The Adrien English Mysteries Books in Order

The Adrien English Mysteries are the books most closely tied to Josh Lanyon's reputation, and it is not hard to see why. The series follows Adrien English, a gay bookseller and aspiring mystery writer in Los Angeles, whose bad luck with dead bodies is matched only by his bad judgment in falling for closeted LAPD detective Jake Riordan.

Adrien is a great series lead because he is funny, intelligent, wounded, and never quite as helpless as other people assume. He notices things. He pokes at the wrong questions. He keeps going even when common sense says stop. Jake, meanwhile, is not an easy romantic hero. He is defensive, stubborn, often angry, and carrying around more conflict than either of them knows what to do with.

That tension is the spine of the whole series. Fatal Shadows starts with a body on Adrien's lawn and suspicion falling squarely on him. From there, books like A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Death of a Pirate King, and The Dark Tide keep deepening both the mystery plots and the emotional mess. The final full-length book, So This Is Christmas, lands with the weight you want from a series that has made both people earn every inch.

What makes Adrien English stand out is that the books are not cozy, not exactly procedural, and not just romance with clues pasted on top. They are mysteries first, but they are also very good on fear, self-protection, queer loneliness, family strain, and the way attraction can feel both irresistible and genuinely inconvenient.

Los Angeles matters here too. The city gives the books heat, glamour, menace, and a sense that everyone is performing something. Adrien, who sells mysteries for a living, spends the series learning that real life is not nearly as tidy as fiction.

If you want the Josh Lanyon series that readers talk about for years afterward, this is the one.