Martin Rhodes Books in Order

Martin Rhodes is a former homicide detective with a prison sentence in his past and very little room for a quiet life. He spent ten years behind bars for murder. When he gets out, he tries to move forward, but murder cases keep finding him.

That past follows him everywhere.

The prequel novella Fear Your Enemy shows Rhodes after prison, traveling from town to town and trying to work. A call from his ex-wife pulls him into a case where her current husband is accused of murder. It sets up the series well because it shows the central problem with Rhodes: he wants distance from his old life, but he cannot walk away from someone who might be innocent.

The main run begins with Close Your Eyes, where Rhodes arrives in Bridgeton hoping to restart his life. At the same time, Special Agent Jo Pullinger is hunting the man who killed her father. Dismembered bodies on trains bring their paths together. The next books keep Rhodes close to violent, symbolic killers, from married men executed in motel rooms in Cross Your Heart to bodies hung in public in Say Your Prayers.

The series later shifts into Chicago and a rougher action-thriller mode. Meet Your Maker brings Rhodes into a case involving grisly animal attacks and a lawyer’s death. Breathe Your Last pairs him with Heidi Larson as a bounty hunter trying to prove a young man innocent. Redeem Your Sins raises the stakes again with the Archive, a black-ops agency, and a poison-using killer known as the Chemist.

Rhodes is not a tidy hero. He is useful because he understands guilt, punishment, and how a case can look obvious while still being wrong. Readers who want the full arc should start with Fear Your Enemy or Close Your Eyes, then follow the series in order.