Partners (in Crime) Books in Order

Partners (in Crime) is Mike Faricy writing for younger readers, and the change in audience gives the series a different energy right away. Instead of private investigators, mobsters, or crooked lawyers, the action starts in middle school with lunch tables, bullies, hall passes, classroom politics, and a group of kids trying to make school life a little fairer.

The first book sets the tone clearly. Finn Mullaney and his friends are regular kids who know how the social map of the school works. Alan Kelly and his gang control one corner of it through bullying and petty intimidation. Then a new student, Kenji Sato, arrives from Japan, sits with Finn's group, and changes the balance. Kenji has a black belt in karate, but what really matters is that he brings confidence, loyalty, and a new way for the group to think about dealing with trouble.

From there, the series turns school problems into capers. In the opening story, Alan Kelly's crowd is tied to a little black market of hall passes, restroom passes, and test answers. Finn and his friends decide the best outcome would be getting the bullies pushed out and taking control of the situation themselves for better reasons. That gives the books a playful crime angle without losing the younger point of view.

The appeal here is not violence or darkness. It is teamwork. Finn, Kenji, and the others are problem-solvers. They notice what adults miss, they make plans, they test loyalties, and they learn how much courage can come from sticking together. The stakes are school-size, which is exactly right. A lunchroom slight, a bully's racket, or a friend needing backup can feel huge when you are that age, and the series treats that seriously without becoming heavy.

Faricy also keeps the books moving. The tone is quick, clear, and friendly, with enough mischief to make the title feel earned. These are crime-adjacent stories in the sense that the kids are always near schemes, rule-bending, and secret operations, but the series stays rooted in friendship and fairness rather than menace.

Because the published run is short, this is an easy series for younger readers to start and finish. It is aimed at roughly the nine-to-fourteen range, and it should especially suit readers who like school stories with a little mystery, a little strategy, and a cast of kids who become more capable once they start trusting one another.

If you know Mike Faricy mainly from his adult crime novels, Partners (in Crime) shows a lighter, younger version of the same interest he always has: how people make alliances, how power works in small spaces, and how trouble usually starts with somebody deciding the rules no longer apply.