Penelope Banks Murder Mysteries Books in Order

A widow hires Penelope Banks to investigate disturbances she attributes to her dead husband’s ghost. Suspecting a living tormentor, Pen attends a séance that ends in murder, leaving her to solve a case shaped by deception, hidden motives and a puzzling victim.

During a reckless party atop Washington Square’s arch, Penelope Banks glimpses a woman’s body in a flash of lightning. By the time she reaches the ground it has vanished, drawing her into a case crossing New York’s sharply divided social worlds.

Buying a toy after New York’s Christmas parade draws Penelope Banks into a murder investigation when a body is found in the shop. As the case follows her home, a Thanksgiving gathering becomes an unexpected and potentially dangerous family sleuthing session.

Summoned to a Long Island mansion for a will reading, Penelope Banks questions a family friend’s apparent suicide. A locked bedroom, surprising inheritance arrangements and a secret letter give her reasons to investigate the beneficiaries and challenge the official verdict.

The opening of a fashionable rooftop Japanese garden ends in murder when its designer is discovered in the koi pond. Penelope Banks investigates despite pressure from the hotel owner and wealthy guests who would prefer to keep the scandal buried.

When a woman with whom she has a troubled history is poisoned at a society luncheon, Penelope Banks becomes the leading suspect. Clearing her name requires investigating the ambitions, scandals and ruthless private dealings of New York’s most privileged families.

Preparing a lavish birthday party, Penelope Banks befriends a mysterious artist hoping to recover a lost love. A nearby maid’s death and another murder at the celebration force her to investigate connections among wealthy households, old relationships and concealed motives.

A wife hires Penelope Banks after discovering that her missing husband is not dead where he was supposed to be. A neighbor’s vanished Persian cat supplies another puzzle, suggesting the strange events at their apartment building may be connected.

An Atlantic crossing reunites Penelope Banks with a man from her adventurous past, unsettling her relationship with Richard. When a passenger is murdered and the old acquaintance becomes the main suspect, she investigates possible links to an earlier shipboard disappearance.

A widow’s disappearance initially appears to be suicide, but Penelope Banks questions why her beloved Dalmatians were left without care. Investigating with the dogs’ minder reveals a surprisingly active romantic life and several admirers with possible reasons to want her gone.

A gangster and a wealthy businessman separately ask Penelope Banks to locate their missing teenage daughters. A mysterious golden egg suggests a link between the cases, but a subsequent death raises the stakes toward gang conflict and a possible international scandal.

Confined to bed late in pregnancy, Penelope Prescott watches the apartment building across the street for entertainment. When a new resident disappears after a family Christmas party, she recruits friends and her detective husband to investigate without leaving home.

Traveling to Paris aboard the Blue Train, Penelope Banks sees her friend accused of theft. When the accuser is later murdered, the earlier incident becomes dangerously significant, leaving Penelope limited time to identify the killer before the train’s next stop.

Penelope Banks’s stay on the French Riviera is disrupted by the murder of an abrasive hostess who has offended nearly everyone around her. What began as social teasing becomes a serious investigation, with too many suspects and an unexpected cause of death.

In Paris, a former wartime friend plans a novel that threatens to expose Richard and his old companions’ secrets. When the writer is murdered and Richard is arrested, Penelope Banks must investigate the group’s shared history to clear her fiancé.

An anonymous letter challenges the accepted account of a death twenty years earlier, drawing Penelope Prescott back into investigating. Her extraordinary memory of a childhood dinner party may help connect its guests, buried secrets and a supposedly random killing.

An orchid exhibition’s opening gala turns deadly when a wealthy collector collapses after revealing a new discovery. Suspicion falls on Cousin Cordelia’s childhood friend, drawing Penelope into the jealousies, ambitions and concealed dealings beneath the collectors’ elegant public displays.

At an auction in a supposedly cursed mansion, Penelope Prescott finds its owner murdered and her estranged grandfather holding the weapon. A ruined painting and an earlier servant’s suspicious death lead them into decades of family misfortune and concealed connections.