Murder and Magic Books in Order

Nicole Glover's Murder and Magic series is a set of historical fantasy mysteries following generations of the Rhodes family. Each book takes place in an alternate version of the United States where magic exists alongside real periods of American history. The settings shift across decades, but murder, secrets, family history, and celestial magic keep the stories connected.

The series begins in May 1871 with The Conductors, set in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward during Reconstruction. Hetty and Benjy Rhodes were once conductors on the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people reach freedom with courage, planning, and magic drawn from the constellations. After the war, they use those same skills to investigate crimes the white authorities ignore.

Their work is personal as well as practical. Hetty and Benjy know their community well, and their cases bring them into contact with friends, neighbors, old allies, and people carrying painful memories from before the war. In The Undertakers, the couple's investigation into deadly fires and suspicious deaths leads back toward unfinished business from their years on the Underground Railroad.

The mysteries matter because the characters can't simply rely on official institutions to help them.

Later books move forward in time and turn toward younger members of the wider Rhodes family. The Improvisers takes place in 1931 and follows Velma Frye, a daring pilot, jazz pianist, former magic bootlegger, and investigator for a magic rights organization. When dangerous enchanted objects begin causing harm, Velma travels through a Prohibition-era America that is full of flight shows, shifting alliances, and old family questions.

The Starseekers moves to 1964, in the middle of the Space Race. Cynthia Rhodes is an arcane engineer working on magical solutions for NASA's push toward the Moon. A deadly incident and a cursed museum curator draw her into an investigation with Theodore Danner, an archaeologist who is just as eager to chase answers. The stakes grow from one troubling case to a threat that reaches beyond the research lab.

These books blend historical detail with accessible mystery plotting. Expect magical investigations, a mix of romance and danger, and characters who keep going because their communities need them to. You can read the later novels as their own adventures, but starting with The Conductors gives the family history, magical world, and long threads of connection the most room to land.