Most Recommended Books

Track reading, wishlists & new-book alerts

Get
Skip to content
Share:

Toby Neal Books in Order

This page gathers Toby Neal books in order, with quick summaries, linked series, reading paths across crime, thriller, romance, and memoir, plus where to start.

Last updated: July 2, 2026

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).

View

Publication Order

Sort:

57 books

Blood Orchids

by Toby Neal

2011

Cop Lei Texeira finds two murdered teens in Hilo and recognizes one of the girls. The case drags her toward a killer, back into her own buried trauma, and into a fight that could make her the next target.

Black Jasmine

by Toby Neal

2012

A teenage girl found in a wrecked car on Maui looks like a suicide victim, but Lei knows better. Her search for the truth cuts through class divisions, criminal power, and the personal fears threatening her fragile happiness.

Torch Ginger

by Toby Neal

2012

After transferring to Kauai, Lei and her dog Keiki uncover a pattern of disappearances that may point to a cult, or a single terrifying predator. The deeper she digs, the closer she gets to a man desperate to silence the voices in his head.

Broken Ferns

by Toby Neal

2013

Lei's first major case as an FBI agent on Oahu puts her after a teenage Robin Hood who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Chasing a criminal the public admires turns law, justice, and sympathy into a mess.

Clipped Wings

by Toby Neal

2013

A young bandit from Broken Ferns becomes the target of an escape plot, pulling FBI agent Lei into a holiday manhunt. At the same time, a kitchen thief causes trouble at Aunty Rosario's restaurant in this shorter, festive side story.

Somewhere on Maui

by Toby Neal

2013

Recently divorced journalist Zoe and overburdened Maui local Adam meet through an awkward therapist-pushed internet date. What follows is a second-chance romance about stress, healing, and finding love when both are bruised.

Stolen In Paradise

by Toby Neal

2013

Special Agent Marcella Scott investigates the murder of a scientist on Waikiki Beach and the theft of a breakthrough algae formula. The case is full of secrets, suspects, and corporate intrigue, with Marcella juggling danger and her own complicated life.

Twisted Vine

by Toby Neal

2013

When a senator's son is found staged as a suicide, Lei and tech expert Sophie Ang suspect murder. Their hunt leads to a killer who believes he is granting mercy, forcing them into one of their most unsettling cases.

Unsound (Companion Novel)

by Toby Neal

2013

Police psychologist Caprice Wilson heads into Haleakala to dry out and clear her head, only to find herself trapped in a deadly wilderness nightmare. What begins as a private reckoning turns into a tense game of survival.

Dark Lava

by Toby Neal

2014

Newly assigned to the bomb squad, Lei is already stretched thin when a crime involving sacred artifacts strikes close to home. As violence escalates, the case also puts Michael Stevens in harm's way.

Fire Beach

by Toby Neal

2014

Fed up with the Shroud Killer, Lei goes after him on her own and uncovers old grudges on the Big Island. At the same time, Michael faces a pyromaniac whose obsession with fire leaves innocent people in the flames.

Island Fire

by Toby Neal

2014

After a disaster wipes out technology on Lanai, three teenagers from very different lives have to survive together. Fires, gangs, sharks, hunger, and a mysterious dragon spirit make this a tense coming-of-age adventure.

Shattered Palms

by Toby Neal

2014

A poacher's death in Maui's cloud forest pulls Lei into a case tied to Hawaii's endangered native birds. The killer thinks the victims deserve what they get, and Lei is running out of time before her own wedding.

Bone Hook

by Toby Neal

2015

The death of a marine biologist near Molokini looks like no accident, sending Lei into an underwater case with environmental stakes. Meanwhile Michael faces a private battle that could push him toward a terrible choice.

Red Rain

by Toby Neal

2015

A child's skull washes ashore and forces Lei into a cold case she never wanted, especially with Michael deployed overseas. As she digs deeper, foster kids and old wounds make the investigation painfully personal.

Rip Tides

by Toby Neal

2015

When surfing star Makoa Simmons turns up dead, Lei is pulled into the glamorous, ruthless world of professional surfing. The case exposes tangled motives, island fame, and people willing to kill to stay on top.

