Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity Books in Order

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity is Kami Garcia's adult, standalone take on two of Gotham's most familiar characters. It does not use the usual comic-book version of Harley Quinn. Here, Harley is a forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler who consults for the Gotham City Police Department. She knows how to read a crime scene, how predators build patterns, and how much damage a killer can hide behind charm.

Then the Joker returns to her life.

Five years earlier, Harley found the body of her roommate, Edie Malone, at a crime scene marked by a serial killer known as the Joker. The murder was never solved. When a new run of elaborate and brutal killings begins, the old case becomes impossible to separate from the new one. Harley's professional skill and personal grief pull her closer to the investigation, even when the GCPD begins to question how far she is willing to go.

This version of Gotham is closer to a crime thriller than a superhero adventure. The focus is on profiling, evidence, procedure, trauma, and the way an investigation can become an obsession. The Joker is treated as a calculating serial murderer, not a prankster or a magical agent of chaos. That makes the atmosphere tense and disturbing from the start.

Harley is hunting him, but he is studying her too.

Across the eight issues, the story moves through crime scenes, childhood history, police conflict, and increasingly direct encounters between Harley and the man she believes is responsible. Garcia builds the suspense around what Harley can prove, what the Joker wants her to see, and whether pursuing him will cost her the relationships and principles that once kept her grounded.

The art by Mico Suayan, Jason Badower, and Mike Mayhew supports the grounded approach with detailed crime-scene imagery and a grim, realistic Gotham. This is not a light or all-ages Harley story. It is a mature psychological thriller with violent material and a deliberately uncomfortable mood.

Readers can start with issue #1 and continue in order through issue #8, or read the collected edition. The story has a complete arc, so no wider DC reading is required. If you enjoy crime fiction, profiler stories, and alternate takes on familiar characters, this series offers a dark, focused version of Harley Quinn's pursuit of the one case she cannot leave behind.