Tasha Alexander Books in Order
Browse Tasha Alexander books in order, from Lady Emily to her standalone fiction, with quick summaries, series background, and easy where-to-start tips.
Last updated: July 4, 2026
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Publication Order
27 books
And Only to Deceive
by Tasha Alexander
2005
After the death of her distant husband, Lady Emily Ashton begins uncovering his hidden life among the treasures of the British Museum. What starts as curiosity turns into a dangerous hunt involving stolen antiquities, betrayal, and two very different suitors.
A Poisoned Season
by Tasha Alexander
2007
London society is obsessed with a cat burglar stealing treasures linked to Marie Antoinette, until one theft leads to murder. Lady Emily must solve the crime while scandal and a twisted fixation on her threaten to turn gossip deadly.
Elizabeth
by Tasha Alexander
2007
Queen Elizabeth I faces danger on every side as Spain threatens England and betrayal creeps through her own court. With war looming, she must balance duty, power, and her feelings for Sir Walter Raleigh.
A Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
2008
At a country house party, a hated host is murdered and Lady Emily's friend's husband is accused. To clear his name, Emily follows the case to Vienna, where politics, old grudges, and real peril wait.
Tears of Pearl
by Tasha Alexander
2009
Lady Emily arrives in Constantinople already surrounded by intrigue. Investigating the murder of a concubine inside the sultan's palace, she enters the harem and finds a hidden world where every alliance feels dangerous.
Dangerous to Know
by Tasha Alexander
2010
Recovering in Normandy after her honeymoon, Lady Emily discovers a body marked like a Ripper victim. The trail leads through Rouen and toward a brilliant killer who seems determined to make her his next target.
A Crimson Warning
by Tasha Alexander
2011
Back in Mayfair, Emily expects books, dancing, and politics, not a vandal marking London's elite in red paint. As private scandals are dragged into the light, disgrace gives way to fear and then to murder.
Death in the Floating City
by Tasha Alexander
2012
When Emily's childhood enemy begs for help in Venice, a family murder pulls her into a case shaped by old love and older secrets. A strange ring and a masked watcher lead her through the city's darker corners.
Behind the Shattered Glass
by Tasha Alexander
2013
A marquess collapses dead at a Derbyshire gathering, and every guest seems to want something from his death. Emily digs through manor-house secrets, uneasy inheritances, and hidden romances to find the truth.
Star of the East
by Tasha Alexander
2014
A pre-Christmas visit to Emily's parents turns complicated when jewelry belonging to an Indian royal family disappears. With diplomacy, a possible curse, and her own reputation at stake, Emily has to solve the theft quickly.
The Counterfeit Heiress
by Tasha Alexander
2014
A Paris masquerade ends in murder when a woman posing as the elusive Estella Lamar is killed. Emily and Colin chase a tangle of false identities, missing years, and dangerous impersonations.
That Silent Night
by Tasha Alexander
2015
A winter storm, a vanished woman in the snow, and a London house that suddenly feels haunted pull Emily into a brief but eerie Christmas mystery. The mood is festive, but something uncanny is clearly at work.
The Adventuress
by Tasha Alexander
2015
At an engagement celebration on the French Riviera, an apparent suicide cuts the festivities short. Emily doubts the official verdict and digs into resentments, money, and performance beneath the glitter.
A Terrible Beauty
by Tasha Alexander
2016
A holiday in Greece goes badly off script when a man long thought dead reappears, claiming to be Emily's first husband. Antiquities theft, buried truths, and old emotions make this one especially personal.
Christmas Magic
by Tasha Alexander
2017
A brief holiday story from Tasha Alexander, this one leans into Christmas atmosphere, family feeling, and the question of what the season should really mean. It is a softer, more sentimental read than her historical mysteries.
Death in St. Petersburg
by Tasha Alexander
2017
After a ballerina is found murdered outside the Mariinsky Theatre, Emily investigates among aristocrats, dancers, and radicals in snowy St. Petersburg. A mysterious woman in white gives the case a ghostly edge.
Amid the Winter's Snow
by Tasha Alexander
2018
Planning a quiet Christmas at Anglemore, Emily and Colin instead face rumors of a monstrous black dog terrorizing a nearby village. Superstition, grief, and a secret gift lead them into a wintry investigation.
The Bridal Strain
by Tasha Alexander
2018
This short interlude finds Emily and Colin on Santorini at last, ready to marry after everything they have survived. It is a small, intimate pause in the series, with romance, travel, and a touch of tension.
Uneasy Lies the Crown
by Tasha Alexander
2018
In 1901, a dying command from Queen Victoria is followed by murders staged to echo England's dead kings. Emily and Colin race through London's underworld to stop a killer before the violence reaches the new reign.
