Todd Borg Books in Order
Browse Todd Borg books in order, from Owen McKenna to Josie Strong, with quick summaries, series background, reading order, and clear tips on where to start.
Last updated: June 10, 2026
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Publication Order
27 books
Tahoe Blowup
by Todd Borg
2001
After Owen's cabin barely survives an arson fire, he is hired to investigate a string of deadly blazes around Tahoe. The case turns personal when the firestarter kidnaps Street Casey and plans a devastating blowup.
Tahoe Deathfall
by Todd Borg
2001
Eight years after Melissa Salazar dies in a fall above Emerald Bay, her twin Jennifer hires Owen McKenna to reopen the case. What looked like a childhood accident leads to buried family secrets and a killer who is still watching.
Tahoe Ice Grave
by Todd Borg
2002
Young Thos Kahale is murdered in the icy lake, and Owen uncovers a family mystery tied to Hawaii and a lost Mark Twain manuscript. The killer is hunting the hidden treasure too, and will kill again to get it.
Tahoe Killshot
by Todd Borg
2004
When pop star Glory dies in a supposed mountain biking accident, Owen is warned it was murder. His investigation leads to a huge land scam and a taunting killer with a synthetic voice.
Tahoe Silence
by Todd Borg
2007
Silence Ramirez is a gifted autistic artist who cannot speak, and someone kidnaps her for the secret locked in her mind. Owen and Spot race through biker gang violence toward a terrifying deadline.
Tahoe Avalanche
by Todd Borg
2008
When March Carrera disappears the night a massive avalanche crashes into Emerald Bay, his uncle asks Owen for help. Buried bodies, old money and a long-hidden secret send the case deeper into Tahoe's winter danger.
Tahoe Night
by Todd Borg
2009
Former talk show host Leah Printner is already shattered by a fatal car wreck when her father is murdered. Owen hides her while tracing clues about stalking, old master forgeries and killers obsessed with Grendel.
Tahoe Heat
by Todd Borg
2010
Biotech founder Ryan Lear fears his partner's fatal fall was murder, then more violence follows. Owen hunts a killer circling a valuable discovery, a threatened company and a wild Mustang roaming the Tahoe woods.
Tahoe Hijack
by Todd Borg
2011
A boat hijacking pulls Owen back into the old murder of Grace Sun. To save Grace's long-hidden daughter Anna Quinn, he must outrun a killer chasing both a woman and a rumored treasure.
Tahoe Trap
by Todd Borg
2012
Young Paco secretly calls Owen from the back of a speeding pickup after witnessing his foster mother's murder. With Vegas contract killers hunting the boy, Owen has to find him fast and turn the trap around.
Tahoe Chase
by Todd Borg
2013
When an elderly former Olympic skier asks Owen to investigate his wife's suspicious fall, the trail leads to development fights and a string of staged accidents. Meanwhile, vulnerable Simone Bonnaire is being hunted through the wilderness.
Tahoe Ghost Boat
by Todd Borg
2014
Fifteen-year-old Gertie O'Leary becomes the centerpiece of a brutal extortion plot after her stepfather dies in an apparent boating accident. Owen steps in as her defender against blackmail, kidnappers and a killer who will not back off.
Tahoe Blue Fire
by Todd Borg
2015
Owen dismisses a frightened woman's fears until she is murdered. The case links a Renaissance artifact, several threatened lives and former football star Adam Simms, whose brain injuries make him either vulnerable or terrifying.
Tahoe Dark
by Todd Borg
2016
A kidnapping and an armored truck robbery pull Owen into a case that seems to point straight at young house cleaner Evan Rosen. He thinks she is innocent, but proving it means finding a ruthless killer first.
Tahoe Payback
by Todd Borg
2017
A missing woman turns up dead on Fannette Island, and Owen learns she ran a fake charity. As more scam artists are killed, Street Casey faces a threat from the violent father who once went to prison because of her testimony.
Tahoe Skydrop
by Todd Borg
2018
Tech visionary Yardley LaMotte builds a robotics company worth a fortune, then killers set out to steal his software. When a brilliant child tied to the password is kidnapped, Owen plans a desperate rescue from the sky.
Tahoe Deep
by Todd Borg
2019
Eighty years after blind teenager Danny Callahan witnessed the sinking of the SS Tahoe, someone assaults the elderly Daniel for answers. Owen is drawn into a lake-bottom secret that has already cost lives.
Tahoe Hit
by Todd Borg
2020
Two recent deaths look accidental, but Owen suspects a carefully staged poisoning. To stop a revenge scheme and save a kidnapped boy, he has to trace a mystery that reaches back twenty years and echoes Hamlet.
Tahoe Jade
by Todd Borg
2021
Firefighter Jade Jaso survives an assault and a warehouse fire, then her father dies and she disappears. Owen finds a hidden Abraham Lincoln letter, a coded message and a treasure hunt with deadly stakes.
Tahoe Moon
by Todd Borg
2022
Owen finds eight-year-old Camille Dexter alone and waiting for her missing grandfather. When the grandfather turns up dead, he realizes the bright young deaf girl may be the killer's true target.
