Paula Gosling Books in Order
Browse Paula Gosling books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy starting points for Jack Stryker, Blackwater Bay, and more.
Last updated: July 12, 2026
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Paula Gosling books in publication order
18 books
A Running Duck
by Paula Gosling
1978
San Francisco copywriter Clare Randall is wounded by a sniper after helping a stranger on the street. Veteran Lieutenant Malchek takes over her protection and tries to draw out the hitman before Clare becomes an easier target.
Fair Game
by Paula Gosling
1978
Also published as A Running Duck, this thriller follows San Francisco copywriter Clare Randall after a sniper wounds her in broad daylight. Lieutenant Malchek, a former sniper, has to protect her and force the hidden gunman into the open.
The Zero Trap
by Paula Gosling
1979
After a hijacking, nine passengers wake in an isolated Arctic house with food, fuel, and no obvious guards. The freezing wilderness makes escape nearly impossible, and suspicion inside the house may be just as deadly as anything outside.
Loser's Blues
by Paula Gosling
1980
Jazz pianist Johnny Cosatelli becomes the obvious suspect when his ex-girlfriend is murdered. With police pressure mounting and her wealthy new lover bent on revenge, he has to clear his name before the case turns even more violent.
Mind's Eye
by Paula Gosling
1980
Neurologist Philip Elliot survives a car crash only to discover he can read minds. His move into ESP research leads him toward a woman with overwhelming psychic powers, and into a dangerous struggle over espionage, control, and weaponized thought.
The Woman In Red
by Paula Gosling
1983
When murder breaks into a close-knit circle of friends, every relationship starts to look dangerous. This is a slow-burn whodunit built on hidden motives, shifting suspicion, and the treachery beneath smooth social surfaces.
Monkey Puzzle
by Paula Gosling
1985
When a university professor is brutally murdered, Detective Lieutenant Jack Stryker faces a maze of suspects, old grudges, and more violence to come. As panic spreads across campus and the city, Stryker must find the mind behind the killings.
The Wychford Murders
by Paula Gosling
1986
Luke Abbott returns to his West Country hometown when an elderly woman is found with her throat cut. Old memories, village loyalties, and buried resentments turn the case into a deeply personal hunt for a killer.
Hoodwink
by Paula Gosling
1988
What looks like a small murder case for cop Jake Chase quickly spirals into kidnappings, old scandals, crooked politics, and a feud that reaches back years. It's an offbeat, fast-moving mystery where nearly every clue leads to fresh trouble.
Backlash
by Paula Gosling
1989
Four police officers are shot dead in separate precincts, and Jack Stryker is called into a case that keeps getting stranger. With federal agent Dana Marchant beside him, he hunts a patient marksman whose target list may be growing.
Death Penalties
by Paula Gosling
1992
After her husband dies in a suspicious car crash, Tess Leland tries to rebuild life with her son Max. Then the threats begin, and Luke Abbott's team must work out whether someone is finishing what the first attack started.
The Body in Blackwater Bay
by Paula Gosling
1992
Recovering from a gunshot wound at his girlfriend's island cottage, Detective Jack Stryker is pulled into a murder when a body turns up on a manicured lawn. Paradise quickly turns tense as he works with the local sheriff to untangle a sinister case.
A Few Dying Words
by Paula Gosling
1993
Halloween in Blackwater Bay means pranks, costumes, and the annual Howl, until Sheriff Matt Gabriel sees links to a killing from thirty years earlier. As the town doubts him, he races to stop a murderer hiding in plain sight.
The Dead of Winter
by Paula Gosling
1995
When a corpse surfaces through the ice, Blackwater Bay is thrown into winter panic. Sheriff Matt Gabriel and teacher Jess Gibbons must connect a mob-linked ex-con, a missing schoolgirl, and mounting local fear before the season turns deadlier.
Death and Shadows
by Paula Gosling
1999
A murdered nurse, vanishing drug supplies, and unexplained patient deaths unsettle Blackwater Bay's private clinic. New physiotherapist Laura Brandon starts asking questions and finds a workplace thick with grudges, secrets, and the possibility of a very personal killer.
Underneath Every Stone
by Paula Gosling
2000
During election season, Sheriff Matt Gabriel arrests hot-tempered outcast Frog Bartlett for an apparently motiveless murder. Then unrest spreads, another person dies, and Matt himself becomes a suspect in a case that tears through the whole town.
Ricochet
by Paula Gosling
2002
The deaths of Professor Mayhew and one of her students look unrelated at first, but Jack Stryker is not convinced. Distracted by strain in his relationship and a second private investigation, he must decide what really connects the two murders.
