Pax Arrington Mystery Books in Order
Part ofElle Gray Books in OrderSee the Pax Arrington mysteries by Elle Gray in order, with book list, concise case summaries, series background, and notes on how they connect to Blake Wilder and other series.
Last updated: December 22, 2025
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Publication Order
5 books
A Wife's Secret
by Elle Gray
2021
Haunted PI Paxton Arrington follows a trail of clues his late wife seems to have left behind. As he reopens the investigation into her death, he finds himself in a deadly game with people who will do anything to keep the past buried.
Woman in the Water
by Elle Gray
2020
When a woman’s body is pulled from the water under suspicious circumstances, Paxton Arrington is hired to prove what really happened. The more he learns about her life, the clearer it becomes that someone needed her story silenced.
I See You
by Elle Gray
2020
After leaving the Seattle PD and opening his own PI firm, Paxton Arrington takes a kidnapping case that should be simple: deliver the ransom, get the child back. Instead, he’s drawn into a serial killer’s twisted game—with Blake Wilder as unexpected backup.
Her Last Call
by Elle Gray
2020
A serial killer’s taunts pull Paxton Arrington into a case that feels uncomfortably personal. With Blake Wilder at his side, he must confront both a cunning predator and the unresolved grief that’s been driving him for years.
Deadly Pursuit
by Elle Gray
2020
Still a Seattle cop, Paxton Arrington uncovers corruption inside his own precinct and a strike team that may be crossing the line from law enforcement to organized crime. Going after them means risking his career—and maybe his life—with only Blake Wilder to help.
Series background & context
The Pax Arrington books follow Paxton Arrington, a man born into money who walked away from the boardroom for a badge. Rather than running a family empire, he became a Seattle cop, driven by a rigid sense of right and wrong that doesn’t sit well with dirty colleagues.
The prequel, Deadly Pursuit, shows him still on the force and stumbling onto corruption inside his own precinct. Taking on a highly decorated strike team could cost him his career or worse, so he pulls in the one person he trusts to back him up—FBI Special Agent Blake Wilder. That early team-up sets the tone for the relationship between the Arrington and Blake Wilder books.
In I See You and the later novels, Paxton has left the department and opened a private investigation firm. He’s still obsessed with the unexplained death of his wife, a case that never sat right with him. His very first PI job, a kidnapping ransom drop, puts him in the sights of a serial killer who seems more interested in recruiting him than escaping.
Across the series, Paxton takes on cases that start small—a ransom exchange, a missing woman, a body pulled from the water—and spiral into dangerous territory involving calculated predators, police corruption, and old enemies. Blake appears regularly, helping him hunt killers while she keeps pushing him to face both the facts of his wife’s case and the parts of himself he’d rather ignore.
Tonally, these books are slightly grittier and more intimate than the big-team FBI novels. You spend a lot of time in Paxton’s head as he wrestles with anger, grief, and the line between justice and vengeance. He’s smart, abrasive, often funny in a dry way, and terrible at backing down when he probably should.
For readers who like private-investigator stories with strong crossover ties to an FBI universe, Pax Arrington offers a contained arc. You can read his books on their own, but starting with Deadly Pursuit and I See You makes his later choices—and his appearances in Blake’s series—land with more weight.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
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