Susan Dunlap Books in Order

Berkeley police officer Jill Smith attends a Buddhist lecture with a friend, only to find the visiting guru stabbed during his disciples' applause. Investigating the killing draws her into the secrets surrounding his followers.

After arguing with her friend Frank Goulet at his bar, meter reader Vejay Haskell becomes a murder suspect when he turns up dead. With no useful alibi, she uses her work to investigate Henderson's residents.

Jill Smith reluctantly agrees to check on her ex-husband's missing colleague, Anne Spaulding. Finding Anne's home wrecked and bloodstained is alarming enough, but a familiar pen among the clues points suspicion toward Jill's former spouse.

When a respected Berkeley philanthropist dies in a car crash, cut brake lines reveal that someone deliberately killed him. Detective Jill Smith investigates the wealthy man's circle, where competing ambitions complicate the search for a murderer.

Vejay Haskell searches for a coworker's missing niece, a young gymnast whose body is found in a sewer. Rejecting the sheriff's accident theory, she investigates connections to Henderson's powerful visitors during the Bohemian Club's annual gathering.

Henderson's annual banana-slug cooking competition turns deadly when organizer Edwina Henderson is poisoned by a slug pizza. Meter reader Vejay Haskell investigates a festival where local politics and environmental disputes provide possible motives for murder.

Returning to work after a helicopter crash, Berkeley detective Jill Smith investigates a restaurant owner's death from poisoned soup. The chef's conflicts with employees, neighbors, and other locals give her several suspects to consider.

When an activist Jill Smith recently helped is murdered at Berkeley's Rainbow Village, the detective takes a closer look at the troubled encampment. Disputes over its future and earlier violence complicate her search for the killer.

A bishop hires former medical examiner Kiernan O'Shaughnessy to determine whether a priest's apparent suicide was murder. A premature cremation and a forged death certificate obstruct her investigation into the church and its surrounding community.

Detective Jill Smith is drawn into a bitter feud between a Berkeley dentist and his neighbor after a falling tree branch prompts an assault complaint. When someone dies, the neighborhood dispute becomes a homicide investigation.

After a boat sinks, evidence links its missing owner to an old fatal hit-and-run. The victim's widow hires Kiernan O'Shaughnessy to find the woman, drawing the private investigator into a search involving the sea and her past.

A poisoned IRS agent's death sends Berkeley detective Jill Smith through the files of taxpayers he antagonized. Several people had reasons to resent him, but her investigation suggests that taxation alone may not explain the murder.

A campaign of pranks against Berkeley's parking enforcement officers leads Jill Smith to retired attorney Madeleine Riordan. When Madeleine is killed before sharing what she knows, Jill investigates the connection between the harassment and her death.

Private investigator Kiernan O'Shaughnessy watches a young gymnast die while attempting a famous stunt on a coastal cliff. Doubting the accident verdict, she investigates a tragedy that recalls the death of a stuntman she admired.

Demoted to patrol duty, Jill Smith encounters naked protesters and a former Olympic diver reporting vandalism at her health club. A shooting raises the stakes as Jill investigates neighborhood rivalries, old grievances, and competing businesses.

A body appears in private investigator Herman Ott's office, and Ott disappears before explaining a secret to Jill Smith. When a prominent mediator is also murdered, Jill's loyalty to her missing friend complicates her police investigation.

When two boys brought from Panama die from a mysterious illness, former medical examiner Kiernan O'Shaughnessy heads to Nevada. She must investigate a potential outbreak while confronting geologists whose financial interests threaten to obstruct her work.

Eighteen mystery stories bring together cases for police officer Jill Smith, private investigator Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, and a detective working in the afterlife. Author introductions and story prefaces accompany investigations that move between ordinary crime and supernatural puzzles.

After gunfire destroys Liza Silvestri's comfortable life with her husband, secrets prevent her from seeking police help. She flees with her longtime friend Ellen and a pet pig, pursued by professional killers and corrupt officers.

A failed stunt sends Darcy Lott to a Buddhist retreat in California's redwoods to confront her fears. An attack on the Zen teacher and an earlier student's disappearance turn the isolated monastery into a dangerous mystery.

Returning to San Francisco to help her Zen teacher, stuntwoman Darcy Lott glimpses the brother who vanished years earlier. Another disappearance and a murder force her to investigate threats that her family initially refuses to recognize.

Stuntwoman Darcy Lott befriends a mysterious client of her lawyer brother, then questions the woman's apparent suicide. Investigating her shifting identities brings Darcy into a case where an old murder may explain a new death.

Injured during a stunt at Oakland's port, Darcy Lott considers whether shipping containers could hold clues to her missing brother. With police contacts shutting her out, she follows the investigation through California's film and stunt communities.

Darcy Lott rescues a woman from the Golden Gate Bridge, but the stranger disappears after predicting her own death. With only four days to find her, Darcy investigates a copy shop, suspicious police connections, and scattered clues.

When a hooded stranger attacks Darcy Lott's Zen teacher, she searches for the assailant before another assault occurs. Questions about the teacher's time in Japan and regular unexplained absences reveal secrets alongside Darcy's growing career demands.

Darcy Lott's long-missing brother returns to San Francisco, survives two suspicious collisions, and disappears again. As she investigates who might be pursuing him, the stuntwoman begins to fear that other members of her family are targets.