Private Dicks/Sanctuary Books in Order

Private Dicks/Sanctuary is a compact two-book romantic suspense series written as Katie Allen. The mood is a little grittier than the lighter contemporary books, but the heart of it is the same: people under pressure, strong attraction, and danger that forces everyone to stop pretending. These books work well in order because the second story circles back to characters and bonds built in the first.

Private Dicks opens with ex-cop Isaac Rhodes and his business partner Nate Washington. They run a private investigation outfit, and the job side of the book has real weight, missing-child cases, threats, and hard choices, but the emotional core is Rhodes finally admitting he wants more than partnership from Wash. It is friends-to-lovers with a lot of tension, and with real risk hanging over them.

Hide Out shifts the focus to Trevor Haas, who ends up in witness protection under the watch of officer Peter Giordano. The setting tightens into a small-town safe house in Honeysuckle, where fixing up a broken place and trying to keep Trevor alive go hand in hand. The trouble is that secrets keep leaking in from the outside, and the town itself is not as sleepy as it first looks.

Safety is always temporary in these books.

What makes the pair work is the balance between suspense and tenderness. The men are protective, but they are also tired, scared, lonely, and trying to decide what kind of life is actually possible for them. There is found-family energy running underneath both books, plus enough crime-story momentum to keep things moving whenever the romance starts to feel almost too comfortable.

If you like male-male romantic suspense with private investigators, witness protection, small-town secrets, and emotionally bruised characters who still show up for each other, this series is an easy one to sink into. It is fast, intimate, and just dangerous enough.