Jessie Arnold & Alex Jensen Books in Order
Part ofSue Henry Books in OrderSee the Jessie Arnold & Alex Jensen books by Sue Henry in order, with quick summaries, series background, and notes on where to start reading.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
12 books
Murder on the Iditarod Trail
by Sue Henry
1991
As top mushers begin dying in bizarre accidents and attacks, state trooper Alex Jensen realizes someone is hunting competitors on the Iditarod. Jessie Arnold keeps racing anyway, even as her chance of winning becomes a chance of becoming the next victim.
Termination Dust
by Sue Henry
1995
A Yukon vacation goes badly wrong when Jim Hampton finds old bones and is arrested for murdering a former senator. Alex Jensen doubts the easy answer and follows the case through early snow, old journals, and buried crimes.
Sleeping Lady
by Sue Henry
1996
When a missing pilot's plane is finally found, there is a dead woman in the wreck and no sign of the pilot himself. Alex Jensen and the pilot's wife follow the trail into the Alaskan wild, where every answer raises fresh danger.
Death Takes Passage
by Sue Henry
1997
A Gold Rush reenactment voyage through Alaska's Inside Passage turns deadly when a crew member vanishes. With Jessie Arnold aboard and no easy way off the ship, Alex Jensen has to untangle greed, secrets, and murder at sea.
Deadfall
by Sue Henry
1998
Jessie is being stalked, first with threats, then with traps, then with a near fatal crash. She hides out on a remote island with her dog Tank, only to find the killer may have followed her into the wilderness.
Murder on the Yukon Quest
by Sue Henry
1999
Jessie enters the Yukon Quest while Alex is away in Idaho, then learns a young racer has been abducted. Forced to keep the secret while still running the brutal trail, she faces a race that could end in murder.
Beneath the Ashes
by Sue Henry
2000
A suspicious fire destroys a favorite local pub and leaves Jessie Arnold's small corner of Alaska on edge. When more flames follow and an old friend arrives in trouble, Jessie has to figure out who is desperate, who is lying, and who is killing.
Dead North
by Sue Henry
2001
After her cabin burns, Jessie agrees to drive a friend's motor home up the Alaska Highway. A frightened teenage hitchhiker and a string of murders turn the trip into a lonely, dangerous run through some of the wildest country around.
Cold Company
by Sue Henry
2002
Excavation for Jessie's new cabin turns up a skeleton and a necklace tied to long ago murders. When another woman disappears, Jessie is pulled into a chilling case that forces her to face old fears and new danger.
Death Trap
by Sue Henry
2003
While recovering from surgery, Jessie volunteers at the Alaska State Fair and stumbles into a savage killing. The case soon tangles with a missing child, the disappearance of her lead dog, and danger that closes in on Jessie herself.
Murder at Five Finger Light
by Sue Henry
2005
Jessie heads to an old lighthouse on Alaska's Inside Passage to help friends with restoration work and finds a body instead. Cut off on the island after the phone lines and radio are wrecked, she realizes the killer is still there.
Degrees of Separation
by Sue Henry
2008
Just back to training after knee surgery, Jessie Arnold hits a snow covered corpse on a practice run near home. The dead young man had no sled, no dogs, and a case that lands uncomfortably close to Jessie and Alex.
Series background & context
In Sue Henry's Jessie Arnold and Alex Jensen books, the hook is simple and strong. A champion dog musher and an Alaska state trooper keep meeting murder in places where the weather is already dangerous. Jessie Arnold knows trails, dogs, cabins, and rough country. Alex Jensen knows how to read a crime scene and how thin the line can be between accident and something worse.
Alaska does a lot of the work here.
The series opens with Murder on the Iditarod Trail, where Jessie is racing while Alex hunts a killer among the mushers. From there the books range widely, from the Yukon in Termination Dust and the backcountry in Sleeping Lady to a Gold Rush reenactment voyage in Death Takes Passage and the hard push of Murder on the Yukon Quest. Some books lean more into police work, others into survival, but the sense of distance and exposure never really leaves.
Jessie is the center of the emotional weather. She's capable, proud, and used to depending on herself, which means the danger lands hard when it gets personal. Alex is steadier and more procedural, but he isn't just the official investigator standing at the edge of the story. Their partnership, and later romance, gives the series its backbone. Henry lets that relationship grow book by book without letting it take over the mystery.
The middle and later books widen the canvas. Beneath the Ashes brings arson close to Jessie's home. Dead North turns an Alaska Highway trip into a tense road novel and quietly introduces Maxie McNabb, who later gets her own series. Cold Company digs into buried history near Jessie's property. Murder at Five Finger Light traps Jessie with friends on a remote lighthouse island, and Degrees of Separation brings murder right onto her training trail. The stakes change from book to book, but the series keeps returning to the same question, how do you stay open to other people in a place that rewards self-reliance?
That balance is the hook.
These are not flashy puzzle books. They are sturdy mysteries built around setting, practical detail, and people who know how to keep going when the cold, the dark, and bad luck pile up. Henry is especially good at the useful stuff, how people travel, camp, race, ferry supplies, or get stranded when help is far away. If you like outdoor mysteries with real dogs, real weather, and a lead who can handle herself, this series is easy to settle into. Start at the beginning if you want the full Jessie and Alex arc, or jump to a later book if a lighthouse, a road trip, or a buried old crime sounds more like your kind of trouble.
Edited by
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