The Leopard Books in Order

The Leopard books, written by Christopher C.W. Gortner with M.J. Rose, are quick, stylish historical thrillers set in the late 1950s. Across The Steal, The Bait, and The Heist, the series follows Ania, a gifted jewelry designer from a famous family firm, and Jerome Curtis, an investigator who knows how ugly crime can get beneath polished surfaces. The mood is glamorous on the outside, but there is real danger underneath the silk, champagne, and diamonds.

At heart, this is a chase story in evening clothes.

The first book drops you into Cannes during festival season, when a spectacular theft sends Ania and Jerome after the elusive criminal known as the Leopard. From there the story moves through Paris, Venice, and finally Hollywood, using each location for a slightly different flavor of suspense. One book leans into Riviera glamour, another into masked intrigue during Carnival, and the last into the bright sheen and back-lot shadows of old Los Angeles. The settings are part of the fun, but they are never just wallpaper.

The emotional center of the series is the push and pull between Ania and Jerome. Ania is smart, guarded, and used to carrying her family’s legacy on her back. Jerome is steadier, more skeptical, and painfully aware that charm can hide a mess. Their attraction is obvious almost from the start, but trust is harder. He keeps getting drawn into plans he did not make, while she keeps holding things back because the hunt is personal in ways Jerome does not fully grasp at first.

That personal angle is what gives the trilogy more bite than a simple jewel-thief caper.

As the books go on, the chase becomes less about recovering stones and more about loyalty, revenge, family damage, and obsession. The Leopard is not just a faceless criminal mastermind. The threat keeps pressing closer to Ania’s own life, which means every job has emotional fallout as well as physical risk. Jerome often becomes the person trying to hold on to reason when anger and unfinished history threaten to take over.

These are short books, so they move fast. You get costume galas, escapes, hidden agendas, sharp banter, and a thread of romance that matters without swallowing the mystery. If you want something sleek and entertaining, with postwar atmosphere and a strong cat-and-mouse engine, this series is an easy one to sink into. Read it in order, starting with The Steal, then The Bait, then The Heist, because the relationship and the central hunt build straight through all three.