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Kendra Elliot Books in Order

See all Kendra Elliot books in order, with series lists, brief plot summaries, and guidance on where to start her Oregon-set romantic suspense thrillers.

Last updated: June 7, 2026

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38 books

Chilled

by Kendra Elliot

2012

During a blizzard in the Cascade Mountains, forensic nurse Brynn Nealey joins a search-and-rescue team at a plane-crash site, unaware a vengeful ex–US marshal has slipped onto her crew. As they trek through deadly snowfields, his private manhunt ignites a new nightmare.

Hidden

by Kendra Elliot

2012

Eleven years after surviving the Co-ed Slayer, forensic odontologist Lacey Campbell identifies the bones of her missing college friend on an ex-cop’s property. As witnesses from the old case start dying, Lacey and Jack Harper must uncover a copycat—or a horrifying truth.

Buried

by Kendra Elliot

2013

Reporter Michael Brody has spent twenty years wondering what happened to his little brother after a school bus full of children vanished. When the other victims’ graves are finally found, he teams up with the lone survivor’s sister to track a kidnapper still hiding.

Veiled

by Kendra Elliot

2013

A romantic weekend on the Oregon coast ends abruptly when forensic investigator Lacey Campbell and Jack Harper discover a woman in a wedding dress dead in the resort hot tub. Drawn into the case, they uncover a killer obsessed with marriage and second chances.

Alone

by Kendra Elliot

2014

Forensic anthropologist Victoria Peres is called to a chilling scene: six girls in white dresses arranged in a perfect circle in the woods. The ritualistic killings echo a decades-old case, forcing Victoria to work with former lover Seth Rutledge to stop a buried horror.

Her Grave Secrets

by Melinda Leigh

2014

A skull with two bullet holes surfaces on the Rogue River, proving that the designer drug plaguing Solitude has already claimed more victims. As Stevie Taylor and police chief Zane Duncan close in on the source, the case turns heartbreakingly personal—and deadly.

On Her Father's Grave

by Melinda Leigh

2014

LAPD officer Stevie Taylor returns to tiny Solitude, Oregon, after her police-chief father’s death, hoping to regroup on the local force. When a teen dies from a lethal new drug, Stevie and new chief Zane Duncan must expose the dealer hiding in plain sight.

Vanished

by Kendra Elliot

2014

An eleven-year-old girl disappears on her way to school, and FBI agent Ava McLane is embedded with the shattered family. Sharing the house is detective Mason Callahan, related to the victim and mourning his murdered informant, as both race to find the child alive.

Bridged

by Kendra Elliot

2015

When a congressman’s tortured body is found hanging from a Portland bridge, Ava McLane and Mason Callahan land a case that quickly points to a serial killer. Under pressure from the public and shaken by Ava’s troubled twin, their partnership and relationship are tested.

Dead in Her Tracks

by Melinda Leigh

2015

Police chief Zane Duncan’s first Christmas living with fellow officer Stevie Taylor is ruined when a body is found at a roadside motel—the second murder in a week. With their main suspect already jailed, the couple must hunt a second killer in snowbound Solitude.

Spiraled

by Kendra Elliot

2015

Trapped unarmed in a shopping mall as a gunman opens fire, Ava McLane becomes both witness and survivor. Soon, a wave of copycat mass shootings sweeps Oregon, and Ava and Mason must find the link between the young killers before her own psyche unravels.

Burned by Her Devotion

by Melinda Leigh

2016

When a crime-show celebrity is murdered and the confessed killer is abducted en route to jail, Detective Seth Harding’s case explodes into chaos. As secrets about the victim emerge and a vulnerable teen vanishes, Seth and his wife Carly race a ruthless puppeteer.

Death and Her Devotion

by Melinda Leigh

2016

On the weekend she’s supposed to marry police chief Zane Duncan, officer Stevie Taylor is pulled into the murder of a famous crime-show host camping near Solitude. As cameras descend on the town, Stevie and Zane must catch a killer determined to upstage their vows.

Known

by Kendra Elliot

2016

Chris Jacobs thinks he’s left his childhood trauma behind until a snowstorm leads him to a burned cabin and medical examiner Gianna Trask and her teen daughter. As bodies turn up and threats close in, both Chris and Gianna must face secrets someone will kill to protect.

Targeted

by Kendra Elliot

2016

Detective Mason Callahan’s fishing trip ends when he finds his boss murdered near their remote Oregon cabin, a mask covering the body’s face. With a serial killer hunting cops, Mason and his fiancée Ava McLane race to catch a predator who’s watching them too.

A Merciful Death

by Kendra Elliot

2017

FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick, raised by doomsday preppers in rural Oregon, returns to estranged family and hometown when survivalists are murdered in their fortified homes. The killings mirror an old unsolved case, forcing Mercy and police chief Truman Daly to confront her past.

