Poppy Fields Adventures Books in Order

The Poppy Fields Adventures are Julie Mulhern’s high-speed, globe-trotting answer to the cozy mystery. The murders are real, the danger can be big, and the villains are often part of cartel, espionage, smuggling, or financial crime plots. Still, the books keep a light touch. Poppy survives as much by reading people as by running from them, and she usually has time to notice the clothes.

The series begins with Fields' Guide to Abduction. Poppy agrees to spend time at a luxury resort in Cabo and quickly ends up in the middle of cartel violence. It is a rough introduction to a new kind of life. By the end of that first adventure, she has seen too much to go back to being just a famous face with famous parents.

That is the hook.

Poppy’s background opens doors that a normal investigator could never enter. Her mother, Chariss Carlton, is a major movie star. Poppy’s social world includes actors, billionaires, designers, luxury resorts, destination weddings, and private islands. Mulhern turns that access into trouble. The same invitations that look like perks can hide money laundering, terrorist plots, traffickers, assassins, and people who think Poppy will be easy to silence.

Thor, whose real name is Mark Stone, becomes one of the key people in Poppy’s world. He is capable in the way a secret-agent partner needs to be, but the series still belongs to Poppy. She is the one readers follow into Paris, New Orleans, London, Egypt, Grand Cayman, Greece, and Turkey. She is also the one who has to decide what kind of courage she has when the glamor falls away.

The books have an episodic adventure feel, but they work better in order. The first few entries show Poppy being pulled into danger. Later books build on her growing role in a secret world where favors, packages, family connections, and romantic ties can all turn into international incidents.

What keeps the series from becoming too heavy is Poppy’s voice. She can be frightened and still funny. She can be stylish and still practical. She can love comfort and still sprint straight into the kind of mess most people would flee. Add Consuela, the small dog with an outsized sense of menace, and the result is a series that treats danger seriously while letting the adventure stay bright, quick, and mischievous.