Mercy Watts Mysteries Books in Order
Part ofAW Hartoin Books in OrderSee the Mercy Watts Mysteries by AW Hartoin in order, with quick summaries, character notes, series background, and tips on where to start.
Last updated: July 8, 2026
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Publication Order
15 books
Coke with a Twist
by AW Hartoin
2012
Mercy's PI father pulls her into a fast, ugly case involving a young woman's attack. Chasing answers from a dive bar to sorority row, Mercy learns she needs to solve it quickly or become the next victim.
Touch and Go
by AW Hartoin
2012
To avoid paperwork for her father, Mercy takes a case for an old rival and instantly regrets it. A missing man and an unruly dog turn a simple job into another scramble to stay ahead of trouble.
A Good Man Gone
by AW Hartoin
2013
Mercy thinks she is finally free from her parents' investigations until a family friend's sudden death pulls her back in. Then a bride is murdered, and Mercy has to figure out whether the two deaths are connected.
Diver Down
by AW Hartoin
2013
Mercy escapes to Roatan for sun and scuba, only to find that her problems have followed her there. The deeper she gets into island trouble, the clearer it becomes that someone wants her dead.
Nowhere Fast
by AW Hartoin
2013
Guilt-tripped by family, Mercy goes looking for a missing girl the police cannot find. What starts as a favor quickly turns dangerous when it becomes clear someone is determined to keep the runaway hidden.
Double Black Diamond
by AW Hartoin
2014
A Colorado ski trip goes off the rails when Mercy agrees to a desperate favor and ends up a suspect in a brutal crime. To save a child, she may have to break the law before she can solve the case.
Dry Spell
by AW Hartoin
2014
When Mercy's friend turns up terrified in the middle of a brutal Missouri drought, the explanation could be grief, madness, or something long buried. Mercy follows the trail into a mystery that feels almost supernatural.
Drop Dead Red
by AW Hartoin
2015
A mass killing at a St. Louis restaurant should have nothing to do with Mercy, but favors and family say otherwise. Her search for the truth leads from home to New Orleans and a case with a nasty scientific twist.
In the Worst Way
by AW Hartoin
2015
Sent to a remote castle to hide from a vengeful gang, Mercy expects trouble, but not murder. Surrounded by bickering cousins, baseball campers, and old ghosts, she has to solve the crime before the killers find her.
A Sin and a Shame
by AW Hartoin
2016
While recovering from injury, Mercy gets pushed into defending a retired librarian who has taken a life. The case is stranger than it first appears, and solving it forces Mercy toward a choice with real cost.
The Wife of Riley
by AW Hartoin
2016
Mercy owes the Fibonacci family a favor, and it sends her to Paris to identify a woman who may not be dead after all. Mafia pressure, family secrets, and the Klinefeld Group make this search far riskier than it looks.
Brain Trust
by AW Hartoin
2017
Racing home from Sturgis, Mercy finds danger waiting and gets pulled into one of her darkest cases yet. With her father missing and violent predators closing in, she and her oddball crew have to keep digging.
My Bad Grandad
by AW Hartoin
2017
Mercy heads to the Sturgis motorcycle rally with her grandad, hoping for a break from trouble. Instead she gets a dead Vietnam veteran, a string of suspicious deaths, and an old secret still stalking the Watts family.
Down and Dirty
by AW Hartoin
2018
Back at the clinic and hoping for normal, Mercy instead lands in a lawsuit and a messy case full of jealousy and affairs. With Chuck absent and danger rising, she has to sort out who is lying before the situation turns deadly.
Small Time Crime
by AW Hartoin
2019
A cold case from 1965 drags Mercy back into family history when the FBI uncovers a new clue. What should be a vacation turns into a hunt for answers some relatives would rather leave buried.
Series background & context
Mercy Watts is the kind of heroine who keeps trying to mind her own business and keeps failing. She works as a nurse, but her father Tommy Watts is a private investigator with very strong instincts, and he has a habit of pulling her into cases. That means the series starts with everyday life, work, family calls, a little grumbling, and then suddenly someone is dead and Mercy is in the middle of it.
The books are set mostly around St. Louis and Missouri, but they do not stay put for long. Mercy gets sent or dragged to places like Roatan, Colorado, New Orleans, Paris, and the Sturgis motorcycle rally. Even when the setting changes, the basic pull stays the same. Mercy wants to get through the trip, help the people she loves, and maybe avoid being shot, framed, or chased by criminals. Usually she gets one out of three.
Family is really the engine here. Tommy is a major force, but he is far from the only one. Mercy's world is full of relatives, old friends, law enforcement connections, and the kind of helpers who are useful, exasperating, and loyal all at once. Her relationship with Chuck gives the series a steady emotional thread, while the wider cast brings a lot of the comedy and chaos. These books like a crowded room, and Hartoin knows how to make that room feel lived in.
There is also a bigger story running under the murders. As the series goes on, old secrets about the Watts family and the Bled family keep surfacing. Mafia favors do not stay settled. Cold cases refuse to stay cold. People from the past, and sometimes whole organizations, keep reaching into Mercy's present. So while each book has its own mystery, reading in order pays off because the background questions keep growing and connecting.
The tone lands somewhere between cozy mystery and action mystery. The books have jokes, stubborn relatives, and plenty of sharp banter, but the stakes can turn serious fast. Hartoin is happy to drop Mercy into messy situations, then let her sarcasm, loyalty, and sheer refusal to quit carry her through. If you like amateur sleuth stories where the sleuth is a little more bruised, a little more reluctant, and a lot more tied to family than she planned, this series fits well.
Start with A Good Man Gone. It lays out Mercy's voice, her family, and the way these stories work. From there the series keeps expanding, getting deeper into long-buried history without losing the humor that makes Mercy good company.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
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