A Merciful Truth

by Kendra Elliot

2017

A rash of suspicious fires in Eagle’s Nest turns deadly when two deputies are murdered. Still on the outs with her prepper family, Mercy Kilpatrick teams with Truman Daly to trace the arsons to a dangerous antigovernment movement before the town ignites.

Truth Be Told

by Kendra Elliot

2017

A brutal storm isolates Solitude, Oregon, just as a child witnesses a double homicide and two FBI agents are found shot in their submerged SUV. With the only road out washed away, Stevie Duncan and her husband Zane know a relentless killer is trapped there with them.

A Merciful Secret

by Kendra Elliot

2018

After a terrified girl flags her down on a rainy Oregon road, Mercy Kilpatrick finds the child’s grandmother dying from ritual knife wounds. When a second, similar murder surfaces, Mercy and Truman dig into a fanatical history that collides with Mercy’s own hidden life.

A Merciful Silence

by Kendra Elliot

2018

A rainstorm uncovers the skeletal remains of five people—posed just like two slaughtered families from a case twenty years ago. With the supposed killer in prison, Mercy Kilpatrick and Truman Daly must decide whether a copycat is loose or the wrong man was locked away.

Close to the Bone

by Kendra Elliot

2018

Recuperating from a gunshot wound, FBI agent Cate Wilde returns to Widow’s Island expecting quiet—until a teen’s skeletal remains are found nearby. Working with deputy Tessa Black and island doctor Henry Powers, Cate confronts old grief over a childhood friend who vanished.

A Merciful Fate

by Kendra Elliot

2019

When a skeleton tied to a legendary armored-car heist is found near Mercy Kilpatrick’s secret survival cabin, old greed resurfaces in Eagle’s Nest. Mercy and Truman follow clues through buried caches and decades-old grudges while a ruthless killer hunts the missing millions.

A Merciful Promise

by Kendra Elliot

2019

Going undercover inside an isolated militia compound, Mercy Kilpatrick must blend in with armed extremists while Truman Daly investigates a string of execution-style murders outside. As a terrorist plot sharpens, Mercy finds herself cut off, exposed, and running out of time.

Bred in the Bone

by Kendra Elliot

2019

When the town drunk is killed in a hit-and-run, Cate Wilde assumes it’s a tragic accident—until evidence ties him to the decades-old disappearance of her friend Samantha. Digging into the past, Cate uncovers island secrets some neighbors would kill to keep buried.

Below the Bones

by Kendra Elliot

2020

Former FBI agent Cate Wilde now runs a bakery-bookshop on Widow’s Island, but peace shatters when skeletal remains turn up in the forest. The killer’s methods echo a case she thought was closed, forcing Cate back into profiling a murderer who may have returned home.

The Last Sister

by Kendra Elliot

2020

Two decades after Emily Mills found her father hanging in their backyard, an eerily similar murder of a local couple shatters her Oregon logging town. FBI agent Zander Wells suspects the old case was never truly solved, and Emily’s family history holds dangerous answers.

The Silence

by Kendra Elliot

2020

A conspiracy-obsessed recluse is found murdered near Portland, and the crime scene leads straight to Ava McLane, who once used him as an informant. As officers across Oregon are targeted, Ava and Mason Callahan uncover a plot that strikes at law enforcement itself.

The Lost Bones

by Kendra Elliot

2021

A package containing a child’s jawbone drags Cate Wilde back into an unsolved kidnapping she worked years ago. As she re-examines the disappearance of a three-year-old girl and her father, Cate fears the abductor has resurfaced—and is stalking another vulnerable child.

Bone Deep

by Kendra Elliot

2022

When Cate Wilde’s fiancé, island doctor Henry Powers, is abducted at gunpoint, she learns a crew of bank robbers is forcing him to save their dying brother. While Henry plots escape, Cate joins the frantic manhunt across Widow’s Island before ransom turns into revenge.

In the Pines

by Kendra Elliot

2022

A nationwide treasure hunt brings waves of fortune-seekers—and trouble—to Eagle’s Nest. When a hiker is murdered and a boy reports his mother and baby sister missing, Mercy Kilpatrick and Truman Daly uncover a tangle of family secrets, greed, and long-buried crimes in the woods.

The First Death

by Kendra Elliot

2023

As a child, Rowan Wolff survived abduction by a serial killer, but her brother’s body was never found. Now a search-and-rescue handler in Oregon, she teams with detective Evan Bolton when new murders mimic the old crimes and her buried past refuses to stay hidden.

At the River

by Kendra Elliot

2024

Twenty years after five teens vanished on a camping trip, Mercy Kilpatrick and Truman Daly investigate a true-crime podcaster found murdered where two of the original victims were dumped. As nightmares plague the sole survivor, fresh killings suggest the predator never left.