Tears of the Dragon
by Paula Gosling
2004
In 1930s Chicago, young writer Elodie Brown witnesses a killing at a wealthy Chinese importer's party after overhearing something she should not have heard. Her search for answers pulls her into mob violence, politics, and a much larger conspiracy.
Where to start with Paula Gosling
If you want the award-winning police novels: Monkey Puzzle → Backlash → Ricochet
If you want a Great Lakes small-town mystery: The Body in Blackwater Bay → A Few Dying Words → The Dead of Winter
If you want an English village investigation: The Wychford Murders → Death Penalties
If you want stand-alone suspense: A Running Duck → The Zero Trap → Loser's Blues
Paula Gosling sub-series and character series
Blackwater Bay books in order
Explore this series
The Body in Blackwater Bay
by Paula Gosling
1992Blackwater Bay, Book 1
A Few Dying Words
by Paula Gosling
1993Blackwater Bay, Book 2
The Dead of Winter
by Paula Gosling
1995Blackwater Bay, Book 3
Death and Shadows
by Paula Gosling
1999Blackwater Bay, Book 4
Underneath Every Stone
by Paula Gosling
2000Blackwater Bay, Book 5
Blackwater Bay books in chronological order

The Body in Blackwater Bay
by Paula Gosling
1992Blackwater Bay, Book 1
A Few Dying Words
by Paula Gosling
1993Blackwater Bay, Book 2
The Dead of Winter
by Paula Gosling
1995Blackwater Bay, Book 3
Death and Shadows
by Paula Gosling
1999Blackwater Bay, Book 4
Underneath Every Stone
by Paula Gosling
2000Blackwater Bay, Book 5
Jack Stryker books in order
Explore this seriesLuke Abbott books in order
Explore this seriesStandalone Paula Gosling books
Author bio
Paula Gosling was born in Detroit, Michigan, on October 12, 1939, and grew up there. She studied English at Wayne State University, then went into advertising. That early working life matters, because before she was a novelist she spent years learning how to make language sharp, quick, and useful.
Then she crossed the Atlantic.
Gosling moved permanently to England in 1964. She worked as a copywriter in Detroit and later in London and Bristol, and eventually became a freelance copy consultant before turning to full-time writing in 1979. Even so, her fiction never settled into just one national lane. Some books feel very American. Others lean into English village life. Quite a few do both at once.
Her first novel, A Running Duck, appeared in 1974 and won the John Creasey Award for best first crime novel. It is a tight suspense story about a San Francisco copywriter who suddenly becomes a target, and it announced several Gosling trademarks right away: fast setup, believable pressure, and an interest in what happens when ordinary life is interrupted by violence. The book was later also published as Fair Game, and it was adapted for film more than once.
She was off and running.
A lot of readers begin with Monkey Puzzle, the novel that won the Gold Dagger and introduced Detective Lieutenant Jack Stryker. Stryker is not a glamorous sleuth. He is obsessive, awkward, intensely focused, and sometimes brilliant in ways that even his colleagues find unsettling. Gosling brought him back in Backlash and Ricochet, building a loose police series that mixes procedural work with messy personal lives and complicated motives.
Her stand-alone books show a wider range than people sometimes expect. The Zero Trap strands hijacking victims in Arctic isolation and turns fear inward, while Loser's Blues drops into the music world and lets a murder case gather around a jazz pianist. Even when the setup changes, Gosling keeps returning to the same pressure points, closed groups, bad secrets, conflicting loyalties, and the way a single death can expose everything people were trying to keep hidden.
She also wrote two other notable series. The Luke Abbott books, beginning with The Wychford Murders, bring crime into an English village setting without making it cozy in a weightless way. The Blackwater Bay novels, starting with The Body in Blackwater Bay, shift to the Great Lakes and show how much danger can sit just under the surface of a beautiful small town. Later books such as Death and Shadows and Underneath Every Stone show how good she was at using a whole community, not just one detective, to carry suspense.
She also published under other names, including Ainslie Skinner and Holly Baxter.
What makes Gosling worth following is her balance. She likes a strong puzzle, but she also wants people on the page to feel like people, not just suspects. Her books are full of damaged friendships, old romances, class tensions, professional rivalries, and the stubborn habits of towns and institutions. She served as chair of the Crime Writers' Association, which says something simple and useful about her standing among fellow writers. Public biographies still place her in England, where she has lived since the 1960s. That long life between America and Britain helps explain the fiction too, American pace, British mystery structure, and a dry eye for how strange people can get when the pressure starts to rise.
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