Matchmaker Mysteries (JB Lynn) Books in Order

The Matchmaker Mysteries take one of JB Lynn's most memorable side characters and let her run wild with the premise. At the center is Armani Vasquez, a semi-psychic busybody with strong opinions, strange clues, and an absolute belief that she knows who should be together. That would already be enough to create trouble. In these books, it also leads straight into mysteries involving burglaries, inheritances, kidnappings, disappearances, and a whole lot of romantic resistance.

Armani means well. That does not make her less chaotic.

Unlike the long-running Maggie Lee books, this series tends to build each story around a different couple. In The Mutt and the Matchmaker, private investigator Tom Hanlon gets shoved toward quirky dog walker Jane Bly while he is still wondering whether she might be involved in a string of burglaries. In A Match Made in Mystery, attorney Brady Stewart gets one of Armani's baffling leads and finds himself pulled into an old inheritance puzzle alongside Amy Winn. Catnapped! pairs cyber-sleuth Pete Hanlon with ex-cop Alyssa Montgomery when a stolen cat turns into something much more dangerous.

That structure gives the series a fresh feel from book to book. The connecting thread is not one single detective or one big conspiracy. It is Armani's matchmaking instincts, the shared world around her, and the way romance keeps colliding with investigation. These stories are lighter than Lynn's darker suspense work, but they still have real stakes. The cases may begin with a dog park encounter, a puzzling phrase, or a pet in trouble, yet they reliably grow into something bigger.

Pets matter here, too. So do meet-cutes, misunderstandings, and people who are convinced they are too sensible to believe Armani until she turns out to be right again. The tone is warm, playful, and easy to read, with enough mystery to keep the pages moving. If you like romance that has an actual plot wrapped around it, rather than just a decorative crime on the side, these books do that well.

The series also works nicely as a companion to the Hitwoman universe because Armani already comes with history. Readers who know her from Maggie's books will understand why everyone is both fond of her and a little afraid of what she will meddle in next. New readers can still jump in here without much trouble, because each romance gets its own arc and its own mystery.

Start with The Mutt and the Matchmaker if you want the clearest introduction to the concept. From there, the books keep the same appealing formula: odd clue, stubborn couple, escalating mystery, and Armani in the middle of it all, insisting she knows best. Most of the time, annoyingly, she does.