The Templar Books in Order

The Templar series takes a familiar urban fantasy setup and gives it a strong procedural twist. The books follow Solaria Ainsworth, usually called Aria, in a modern Baltimore where vampires, mages, demons, and old orders still operate in the shadows. Aria was born into the Templar tradition, trained for it, and knows its rules inside out. The problem is that she does not fit neatly inside them.

At the start of the series, she has refused the oath that would make her a full Templar Knight. That matters. Aria has the training, the family history, and the instincts, but not the official protection that would make her life simpler. She is already stuck between worlds before the first case even lands on her desk.

The early books set the pattern well. A suspicious death, a magical symbol, a ritual killing, a vampire problem that might actually be a much bigger problem, and Aria trying to figure out what is true before somebody with more power and less patience makes the decision for her. Each novel has its own case, which makes the series easy to follow one step at a time, but there is also a longer arc involving the Order, Aria's standing, old enemies, and the cost of using power in a world full of bad options.

Baltimore is more than wallpaper here. Dunbar uses the city as a place where ancient structures and modern life rub against each other in interesting ways. Aria can go from old manuscripts and inherited duty to coffee shops, morgues, crime scenes, and vampire territory without the jump feeling strange. That mix gives the books their tone: part supernatural mystery, part action fantasy, part moral headache.

Aria herself is the anchor. She is not a breezy heroine. She is competent, stubborn, well-read, and a little isolated, which makes sense for someone raised with medieval duties in the modern world. She is constantly forced to judge people and situations that do not fit cleanly into Templar doctrine. That tension, between what the Order says and what the evidence says, is where a lot of the series strength lives.

If the Imp books are louder and more chaotic, The Templar books are tighter and more case-driven. They still have magic, monsters, and bigger series politics, but the draw is often the investigation itself. You get vampires with territory to defend, mages with secrets to keep, demons who never improve a situation, and one woman trying to decide who deserves protection before the city pays the price.