Tahoe Flight
by Todd Borg
2023
A man Owen helped send to prison years ago is back and hungry for revenge on both Owen and oncologist Benito Diaz. A doctors' reunion, old grudges and a crazed pilot turn the case into a fight for survival.
Tahoe Rescue
by Todd Borg
2024
Livvy Paar loses her dream job and safe new life when her wealthy employer dies in a suspicious crash. Owen's investigation pulls him toward stolen art, modern pirates and Livvy's kidnapping.
Wilderness Justice
by Todd Borg
2024
When Samantha is arrested on a school trip to Tijuana, investigators pressure Josie to track a killer hiding in Yosemite. To clear her daughter and stay alive, she has to outmaneuver a trap aimed at both of them.
Wilderness Punishment
by Todd Borg
2024
The California governor strong-arms Josie into investigating the murder of a forest ranger near Lake Tahoe. A sniper called Typhon closes in, and Josie must lean on old students and hard-won ingenuity to fight back.
Wilderness Threat
by Todd Borg
2024
After a prisoner tied to Josie's earlier case dies in a transport explosion, she is asked to reopen the investigation. A kidnapped woman, a drug gang and a fortified abbey force Josie into another risky assault.
Wilderness Vacation
by Todd Borg
2024
Professor Josie Strong plans a canoe trip through Ontario's Quetico wilderness with her daughter Samantha. When an assassin follows them into the backcountry, Josie has to turn medieval know-how into survival.
Tahoe Speed
by Todd Borg
2025
Genevieve Laurent's life collapses when champion speed skier Colin Burns dies on a course in France. Owen suspects it was no accident, and his search brings danger to Genevieve and her Truckee restaurant.
Where should I start?
If you want the classic Tahoe starting point: Tahoe Deathfall → Tahoe Blowup → Tahoe Ice Grave
If you want Owen McKenna in full stride: Tahoe Silence → Tahoe Avalanche → Tahoe Night
If you want the newer Tahoe run: Tahoe Jade → Tahoe Moon → Tahoe Flight → Tahoe Rescue
If you want the darker wilderness books: Wilderness Vacation → Wilderness Justice → Wilderness Punishment → Wilderness Threat
Author bio
Todd Borg was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Minnesota, where two things got hold of him early, mystery stories and skiing. He has said those were his childhood fixations, and they still explain a lot about the books he writes now. One gave him the habit of making up stories. The other eventually pulled him west.
They shaped almost everything that came next.
Before novels took over, Borg tried music. As a young man he wrote songs, played piano, and wanted to be a singer-songwriter. When that did not become a career, he turned harder toward fiction instead. In his twenties he published a run of short stories, and by then he had already learned something useful for a mystery writer, how to keep a scene moving and how to leave a reader hanging just long enough.
In 1990, he and his wife, painter Kit Night, moved from Minnesota to Lake Tahoe after one too many trips that made going back feel like the mistake. They loved skiing, the mountain light, and the scale of the place. For years they also ran a custom framing business, first in Minnesota and then in Tahoe, which meant Borg built his writing life around regular work before books became the day job.
Tahoe gave him his setting.
He has said the landscape made him realize a detective series could work there, and once you read the books, that makes immediate sense. Cliffs, deep water, back roads, storms, hidden beaches, expensive houses, old local history, plenty of places to disappear. His first Owen McKenna novel, Tahoe Deathfall, came out in 2001, and it introduced a former San Francisco homicide inspector trying to start over in Tahoe. After the fourth McKenna book, Borg sold the framing business and began writing full time.
The Owen McKenna novels are what most readers know him for. Books like Tahoe Blowup, Tahoe Silence, Tahoe Moon, and Tahoe Rescue mix private-eye cases with mountain survival, family secrets, local history, art, and a lot of Lake Tahoe geography. Readers also tend to remember Spot, Owen's Harlequin Great Dane, nearly as fast as they remember Owen himself. Borg understands that a good mystery series needs a strong lead, but he also knows a dog can steal a scene.
He does not only write one kind of suspense, though. In 2024 he started the Josie Strong series with Wilderness Vacation, followed quickly by Wilderness Justice, Wilderness Punishment, and Wilderness Threat. Those books shift from Tahoe PI work to wilderness survival suspense, built around a UCLA medieval history professor and her teenage daughter. It is a different setup, but the appeal is familiar, intelligent people, dangerous terrain, and trouble that gets very real very fast.
The awards matter, but maybe not as much as the pattern behind them. Tahoe Silence won the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, and Borg's books have also landed on top mystery lists from Library Journal and Mystery News. What stands out more is how steady the work has been. He keeps returning to place, pressure, and ordinary human fear, then building clean, high-stakes stories around them.
Borg still lives on Lake Tahoe's South Shore with Kit Night, and he remains a regular presence at regional book events and library talks. That feels fitting. His fiction is deeply tied to where he lives, and the setting is never just scenery. In a Todd Borg novel, the mountain, the weather, the road, the lake, and the view can all help tell the story.
Edited by
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