Somewhere in the City

by Toby Neal

2015

After her father's death, Pearl Michaels leaves St. Thomas for Boston and is swept into modeling, fame, and Magnus Thorne's dangerous orbit. Their romance stretches from the city to far-off places where the stakes keep rising.

Somewhere on St. Thomas

by Toby Neal

2015

On the eve of leaving St. Thomas for college, bright, stubborn Ruby Michaels meets a man who can knock her plans sideways. Set in 1984, this first romance follows first love, ambition, and hard choices.

Bitter Feast

by Toby Neal

2016

Michael Stevens investigates the murder of a chef at a high-end Maui restaurant where jealousy, passion, and revenge are all on the menu. Familiar faces help piece together one of his most layered cases.

Somewhere in California

by Toby Neal

2016

In 1992, dancer Jade Michaels runs to Los Angeles chasing a shot at a reality show and a life of her own. Love complicates everything when the man who believes in her turns out to be her sister's ex.

Wired In

by Toby Neal

2016

Hacker and FBI agent Sophie Ang prefers working behind a screen, until a child kidnapping case drags her out into the open. Following the trail leads to a mysterious vigilante, old trauma, and danger she can no longer control.

Wired Rogue

by Toby Neal

2016

Sophie's hunt for answers takes her from the lab into the field, where she confronts a deadly cult and a larger-than-life new partner, Jake Dunn. The case may cost her badge, and possibly much more.

Wired Dark

by Toby Neal

2017

Back on Maui with partner Jake Dunn, Sophie investigates a stalker targeting a rock star in a beach mansion. Soon the case becomes personal, testing her identity, conscience, and will to survive.

Wired Dawn

by Toby Neal

2017

Going off-grid in Kauai's remote Kalalau Valley, Sophie stumbles into the disappearance of a young boy. As she hunts for him in jungle country, fallout from earlier crimes keeps building behind her.

Wired Hard

by Toby Neal

2017

Artifact theft at a royal Hawaiian archaeological site turns deadly, drawing Sophie and Lei into a tangled case on Maui. The investigation pushes Sophie between new love, old pain, and a criminal with a powerful fixation.

Freckled

by Toby Neal

2018

Neal's memoir follows a bright, stubborn girl growing up on Kauai with addicted parents and very little stability. It is a vivid story of survival, shame, beauty, and the determination to build a different life.

Wired Courage

by Toby Neal

2018

Sophie wants a quiet life with her unusual family, but a ruthless enemy targets what she loves most. Hurt and under pressure, she has to rise again before her future is taken from her.

Wired Fear

by Toby Neal

2018

A famous hula festival brings Sophie, Ginger, and Jake into a new investigation on the Big Island. But the real threat may be the betrayal and family danger rising from Sophie's own past.

Wired Justice

by Toby Neal

2018

Ginger the yellow lab leads Sophie to a grim discovery in lava country, launching a search for a missing young woman. Working with Jake Dunn, Sophie digs into layers of deception that point to something truly monstrous.

Wired Secret

by Toby Neal

2018

On the Big Island, Sophie is pulled into witness protection duty that quickly turns deadly. A ghost from her past and a messy love triangle make an already dangerous case even harder to survive.

Burnt Road

by Toby Neal

2019

Melody Parker's only shot at escaping plague-ravaged Los Angeles is a ride with Dante Luciano, a brilliant, guarded survivor. On the road, danger closes in from every side, and trust becomes as hard to find as safety.

Cinder Road

by Toby Neal

2019

ER doctor Avital stays in collapsing Philadelphia to help the sick, leaving Dolf Luciano torn between duty, grief, and love. When the city becomes a trap, their fight to reach the Haven turns into a brutal road survival story.

Flame Road

by Toby Neal

2019

Cash Luciano is drifting toward the Haven when his dog leads him to a frightened woman with no memory. As skinheads and disaster close in, their wilderness journey becomes a story about survival, identity, and starting over.

Razor Rocks

by Toby Neal

2019

Luxury yachts are being attacked in Hawaiian waters, their passengers vanishing without a trace. Lei works with the Coast Guard to hunt sea-going predators in a case that mixes island beauty with pure menace.

