Sue Henry Books in Order
Explore Sue Henry books in order, with series guides, short summaries, and simple advice on where to start with Jessie Arnold, Alex Jensen, and Maxie.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
16 books
Murder on the Iditarod Trail
by Sue Henry
1991
As top mushers begin dying in bizarre accidents and attacks, state trooper Alex Jensen realizes someone is hunting competitors on the Iditarod. Jessie Arnold keeps racing anyway, even as her chance of winning becomes a chance of becoming the next victim.
Termination Dust
by Sue Henry
1995
A Yukon vacation goes badly wrong when Jim Hampton finds old bones and is arrested for murdering a former senator. Alex Jensen doubts the easy answer and follows the case through early snow, old journals, and buried crimes.
Sleeping Lady
by Sue Henry
1996
When a missing pilot's plane is finally found, there is a dead woman in the wreck and no sign of the pilot himself. Alex Jensen and the pilot's wife follow the trail into the Alaskan wild, where every answer raises fresh danger.
Death Takes Passage
by Sue Henry
1997
A Gold Rush reenactment voyage through Alaska's Inside Passage turns deadly when a crew member vanishes. With Jessie Arnold aboard and no easy way off the ship, Alex Jensen has to untangle greed, secrets, and murder at sea.
Deadfall
by Sue Henry
1998
Jessie is being stalked, first with threats, then with traps, then with a near fatal crash. She hides out on a remote island with her dog Tank, only to find the killer may have followed her into the wilderness.
Murder on the Yukon Quest
by Sue Henry
1999
Jessie enters the Yukon Quest while Alex is away in Idaho, then learns a young racer has been abducted. Forced to keep the secret while still running the brutal trail, she faces a race that could end in murder.
Beneath the Ashes
by Sue Henry
2000
A suspicious fire destroys a favorite local pub and leaves Jessie Arnold's small corner of Alaska on edge. When more flames follow and an old friend arrives in trouble, Jessie has to figure out who is desperate, who is lying, and who is killing.
Dead North
by Sue Henry
2001
After her cabin burns, Jessie agrees to drive a friend's motor home up the Alaska Highway. A frightened teenage hitchhiker and a string of murders turn the trip into a lonely, dangerous run through some of the wildest country around.
Cold Company
by Sue Henry
2002
Excavation for Jessie's new cabin turns up a skeleton and a necklace tied to long ago murders. When another woman disappears, Jessie is pulled into a chilling case that forces her to face old fears and new danger.
Death Trap
by Sue Henry
2003
While recovering from surgery, Jessie volunteers at the Alaska State Fair and stumbles into a savage killing. The case soon tangles with a missing child, the disappearance of her lead dog, and danger that closes in on Jessie herself.
The Serpents Trail
by Sue Henry
2004
Newly on the road in her Winnebago, Maxie McNabb heads south with Stretch and plans to enjoy her freedom. Instead, a burglary and a dying friend's half told fears pull her into a Colorado mystery with real stakes.
Murder at Five Finger Light
by Sue Henry
2005
Jessie heads to an old lighthouse on Alaska's Inside Passage to help friends with restoration work and finds a body instead. Cut off on the island after the phone lines and radio are wrecked, she realizes the killer is still there.
The Tooth of Time
by Sue Henry
2006
In Taos, Maxie McNabb finds that sunny New Mexico can hide just as many shadows as Alaska. When a troubled local woman disappears, Maxie and Stretch get drawn into a case of secrets, false turns, and real danger.
The Refuge
by Sue Henry
2007
Maxie and Stretch travel to Hawaii to help Karen Bailey pack up her house, but someone seems determined to rattle her first. Break ins and sabotage make Maxie suspect that Karen is hiding a past that has followed her to the islands.
Degrees of Separation
by Sue Henry
2008
Just back to training after knee surgery, Jessie Arnold hits a snow covered corpse on a practice run near home. The dead young man had no sled, no dogs, and a case that lands uncomfortably close to Jessie and Alex.
The End of the Road
by Sue Henry
2009
Maxie invites a likable drifter to dinner, only to learn the next day that he has been found dead in a motel room. His false name and murky past send her digging into a case that grows stranger and more dangerous.
Where should I start?
If you want the classic Alaska entry point: Murder on the Iditarod Trail → Termination Dust → Sleeping Lady
If you want Jessie at her most adventurous: Deadfall → Murder on the Yukon Quest → Dead North → Cold Company
If you want a later, more contained Jessie mystery: Murder at Five Finger Light → Degrees of Separation
If you want the road trip spinoff: The Serpents Trail → The Tooth of Time → The Refuge → The End of the Road
Author bio
Sue Henry was born Mathilda Sue Hall in Salmon, Idaho, on January 19, 1940. When she was still young, her family moved to Wenatchee, Washington, and that was where she grew up and went to school.
Books got to her early.
Her mother was a librarian, and Henry later said her love of mysteries started back in the 1960s, helped along by the books her mother put in her hands. She earned an English degree from the University of Washington in 1962, then spent two years in the Peace Corps in Thailand. Back in Washington, she began graduate study in library science, married Paul Henry in 1965, and later worked at the Huntington Library in Pasadena.
After her divorce, she moved to Alaska with her two sons, Bruce and Eric. Alaska ended up shaping the rest of her writing life.
Before fiction took over, she worked as a librarian, grant writer, college administrator, and teacher. She started writing her first mystery around 1989 and 1990, at a point when she was still better known in Alaska for education and grant work than for fiction. Then Murder on the Iditarod Trail arrived in 1991 and changed things fast.
It was a strong debut, and it stuck.
That first novel introduced musher Jessie Arnold and Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen, and it won both the Anthony and Macavity awards for best first novel. Henry kept going with books like Termination Dust, Sleeping Lady, Murder on the Yukon Quest, Cold Company, Murder at Five Finger Light, and Degrees of Separation. Readers who click with her fiction usually like the same mix: a solid mystery, practical heroines, working dogs, and the very real sense that Alaska itself can help you or kill you.
She wrote a lot about snow, distance, weather, and the kinds of people who know how to keep moving when things get rough. Jessie Arnold is tough, independent, and sometimes stubborn. Alex Jensen brings patience, steadiness, and the law. Later, Henry spun Maxie McNabb out of Dead North and gave her a second series beginning with The Serpents Trail, followed by The Tooth of Time and The Refuge. Those books trade sled races for an RV, a miniature dachshund named Stretch, and a slightly gentler kind of trouble.
Research mattered to her. For Dead North, she bought a motor home and drove the Alaska Highway herself, taking notes and photos and working real places into the story. That hands-on habit helps explain why even her quieter scenes feel lived in, from trail checkpoints and ferry docks to campgrounds, cafes, and cabins where people are trying to stay warm and think clearly.
In later years she was based in Anchorage and taught writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She died there on November 20, 2020. By then she had written seventeen novels, and she'd left behind mysteries that many readers still pick up when they want snow, dogs, distance, and a heroine who knows how to keep moving.
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