Schemes Books in Order

The Schemes books are a little different in format from some of Kiki Swinson's other series. Each volume pairs her work with another urban-fiction story, but the Swinson side centers on Karlie Houston, a woman who convinces herself that stealing from the wrong people is just overdue compensation.

That never ends well.

In Schemes, Karlie is managing a payday loan office and watching money pour in while her own life stays tight. Her solution is not subtle. She helps mastermind a heist across multiple company locations, pulling in her lover and a crew to hit the business all at once. It is a classic Swinson move, a character sees a shortcut, believes she can control the fallout, and learns very quickly that crime is only easy until the first body drops.

By Dirty Tricks, Karlie is paying for that mistake. She is broke, betrayed, and running from a bounty, with former allies gone and hard people looking for repayment. The series becomes less about the original hustle and more about cleanup, hiding, and whether Karlie has enough nerve left to outthink the people who want her dead.

What stands out in this series is the scale. The plot is not sprawling. It is tight, mean, and built around one scheme going bad. That gives Karlie's story a tense, compressed feeling. She is not navigating years of family drama or a whole criminal dynasty. She is living through the aftershock of one greedy choice.

If you want a short-run series with quick momentum, dirty money, and a heroine who talks herself into trouble before she has any plan for getting out, Schemes is a good pick. It is a reminder that in Swinson's world, the real problem is rarely the hustle itself. It is what wakes up once the hustle succeeds.