Leonardo da Vinci Mystery Books in Order

The Leonardo da Vinci mysteries are historical whodunits set in late fifteenth-century Milan, at the court of Duke Ludovico Sforza. On the surface, the hook is simple and very good: Leonardo da Vinci solves murders. What makes the books work, though, is that they do not treat Leonardo as a distant genius on a pedestal. He is brilliant, observant, busy, politically entangled, and sometimes in over his head, especially when court life, art, invention, and violence start colliding.

This is Renaissance intrigue with paint under its fingernails.

The real anchor of the series is Delfina della Fazia, a young woman who disguises herself as a boy named Dino so she can join Leonardo's workshop and study painting. That choice gives the books an ongoing source of tension that is bigger than any single murder case. Delfina wants opportunity, craft, and a future that her world does not easily allow her. Every investigation carries two kinds of risk: the immediate danger of the crime, and the constant threat that her identity could be exposed.

Milan matters here. These books use the city and court as working environments, not museum pieces. You get workshops, pageants, servants' corridors, noble households, war planning, and the pressure that comes from living close to a ruler who can reward genius one day and demand impossible things the next. Leonardo's inventions are part of the fun, but so are the smaller details of patronage, status, and survival. The murder plots grow naturally out of that world.

The Queen's Gambit opens with a living chess spectacle that turns deadly, which is exactly the kind of mix this series does well. Portrait of a Lady sends Delfina undercover among the attendants of Contessa Caterina after two women are killed. A Bolt from the Blue raises the pressure again by tying murder to Leonardo's workshop and to a flying-machine project ordered during a time of looming war. The books are smart, but they are not dry. They read like adventures as much as puzzles.

If you like historical mysteries that care about character as much as period detail, this series has a lot to offer. Leonardo is the name on the cover, but Delfina gives the books their heart, their tension, and much of their forward motion. Expect court politics, hidden identities, clever deduction, and just enough art and engineering to make the setting feel alive without slowing the story down.