Jenkins & Burns Mysteries Books in Order

The Jenkins & Burns mysteries are Laura Bradford's earlier mystery books, and they show her working in a mode that is a little less cozy-village and a little more traditional small-town suspense. The series pairs Elise Jenkins, a newspaper reporter, with Mitch Burns, a police detective, and lets the two of them chase cases from different sides of the same line.

That reporter-cop balance is the key to the whole thing. Mitch has official access, but also official limits. Elise can ask questions the police cannot, hear rumors first, and notice the human angle that might get lost in procedure. Together they create the kind of mystery team that naturally generates both conflict and chemistry.

The setting helps a lot.

Ocean Point, New Jersey, has the look of a shore town built for visitors, but Bradford is much more interested in what happens behind the postcard surface. In Jury of One, later reissued as Deadly Readings, the boardwalk, summer trade, and local fortune teller all become part of a murder case that threatens the town's sense of safety and its tourist economy at the same time. That mixture of public image and private fear gives the series its tone.

The books that follow keep changing the frame around the mysteries. Forecast of Evil, later reissued as Deadly Getaway, moves Elise and Mitch into a snowbound setting where isolation turns up the pressure. Marked by Fate, later reissued as Deadly Expressions, draws Elise into a case through a writing class and an old trauma that refuses to stay buried. Deadly Ambition shows the pair later in life, with their marriage established and their investigative instincts still very much in working order.

Compared with Bradford's later cozies, these books feel a bit more directly mystery-driven. The crimes tend to carry a stronger sense of danger, and the investigations lean more on pacing, interviews, and the push and pull between what the press wants, what the police know, and what the public thinks it sees.

Still, readers who know Bradford from her other series will recognize familiar strengths. She likes communities under stress. She likes work lives that matter to the plot. And she likes partnerships where trust has to be earned, tested, and used.

If you are looking for the place where her published career started, this is it. The Jenkins & Burns books have the bones of what she would keep doing well later: approachable prose, solid puzzle construction, and characters whose personal lives matter without taking over the case. They are a good fit for readers who want a mystery with more investigation than gimmick, plus a central pair whose relationship grows in believable, satisfying stages.