Scorch Road

by Toby Neal

2019

Widowed prepper JT Luciano is ready for the end of the world, but not for a virologist who crashes into his field carrying vaccine cells. As Scorch Flu tears the country apart, they race toward Washington and a slim chance to save lives.

Smoke Road

by Toby Neal

2019

Scientist Dr. Nani Kagawa may be humanity's best lead on the terrorists behind Scorch Flu. Forced to work with hardened soldier Luca Luciano, she must chase answers through a lawless country while both fight a powerful attraction.

Smolder Road

by Toby Neal

2019

Civilization is gone, supplies are thin, and the road to the Haven keeps getting worse. In this final Scorch novel, love and loyalty are tested as another Luciano survivor fights through chaos toward whatever future is left.

Wired Truth

by Toby Neal

2019

A daring theft at a high-end auction house puts Sophie on the trail of a criminal whose skills nearly match her own. Chasing stolen gems is hard enough, but outside threats and a new partner complicate everything.

Somewhere in Wine Country

by Toby Neal

2020

Meg Villier loses her family vineyard to billionaire Kane McCallum, then finds herself working for the man she wants to hate. Their push-pull romance grows amid grief, pride, and the question of what home really means.

Wired Ghost

by Toby Neal

2020

Sophie and Jake head into the Big Island backcountry to rescue a teen from a meth cooker, only to get caught in a massive volcanic eruption. Trapped in a lava tube, they must outrun both criminals and nature.

Wired Strong

by Toby Neal

2020

Missing money at a prestigious private school sends Sophie into a case with royal ties and Robin Hood overtones. At the same time, pressure tightens around the Ghost, raising the danger for Sophie and her family.

Wrong Turn

by Toby Neal

2020

Before she became a cop, twenty-one-year-old Lei took a carefree road trip into Mexico that went horribly wrong. This prequel shows the violence, chance encounters, and life changes that helped shape the woman she later becomes.

Open Road

by Toby Neal

2021

Facing health problems and a growing sense of disconnection, Neal heads out on a long national parks road trip with her husband. The memoir blends travel, marriage, and a midlife search for the self she thought she'd lost.

Shark Cove

by Toby Neal

2021

A missing girl on Maui pulls together Lei, her detective friend Harry, and teen sleuth Malia. The search opens old wounds from a deadly encounter years earlier and reveals that Camille may be only one of many victims.

Hidden Falls

by Toby Neal

2022

When threats from a drug cartel reach Lei's teenage daughter Malia, the case becomes painfully close to home. Malia has been digging into drugs at school, and now organized crime may be coming for her.

Wired Revenge

by Toby Neal

2022

Sophie's hard-won peace shatters when her assassin mother resurfaces with revenge on her mind. With small children to protect and enemies closing in, Sophie must face the most personal threat of her life.

Wired Target

by Toby Neal

2022

Sophie takes a case involving the destruction of endangered Laysan albatross nesting grounds on Oahu. Teaming with Lei on Maui, she hunts killers whose cruelty sparks outrage far beyond one island.

Coconut Wireless

by Toby Neal

2023

Kat Smith arrives in tiny Ohia as the new postmaster and immediately becomes the center of local gossip. When the office cat drops evidence of murder at her door, hiding out on Maui stops being an option.

Hawaii Time

by Toby Neal

2023

Kat's quiet posting on Maui has already turned chaotic, and another mystery soon finds her. With Tiki, local friends, and help from familiar Paradise Crime faces, she has to solve it before luck runs out.

Maui Holidaze

by Toby Neal

2023

The holidays bring Kat her first private investigation, with Tiki never far from the action. This short cozy mystery mixes island Christmas chaos, humor, and a case that refuses to stay simple.

Small Island

by Toby Neal

2023

Kat is still settling into Ohia when a developer's plans threaten half the town. Protecting the people she is starting to care about means untangling money, power, and small-island politics before paradise changes for good.

Mele Mistletoe

by Toby Neal

2024

A priceless Hawaiian Christmas ornament disappears before a fundraiser, and Kat is pulled into another very public mystery. With Tiki, Mr. K, and the Red Hat ladies nearby, holiday cheer comes with plenty of suspicion.

Pau Hana

by Toby Neal

2024

Kat's new life in Ohia starts to feel almost steady, which is usually a bad sign. This cozy entry drops her back into island trouble, where gossip, humor, and another mystery derail any hope of an easy evening.

