Rocky Start Books in Order

The Rocky Start series asks a simple question with wonderfully complicated answers: what if an entire small town in the Smoky Mountains was secretly full of retired spies and assassins, and a newcomer walked in thinking she was just getting a job and a cheap apartment?

In Rocky Start Rose Malone’s landlord and boss dies, leaving her and her daughter unsure whether they still have a home or an income. When a stranger claiming to be the heir tries to throw her out, Rose defends herself with a reproduction of the Maltese Falcon. Max Reddy, an ex-operative hiking the Appalachian Trail with his dog, steps in, and within a day he and Maggs are pulled into a community where the baker, the postmaster, and the woman who runs the oddities shop all have suspiciously dangerous skills.

The first book sets up the town of Rocky Start as a haven for people who used to live in the shadows and are now pretending to be normal. There are rumors of hidden money, an arrest warrant in Rose’s past, and a parade of quirky locals whose banter barely disguises how dangerous they once were. The romance between Rose and Max builds alongside the growing sense that someone is still playing a long game in the background.

Very Nice Funerals picks up after Max has tried to leave and found it much harder than expected. Rose is juggling her daughter’s PTSD, a building full of secrets, and an influx of men who suddenly want to help her search for a rumored million dollars. When one of Rocky Start’s citizens turns up posed in a coffin, Rose and Max are back in investigator mode, hunting a killer in a town where almost everyone is trained to kill.

The final book, The Honey Pot Plot, turns the tension up again as somebody begins targeting women in Rocky Start and old operations come back to haunt the residents. With bodies piling up and outside journalists sniffing around for a story about serial killers, Rose, Max, and their odd network of ex-agents have to decide how much of their past they are willing to expose to keep the town safe.

Across all three novels the tone stays quick and funny without losing sight of the cost of long careers in covert work. Middle-aged characters fall in love, try to parent, and argue over casseroles while also dealing with snipers, hidden cash, and the kind of secrets that never really stay buried. If you enjoyed the blend of romance and action in Crusie and Mayer’s earlier books, Rocky Start offers the same energy filtered through older, slightly more battered heroes.