Echo Road

by Melinda Leigh

2024

A vicious heat wave, two bodies in suitcases, and a missing senator’s daughter link sheriff Bree Taggert’s New York investigation with Mercy Kilpatrick’s in Oregon. Working together across state lines, the two law-enforcement veterans hunt a serial killer hungry for headlines.

The Next Grave

by Kendra Elliot

2024

Detective Evan Bolton is shattered when his retired mentor is found murdered in a junkyard trunk and the man’s daughter and grandson disappear. Working with search-and-rescue expert Rowan Wolff and her dog, he uncovers old cases someone inside law enforcement is desperate to erase.

Her First Mistake

by Kendra Elliot

2025

Thirteen years after her politician husband was bludgeoned to death and she was left for dead, Noelle Marshall is now a detective—and the FBI has reopened the case. As buried memories and new attacks collide, Noelle’s own secret about that night may be the key.

New

No One Knew

by Kendra Elliot

2026

A teen collecting cans in the Oregon woods stumbles on a mutilated body, drawing Detective Noelle Marshall into a town simmering with anti-government anger. At the same time, FBI agent Max Rhodes tracks a militia’s violent plot—until both investigations converge in chilling fashion.

New

Until She Dies

by Kendra Elliot

2026

In the third Noelle Marshall novel, a new case in central Oregon forces the detective to balance a brutal investigation with the lingering fallout from her husband’s murder, testing the fragile trust she’s built with the FBI and her own family.

Coming Soon

Never To Return

by Kendra Elliot

2027

As the Noelle Marshall series reaches its climax, long-buried secrets and enemies circle back on the detective who survived them. Past investigations and personal choices collide, putting Noelle and those she loves in the crosshairs one final time.

Where should I start?

If you want a gripping starting point: A Merciful DeathA Merciful TruthA Merciful Secret.
If you like forensic, stand-alone thrillers: HiddenChilledBuried.
If you prefer character-driven series crossovers: The Last SisterThe SilenceIn the PinesThe First Death.
If you enjoy short, small-town novellas: On Her Father’s GraveHer Grave SecretsDead in Her TracksDeath and Her Devotion.
If you want her latest collaborations: Close to the BoneBred in the BoneBone DeepEcho Road.

Author bio

Kendra Elliot grew up in the rainy Pacific Northwest with a book almost always in her hands. As a kid she lived inside the worlds of Laura Ingalls, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden, long before she ever imagined writing her own mysteries. That early habit of staying up too late to finish one more chapter never really went away.

She studied journalism at the University of Oregon, drawn to stories and how they’re told, but her first career went in a very different direction. After college she trained as a dental hygienist and spent sixteen years working chairside, getting an up-close look at people’s everyday worries and small acts of courage.

During those years she was still devouring crime novels and true-crime stories, fascinated by forensics and the puzzle of how investigators put tiny details together. The turning point came in 2006, when she finished one of Diana Gabaldon’s novels for the umpteenth time and realized how deeply satisfying good storytelling could feel. She set herself a simple challenge: could she write a book that made another reader feel that way?

Her first attempt was a straight romance, but dead bodies kept wandering onto the page.

Leaning into that instinct, she shifted toward romantic suspense and started treating writing like a craft to study, not just a hobby. She joined local chapters of national writing organizations, found critique partners, and learned how to balance character, tension, and the bits of forensic detail she loved. Hidden, the third manuscript she completed, became her first published novel in 2012 and launched the Bone Secrets series of Oregon-set forensic thrillers.

From there came new interconnected worlds: Callahan & McLane, built around Oregon detective Mason Callahan and FBI agent Ava McLane; the prepper-flavored Mercy Kilpatrick novels about an FBI agent forced to return to the survivalist community that raised her; and the Columbia River books, which pull favorite characters from earlier series into fresh investigations. Along the way she teamed up with fellow writer Melinda Leigh to co-author novella lines like Rogue River and Widow’s Island, as well as the crossover novel Echo Road.

Readers have responded. Hidden alone has sold more than a million copies, and together her books have reached many millions more. She’s won the Daphne du Maurier Award for romantic suspense three times, been a finalist for major mystery and thriller prizes, and seen her name on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list again and again. For a while the Mercy Kilpatrick novels were even under option for television, proof that her off-the-grid FBI agent had struck a nerve.

Despite the numbers, she still talks about success in very down-to-earth terms: one reader, one story, one good scare at a time.

These days she splits her time between the lush side of Oregon and the high-desert sun, sharing life with her husband, three daughters, and a rotating cast of small, opinionated dogs and cats. When she’s not at the keyboard she’s usually walking, reading, or happily planning the next crime to drop into some quiet corner of the Pacific Northwest. She jokes that she refuses to eat anything green and dreams of living in flip-flops year-round, but her work also reflects a steady curiosity about people—how they break, how they heal, and what they’ll risk for the ones they love.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 38 Kendra Elliot Books in Order (Complete List 2026)