
James D. Doss grew up in Kentucky, far from the mesas and reservation roads that would later shape his fiction. Before he was known as a mystery novelist, he built a long career as an electrical engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. His work included particle accelerators and biomedical technology used in cancer therapy, which already tells you something useful about him: he was comfortable with hard facts, complicated systems, and patient problem-solving.
He was a scientist by profession, but he was writing long before he wrote full time.
This was not an overnight career switch. Doss spent years balancing technical work with storytelling, and when he finally arrived in print he did it with a book that already felt like its own world. The Shaman Sings, published in 1994, introduced readers to the landscape, humor, and spiritual tension that would define the Charlie Moon mysteries.
From there he kept going, nearly a book a year, until he had written seventeen Charlie Moon novels. Charlie is a Southern Ute rancher and sometime tribal investigator. His aunt Daisy Perika is an old shaman with a sharp tongue, prophetic dreams, and no interest in behaving like a side character. Their push and pull, with local police chief Scott Parris often caught in the middle, became the engine of the series.
That cast gave him room to do more than stage crimes. He could write about family obligations, reservation politics, outsiders who underestimate the people around them, and the way old stories still shape modern choices. Many of his plots bring in fossils, sacred objects, land fights, missing teenagers, or greedy visitors who think the Southwest belongs to them.
Readers who stay with Doss usually talk about the same things. They like the way a book such as The Shaman Laughs or The Night Visitor can move from a murder case to a joke to a strange omen without losing its footing. Later novels like Three Sisters and A Dead Man's Tale keep that same blend of mystery, Southwestern setting, dry humor, and arguments between reason and belief.
He never wrote the West like a postcard.
Place mattered too much for that. Even while he was still working at Los Alamos, Doss was building fiction rooted in southern Colorado and the wider Southwest, with ranch country, canyons, archaeological sites, little towns, and tribal communities all pressing in on the action. After retiring from Los Alamos in 1999, he wrote full time while living in Los Alamos and Taos, New Mexico, and those landscapes stayed close to the page.
His second act turned into a real body of work. Two of the Charlie Moon books were chosen as best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, and the series kept its following all the way to The Old Gray Wolf, which he completed shortly before his death. Doss died in Los Alamos on May 17, 2012, at the age of seventy-three.
What lasts most is the tone. Doss wrote mysteries that could be funny, eerie, stubborn, and warm in the same chapter. If you like detective fiction with a strong sense of place, recurring characters who feel lived-in, and a genuine tug-of-war between logic and faith, his books still read fresh.
Edited by
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