Joshua Croft Books in Order

The Joshua Croft books are private-eye mysteries set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where beauty, money, old grudges, and local history can make a simple case complicated fast. Joshua is a capable investigator with a dry sense of humor, but he is not a superhero. He gets things wrong, gets hurt, and keeps going because the people who hire him need someone willing to ask difficult questions.

He works with Rita Mondragon, his business partner at the Mondragon Agency. Rita is brilliant with information and technology, fiercely practical, and central to the series from the start. Their partnership, and the feelings that grow around it, give the books an emotional throughline beyond the individual cases.

Wall of Glass introduces Croft through an insurance investigation involving a stolen diamond necklace and a murdered cowboy. It establishes the series’ version of Santa Fe, a place where old adobe, new wealth, galleries, land deals, and personal reinvention sit right next to each other. Croft’s cases may begin with an ordinary request, but they rarely stay ordinary.

The later books widen the map. In At Ease with the Dead, Croft looks for the remains of a Navajo ancestor taken decades earlier by an archaeologist. A Flower in the Desert begins with a missing mother and child after a bitter custody dispute. The Hanged Man, also published as The Death Card, sends him into a murder case involving tarot, psychics, and New Age spiritual circles. Each story asks him to work through layers of fear, self-interest, and old damage without losing sight of the people caught in the middle.

The final novel, Accustomed to the Dark, makes the danger personal when Rita is badly wounded by a man from her past. Joshua’s search carries him beyond New Mexico and forces him to reckon with the history of their relationship. It has the largest scope of the series, but the heart of the story remains the bond between its two investigators.

Santa Fe matters here. The desert terrain, cultural tensions, art markets, reservation roads, and patchwork of newcomers and longtime residents shape the cases rather than simply decorating them.

Start with Wall of Glass and read in order. The mysteries are complete novels, but Croft and Rita’s partnership changes over five books, and the personal stakes land best when readers have followed their earlier work together. Expect a classic private-eye setup, plenty of Southwest atmosphere, smart dialogue, and cases that get darker than their sunny settings first suggest.