Montana/Trey Fortier Books in Order

The Montana/Trey Fortier books pair amateur investigator Lane Montana with police lieutenant Trey Fortier in two mysteries by Kay Hooper. Lane earns her living finding things that other people have lost, an occupation that already requires curiosity, observation and persistence. A murder turns those skills toward a much more dangerous purpose. The series combines crime investigation with a developing personal connection between a woman drawn into trouble and the officer willing to consider her side of the story.

Finding the wrong thing changes everything.

In Crime of Passion, a message sends Lane to the home of wealthy Jeffrey Townsend. She expects a possible assignment and instead discovers his body. The disappearance of the message that brought her there removes an important part of her explanation. What began as an ordinary feature of her work becomes a reason for the police to suspect her, giving her a direct stake in finding the truth.

Trey's willingness to look beyond that convenient conclusion makes their partnership possible. Lane has practical knowledge of how to locate missing objects and occasionally people, while he works within a murder investigation. Their perspectives aren't identical. She needs to clear her name, and he has to assess evidence without accepting the easiest account simply because it fits an initial suspicion. The tension between those responsibilities gives the first case its personal urgency.

The setting also puts Lane in contact with the hidden life of an influential man. A victim's wealth and standing don't make the people around him easy to understand or remove the possibility of damaging secrets. Lane's work is normally about recovering something that has gone missing. Here, reconstructing what has been concealed becomes essential to explaining why someone died and why she was placed at the scene. House of Cards moves the danger closer to Lane's family. A reunion at her mother's estate is already an uncomfortable occasion because Trey will be introduced as her lover. A poisoned drink turns that awkward social gathering into another investigation. Family assumptions about the intended victim create a possible explanation, but Lane and Trey have reasons to question the account taking shape around them.

The two books therefore move from a case threatening Lane's freedom to one exposing the fragility of familiar relationships. In both, knowing who people appear to be is only a beginning. Trey and Lane must look at what the evidence supports while other people press for an answer that protects a reputation or confirms a suspicion. Their personal relationship develops within that shared work.

Read Crime of Passion before House of Cards. The order establishes Lane's occupation, her first encounter with Trey and the relationship assumed by the second mystery. Expect murder investigations, family and social secrets, and a romantic thread running alongside the cases. The recurring pair supplies continuity as Lane's ability to find what is missing becomes entangled with understanding what someone wants to keep hidden.