Karin Schaeffer Books in Order

The Karin Schaeffer series follows a former New Jersey detective whose life has been broken apart by the case that should have made her career. Karin helped hunt the Domino Killer, a murderer who targets families and leaves dominoes as clues. After he kills Karin's husband and young daughter, she retreats to Brooklyn, overwhelmed by grief and barely holding herself together.

You Are Next starts when the killer escapes prison and Karin realizes she cannot simply hide from what happened. Her former partner and close friend, Mac MacLeary, becomes her most important ally. The first book is a dark, personal manhunt, but it also establishes the question that drives the series: can Karin build a life after terrible loss without pretending that loss never happened?

The answer is never simple.

As the books continue, Karin and Mac marry, raise children, and try to create a steady home in Brooklyn. Yet their lives keep being pulled back toward violence and unanswered questions. In Next Time You See Me, Mac disappears after his parents are murdered, forcing Karin to confront the secrets in the man she thought she knew. The action stretches from Brooklyn into Miami, Mexico, and Cape Cod, but the emotional center stays close to home.

Vanishing Girls brings Karin into a case involving murdered women, an injured child who may be a witness, and a threat that reaches into her own neighborhood. The story also gives more space to Karin's friend Detective Billy Staples and to the way trauma affects everyone caught near a violent crime. By this point, Karin is no longer only surviving. She is making difficult choices as a wife, mother, and investigator.

In The Money Kill, a family trip to Sardinia turns into a search for Karin and Mac's missing children and nanny. What begins with Mac's seemingly routine investigation of a wealthy man's suspected affair opens into a larger and more dangerous situation. The series shifts easily from New York streets and brownstones to international settings, while keeping the stakes focused on the people Karin loves.

There are also two shorter companion pieces. The Domino Killer is a prequel that returns to the crime that changed Karin's life, while The Gift is a Christmas-set story that gives Karin and Mac a brief, uneasy adventure of their own.

These are tense crime novels, but they are not just about the culprit of the week. Karin carries the memory of what she has lost into every new case. Her persistence, her impulsiveness, and her fierce attachment to her family give the books their momentum. Start with You Are Next for the full emotional arc, then read in publication order to see Karin's hard-won life take shape.