Nola O'Grady Books in Order

The Nola O'Grady books move Kerr's storytelling into a contemporary, tongue in cheek urban fantasy set in and around San Francisco. Instead of medieval dweomer workers, the series follows a psychic operative who juggles secret agencies, alternate universes, and her large, unruly Irish American family.

Nola works for an organization known simply as the Agency, a psychic outfit so hidden that conventional intelligence services do not officially know it exists. Her job is to monitor and counter manifestations of Chaos that threaten the metaphysical balance between Order and Harmony. That sounds abstract, but in practice it means tracking rogue cults, magical crimes, and cross dimensional threats that have a habit of landing close to home.

In License to Ensorcell she returns to San Francisco despite serious doubts about living near her eccentric relatives again. The Agency assigns her a new partner, Ari Nathan, an Israeli agent whose skills with guns and fieldwork make up for his lack of tact. Together they investigate a supposed serial killer who believes he is shooting werewolves, only to discover that he is targeting real shapeshifters, including Nola's own younger brother.

Water to Burn finds Nola newly promoted to run the San Francisco branch of the Agency just as strange "rogue waves" begin sweeping people to their deaths and a Chaos cult reemerges. Ari is now officially attached to her unit, bringing romantic tension into the office. Nola's attempts to track a supposedly dead prophet from Ari's past and a charismatic cult leader are constantly complicated by family members barging into her cases.

In Apocalypse to Go and Love on the Run, the stakes widen to encompass alternate versions of San Francisco, mysterious trans world law enforcement groups, and enemies who want either to recruit Ari or eliminate him. Nola's brothers, particularly Michael and Sean, get sucked into dangerous adventures of their own, forcing her to choose between professional duty and blood ties. Psychic squid like images, prophetic dreams, and a recurring Peacock Angel cult keep Chaos literally and figuratively in the picture.

The tone across the series is light on the surface, full of banter, puns, and cultural clashes between Nola's devout relatives, Ari's background, and the surreal demands of their work. Underneath, though, the books are interested in trauma, family loyalty, and the difficulty of maintaining any kind of balance in a world full of overlapping agendas.

For readers who like their urban fantasy to mix real city streets with magic, spies, romance, and humor, the Nola O'Grady series offers a different but recognizably Kerr vision: flawed people doing their best in the middle of forces much bigger than they are.