The Smiley Killer Books in Order

The Smiley Killer is one of Julia Derek's earlier mystery thrillers. It is a compact entry in her bibliography, centered on the unsettling idea of a killer whose identity and motives must be uncovered before more damage is done.

The smile is not reassuring.

Like many of Derek's thrillers, the story works with suspicion, hidden motives, and the fear that danger may be closer than it first appears. The title creates an immediate contrast between something friendly and something violent, a tension that suits a mystery built around deception.

The book also sits near the beginning of Derek's long run of suspense fiction. Readers familiar with her later work will recognize ingredients she returns to often, people with secrets, a threat that gets more personal as the story develops, and characters forced to act before they have every answer.

This is not a sprawling detective series with many volumes to track. It is a straightforward choice for readers who want an early standalone-style mystery thriller from the author. The focus is on the central case and the unease created by a criminal who is hard to read.

Because it stands alone, The Smiley Killer can be read at any point. It may be especially useful as a starting place for readers who want to sample Derek's earlier work before moving into longer connected stories such as Cuckoo, Girl Undercover, or the Sidney Stone FBI thrillers.

Expect a darker mood than the Celeste Jones mysteries and a smaller-scale setup than the conspiracy-driven books. The tension comes from not knowing who is behind the violence or how far they are willing to go.

It is a brief introduction to the kind of question Derek likes to ask: when someone looks harmless, what are you missing?