Upon the Midnight Clear
by Tasha Alexander
2019
A Christmas cracker gives Emily's son a strange clue, and soon a desperate Scottish father appears asking for help. Following the trail through snowy London, Emily and Colin try to reunite a family before Christmas Eve.
In the Shadow of Vesuvius
by Tasha Alexander
2020
A body hidden among the ruins of Pompeii draws Emily into a case shaped by archaeology, buried history, and fresh danger. As she investigates, personal revelations make the search far more complicated.
The Dark Heart of Florence
by Tasha Alexander
2021
In Florence, burglaries at Colin's daughter's palazzo turn serious when a man is hurled to his death. Emily and Cécile follow Medici-era clues through the city while a larger political threat hums in the background.
Secrets of the Nile
by Tasha Alexander
2022
A pleasure trip up the Nile becomes a locked-circle murder when Emily's host dies from cyanide at dinner. Ancient artifacts, old loyalties, and a second story set in pharaonic Egypt deepen the puzzle.
A Cold Highland Wind
by Tasha Alexander
2023
A family visit to a Scottish castle turns grim when the duke's gamekeeper is murdered beside the loch. Emily finds the case tangled up with a seventeenth-century witchcraft accusation and village secrets that never died.
Death by Misadventure
by Tasha Alexander
2024
Snowed into a lavish Bavarian villa, Emily watches a series of suspicious mishaps close in on one loathed guest. The case opens onto old desires, trapped company, and a shadow from King Ludwig's world.
The Sisterhood
by Tasha Alexander
2025
When London's brightest debutante dies from poison at her engagement ball, Emily and Colin are drawn into a high society investigation with royal attention. A second poisoning and clues tied to ancient Britain raise the stakes fast.
Murder on the Sacred River
by Tasha Alexander
2026
While traveling in India, Emily and Colin investigate a shooting along the Narmada River at Ahilya Fort. A wide suspect list and a parallel story about young Ahilyabai give the mystery added depth.
Where should I start?
If you want the series from the beginning: And Only to Deceive → A Poisoned Season → A Fatal Waltz
If you want Emily and Colin at the center: A Fatal Waltz → Tears of Pearl → Dangerous to Know
If you want bigger travel mysteries: Death in the Floating City → Death in St. Petersburg → Secrets of the Nile
If you want the Tudor standalone: Elizabeth
Author bio
Tasha Alexander was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, in a house where books were part of everyday life. Both of her parents taught philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, so reading and big ideas were never far from the dinner table.
She has said she felt as if she were born in the wrong century. As a child, she loved history so much that she spent time under the dining room table pretending it was a covered wagon, usually with a book close at hand.
At Notre Dame, she studied English literature and medieval history. That mix makes a lot of sense when you look at her novels. They are full of historical detail, but they are also built for readers who want story, pace, and characters they can stay with for the long haul.
The spark that turned reading into writing came from Dorothy L. Sayers.
In 2002, while living in New Haven, Connecticut, Alexander began work on the novel that became And Only to Deceive. It was published in 2005 and introduced Lady Emily, the intelligent, restless heroine at the center of Alexander's long-running mystery series. After a move to Franklin, Tennessee, she wrote her second novel in a Starbucks, which feels strangely appropriate for a writer whose books are learned without ever losing their everyday energy.
The Lady Emily novels are what most readers know her for. Starting with And Only to Deceive and continuing through books like A Poisoned Season, Death in the Floating City, and Secrets of the Nile, the series mixes murder, travel, art, politics, and a heroine who keeps refusing to accept the limits her world tries to place on her. Readers often come for the historical puzzle, then stay for Emily's voice, her curiosity, and the way the books move from London drawing rooms to museums, palaces, ruins, and far-flung cities.
Alexander also wrote Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a novel tied to the 2007 film about Queen Elizabeth I. Even outside the Lady Emily books, her interests stay pretty steady: women with sharp minds, complicated public lives, and private choices that carry real weight.
Place matters in her work.
So do old stories, old cities, and the pressure between duty and desire. Her novels return again and again to questions of class, marriage, loyalty, scholarship, and freedom, but they do it through plots that keep moving. She likes artifacts, letters, buried histories, and the trouble people get into when the past refuses to stay put.
Her own life has included plenty of movement, too. She has lived in Indiana, Amsterdam, London, Wyoming, Vermont, Connecticut, and Tennessee. Today she lives in southeastern Wyoming with her husband, novelist Andrew Grant, who also writes as Andrew Child. She has joked that he helps her keep her English characters sounding English, while she helps his American ones sound American.
It sounds like a fair trade.
That background helps explain why her fiction feels so lived in. She brings a reader's love of the past, a researcher's eye for detail, and a novelist's sense of momentum. The result is historical mystery that feels smart, welcoming, and very easy to keep reading.
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