Morris Brick (Dave Zeltserman) Books in Order

The Morris Brick books are Los Angeles serial-killer thrillers written by Dave Zeltserman under the name Jacob Stone. Morris Brick is a former LAPD homicide detective who has left the department to run his own investigative firm. He is a familiar face to the police when a case turns especially ugly, and that is usually when his old skills are needed.

Brick knows how quickly a hunt can become personal.

He is not a lone-wolf detective in the usual sense. His firm includes former homicide detectives, and the books give the team room to work through leads, argue over theories, and support one another when the pressure rises. Brick’s home life also matters. He is married to Natalie, a therapist, has a daughter named Rachel, and is often joined by Parker, his bull terrier. Those relationships keep the series grounded even when the crimes are extreme.

The first novel, Deranged, introduces Brick as he is drawn into the return of the Skull Cracker Killer, a murderer who previously terrorized New York and has begun killing again in Los Angeles. Crazed follows Brick as a killer targets people connected to his clients. In Malicious, a murderer stages crimes with a grand, elaborate plan in mind. Cruel brings back a killer whose crimes recur on a grim cycle, while Unleashed sends Brick after the Cupid Killer, who attacks couples in love.

The cases are designed as high-stakes thrillers rather than quiet procedural puzzles. Readers see the danger from several angles, including the investigators and, at times, the people creating the violence. The series is interested in the planning, fear, and manipulation behind a serial crime, but it does not turn Brick into a superhero. He can read a case well, yet he still needs his team, evidence, time, and luck.

Los Angeles gives the books their scale. The city’s entertainment culture, wealth, crime, and sprawling geography all create opportunities for the killers and complications for the people chasing them. Brick’s firm operates in a world where private investigators, police departments, the media, and powerful criminals may all be working around the same case for different reasons.

Expect brisk pacing, dark subject matter, and occasional dry humor.

The novels were published from 2017 through 2019 and are best read in order, beginning with Deranged. Each central case is resolved within its own book, but the first novel does the most work in introducing Brick’s family, colleagues, and working methods. Start there if you want the full picture of why he keeps getting called back into the worst investigations in Los Angeles.