Matt Kile Mystery Books in Order

The Matt Kile mysteries revolve around a narrator who has already lived several lives before the series even begins. Matt is a former homicide detective who was sent to prison for shooting a rapist that a judge had released on a technicality. Behind bars he met lifelong criminals, learned a different set of street rules and discovered that he could write.

Paroled and later fully pardoned, Matt reinvents himself as a mystery novelist who still cannot quite give up investigating. He works cases for lawyers, judges and private clients, moving between upscale neighborhoods and rougher streets with the same sardonic humor. The stories are told in the first person, so readers are always inside Matt’s head as he cracks jokes, questions motives and occasionally admits his own mistakes.

Who Murdered Garson Talmadge introduces this world. Garson Talmadge is a wealthy arms dealer who once supplied weapons to foreign regimes. When he is killed and his much younger wife Clarice is accused, Matt steps in as investigator for her defense attorney. The trail leads from their quiet American neighborhood to international arms deals, with federal agents and foreign interests trying to keep Matt from following the money too far.

In The Original Alibi, a retired general who once sat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff hires Matt to revisit a cold case. Years ago, the general paid for an alibi that kept his grandson out of prison after the murder of a pregnant fiancée. Now, facing his own mortality, he wants to know whether he saved an innocent young man or helped a killer walk free. Matt digs into a privileged family full of people who had motive and opportunity.

Shorter works like Money & Murder let Bishop play with a tighter canvas. There Matt looks into the fears of P.Q. Winston Rutledge, the richest man in Copper City, Arizona, who suspects that one of his eccentric relatives plans to kill him for his fortune. The death that follows turns a family full of colorful oddballs into a lineup of suspects.

Later novels such as Find My Little Sister, The Maltese Pigeon, Judge Snider's Folly and The Year We Had Murder move Matt through time periods and locations, from the glamour and danger of old Hollywood to modern quests involving lost Fabergé eggs and Hollywood parties gone wrong. Along the way he works with recurring allies like his ex cellmate Axel, his on again off again love interests and a few honest cops.

The Matt Kile series blends classic private eye vibes with modern settings, sharp dialogue and a willingness to poke fun at almost everyone on the page. Readers who enjoy twisty plots, memorable side characters and a narrator who never quite loses his sense of humor will find a lot to like here.