Tarot Mystery Books in Order

The Tarot Mystery books follow Alanis McLachlan, a woman who does not exactly seem destined for mystical enlightenment. When her con-artist mother, Barbra, dies and leaves her the White Magic Five & Dime, a New Age shop in tiny Berdache, Arizona, Alanis heads to town mostly to deal with the mess and ask hard questions. Instead she winds up staying, taking over the shop, and trying to solve her mother's murder.

She is skeptical for good reason.

At first, Alanis treats tarot the same way she treats most of her mother's old world, as performance. She starts giving readings mainly to win the trust of clients and dig up information. That setup gives the series a fun edge, because Alanis understands grifts, half-truths, and the stories people tell when they want something. The more time she spends in Berdache, though, the more complicated that certainty becomes. The cards start to feel less like props and more like a language she might actually be able to use.

The setting does a lot of work here. Berdache is a small Arizona town full of regulars, secrets, resentments, and people who keep circling back into one another's lives. The shop brings Alanis into contact with everyone, from true believers to desperate clients to people who knew her mother better than she did. That makes each case feel personal, even when the mystery starts somewhere seemingly small.

There is also an ongoing arc running underneath the murders. Alanis is not only trying to catch killers. She is dealing with her mother's legacy, cleaning up damage from old scams, and figuring out what kind of person she wants to be now that running is no longer her default move. Her own past keeps pushing back, and later books make it clear that the skills she learned from con artists can save her just as easily as they can ruin her.

The tone is cozy-adjacent, but it has a sharper streak than a lot of pure small-town mysteries. The humor is dry, the banter is lively, and the books like the tension between real belief and practiced performance. If you want a series with murder, tarot, desert-town atmosphere, and a lead who has to talk herself into becoming the kind of person readers can trust, this one has a strong hook.