Maggie O'Dell Books in Order
Part ofAlex Kava Books in OrderFind every Maggie O’Dell book by Alex Kava in chronological and publication order, including the prequel and short fiction, plus quick summaries and guidance on how the series fits together.
Last updated: December 22, 2025
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Publication Order
12 books
Before Evil
by Alex Kava
2017
Before she was a seasoned profiler, Maggie O’Dell worked cases from a safe office at Quantico. Then a sadistic killer named Albert Stucky starts leaving pieces of victims in takeout containers, forcing her into the field for a deadly game of cat and mouse that will shape her career.
Stranded
by Alex Kava
2013
When the mutilated body of a young woman turns up near an interstate rest stop, Maggie O’Dell suspects a long‑haul killer who has been hunting travelers for years. A cryptic map sends her and partner R.J. Tully crisscrossing the country with K‑9 handler Ryder Creed before the next victim vanishes.
Fireproof
by Alex Kava
2012
A warehouse fire in Washington, D.C., looks like one more arson in a string of vacant‑building blazes, until a body is found inside. As more deadly fires erupt, Maggie O’Dell sees a calculating pattern others have missed while a pushy reporter digs into her past and puts her family in the spotlight.
Hotwire
by Alex Kava
2011
A drug‑fueled party in the Nebraska Sandhills ends with a blinding light show and teens apparently electrocuted where they stand. While Maggie O’Dell investigates bizarre scorch‑marked bodies, an outbreak at East Coast schools suggests a biological weapon tying both events together.
Damaged
by Alex Kava
2010
With a hurricane bearing down on Pensacola Beach, the Coast Guard finds a large cooler adrift, packed with human body parts. Sent into the storm, Maggie O’Dell links the grisly find to a missing man and uncovers a lucrative trade in stolen cadavers.
Black Friday
by Alex Kava
2009
College students carrying mysterious backpacks into the nation’s largest mall expect a harmless stunt, not an explosion that leaves hundreds dead. As survivors are hunted to silence them, Maggie O’Dell and federal agents race to untangle a plot that turns shoppers into weapons.
Exposed
by Alex Kava
2008
A series of sudden, gruesome deaths points to a weaponized virus delivered through the mail. Quarantined inside a high‑security medical ward, Maggie O’Dell must profile a killer who mimics famous cases while wondering if she herself has been fatally infected.
A Necessary Evil
by Alex Kava
2006
When Catholic priests across the country are found ritualistically murdered, Maggie O’Dell uncovers a chilling online community of abuse survivors. To stop the killings she may have to work with the very predator who has haunted her for years.
At the Stroke of Madness
by Alex Kava
2003
On the eve of a long‑overdue vacation, Maggie agrees to look into a friend’s missing patient. In a quiet Connecticut town she finds barrels of dismembered bodies buried in an abandoned quarry and a killer obsessed with collecting grotesque trophies.
The Soul Catcher
by Alex Kava
2002
A deadly standoff at a remote cabin and the murder of a senator’s daughter both point to a powerful religious leader. When Maggie’s estranged mother is drawn into the same church, Maggie races to expose a cult whose devotion hides lethal secrets.
Split Second
by Alex Kava
2001
Two years after Maggie O’Dell helped capture sadistic killer Albert Stucky, he escapes from custody with one goal: revenge. As women connected to Maggie are hunted and murdered, she must outthink a killer who knows exactly how she works.
A Perfect Evil
by Alex Kava
2000
After a convicted serial killer is executed in rural Nebraska, new murders begin that match his signature. Sheriff Nick Morelli brings in FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell, and together they uncover a predator hidden in the fabric of a small town.
Series background & context
This Maggie O’Dell lineup lets you trace the profiler’s story from her earliest days at Quantico to the point where her cases spill into the Ryder Creed K‑9 universe. Chronologically, the journey starts with Before Evil, where Maggie steps out of her office for her first hands‑on hunt for serial killer Albert Stucky in the Virginia backwoods, and then rolls into the original debut A Perfect Evil and the early novels that made the series a bestseller.
Those first books focus on the kind of headline‑grabbing crimes Maggie was built for: sadistic killers who treat abduction and murder as a game. Across Split Second, The Soul Catcher, At the Stroke of Madness and A Necessary Evil, she deals with cult compounds, church scandals, hidden graveyards and predators who target the vulnerable. Each case forces her to look more closely at her own family history and the personal vulnerabilities she would rather ignore.
Mid‑series, the threats widen. Exposed brings a weaponized virus into the heart of the FBI; Black Friday deals with a bombing at a massive shopping complex; Damaged and Hotwire braid together hurricanes, mysterious deaths at remote sites and allegations of military or corporate cover‑ups. Fireproof follows a calculated arsonist whose fires threaten both Washington, D.C., and Maggie’s private life, while Stranded sends her crisscrossing interstate highways in search of a truck‑stop killer.
Shorter works add depth between the major novels. Stories like "Goodnight, Sweet Mother" and "A Breath of Hot Air" drop Maggie into more intimate, fast‑burn situations: a fraught road trip with her mother that turns dangerous, or a suspicious hotel death on the eve of a devastating storm. The novella collection Off the Grid gathers these and other pieces, including "Cold Metal Night" and "After Dark," showing Maggie at different points in her career and filling in small gaps between the bigger books.
You can drop into almost any book and still find your footing.
That said, readers who enjoy watching a character evolve will get the most out of reading either in publication order, starting with A Perfect Evil, or in full chronological order by beginning with Before Evil and threading the shorter works where they belong. Either way, you will see the long arc of Maggie’s relationships with her mother, with colleagues such as R.J. Tully and Gwen Patterson, and with army doctor Ben Platt, as well as the way past cases echo into new investigations.
For fans coming from the Ryder Creed novels, keep an eye on Stranded and the later books, where Maggie’s world begins to overlap with Creed’s. Those crossovers make this series feel like one half of a larger canvas, anchored by a profiler who learns, book by book, what it means to stare at monsters for a living and still hang on to some measure of hope.
Edited by
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