Deadly Sacrifice

by Toby Neal

2025

Lei and her partner Pono hunt a killer who stages victims on sacred Hawaiian ground, turning murder into a terrifying public display. With rookie tech whiz Katie McHenry helping, the team races a clock and a deluded mind.

Tiki Beach

by Toby Neal

2025

When one of Ohia's beloved Red Hat ladies dies suspiciously before making a major gift to the village, Kat starts asking questions. The result is a cozy island mystery with grief, gossip, and hidden motives.

New

Talk Story

by Toby Neal

2026

A stolen petroglyph fragment draws Kat into a fight over Sacred Valley, where developers and crime-linked money threaten land held by Hawaiian families for generations. To help, she will need courage, patience, and every local ally she has.

New

Wired Sentinel

by Toby Neal

2026

Museum thieves are slipping through Honolulu without leaving a digital trace, which is exactly the kind of challenge Sophie hates. As she investigates, the heists widen into a conspiracy reaching from island politics to international crime.

Where should I start?

If you want Hawaiian police mysteries: Blood OrchidsTorch GingerBlack Jasmine
If you want a faster tech thriller: Wired InWired RogueWired Hard
If you want a lighter cozy mystery: Coconut WirelessSmall IslandHawaii Time
If you want romance first: Somewhere on St. ThomasSomewhere in the CitySomewhere in California
If you want memoir or personal nonfiction: FreckledOpen Road

Author bio

Toby Neal grew up on Kauai, in a family with deep roots in Hawaii, and she says she wrote and illustrated her first story when she was five. That early urge never really left. Years later, the islands of her childhood, their beauty, their strain, and their close packed communities, would become the emotional ground beneath much of her fiction and memoir.

She first headed toward writing through journalism, then took a different turn and built a career in mental health. Neal has worked as a therapist and clinical social worker, and that background shows up all through her books. Her characters tend to be people under pressure, carrying old wounds, making messy choices, and trying to stay human while the stakes rise around them.

That fascination with people became her raw material.

The push into fiction came later, and it came from life, not from any tidy career plan. While working as a counselor at a Maui high school, Neal found herself helping students after two sudden deaths rocked the campus. She started writing about a damaged policewoman caught up in a terrible case, partly to process what she was seeing and feeling. That story grew into Blood Orchids, the first book in the series that introduced Detective Lei Texeira.

Lei became the center of Neal's longest-running crime world. In books like Blood Orchids, Torch Ginger, Black Jasmine, and Bone Hook, she writes police procedurals set across the Hawaiian islands, with cases tied to place, family, trauma, and power. Readers who stick with the series tend to come for the mysteries and stay for Lei herself, along with the ongoing pull between danger, recovery, and love in her life with Michael Stevens.

Then Neal widened that world. Wired In spun off into the Sophie-led Paradise Crime Thrillers, with more tech, more action, and a sharper cat-and-mouse feel. On the lighter end, the Paradise Crime Cozy books begin with Coconut Wireless, where ex Secret Service agent Kat Smith lands in a Maui post office and keeps stumbling into murder, gossip, and trouble, usually with a cat nearby. Neal has also written romance, including Somewhere on St. Thomas and Somewhere on Maui, and she teamed up with Emily Kimelman on the post-apocalyptic Scorch books.

She has never stayed in one lane for long.

Her memoirs make that range easier to understand. Freckled looks back at her wild childhood on Kauai, with addicted parents, instability, and a fierce desire to build a different life. Open Road picks up later, during a season of health worries and midlife change, when a long trip through the national parks became a way to take stock and start again.

Neal's life still seems closely tied to Hawaii. She has written about living on Maui, and she has also shared that she spends time in Northern California. Outside books and counseling, she has co-founded a nonprofit for children and enjoys beach walking, body boarding, scuba diving, photography, and hiking. All of that fits the work. Her stories are full of movement, weather, landscape, and people trying to find steadier ground.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

Comments

Did we miss something? Have feedback?

Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts

We only use your email to notify you about replies.

All comments are moderated.

Discover and track your reading on the go

Track your reading, manage wishlists, and get notified when new books are added.