Mystery Series OCD

I listened to Lisa Gardner's thriller Gone on CD a couple of months ago, and that prompted me to do some research on Gardner. As I wrote in my post about Gone, I found out after listening to the audiobook that it was part of a larger series about former sheriff's deputy Rainie Conner and her love interest, ex-FBI agent Pierce Quincy.

By using LibraryThing.com's search engine for books in a series, I found a list of those books in order. Then I double-checked the list on Stop, You're Killing Me!, which is an amazing website for mystery-lovers. It has pages for authors, listing all of their books in order by series and non-series books. It also has pages for characters who are famous enough to prompt their own searches, like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.

Here are the Rainie Conner/Pierce Quincy books in order:

• The Perfect Husband (1998) When a police officer turns evil, his wife seeks help from anyone she can reach, including FBI agent Pierce Quincy. This is Quincy's debut in a book, and Gardner's first novel.
  
• The Third Victim (2001) Sheriff's Deputy Rainie Conner investigates a school shooting with the help of Quincy, marking Rainie's first appearance in a book.
  
• The Next Accident (2001) Someone is killing Quincy's loved ones. In this book, he hires ex-cop turned private investigator Rainie to find out who and to stop them.
  
• The Killing Hour (2003) Quincy's daughter Kimberly is in training to become an FBI agent when bodies begin turning up. They are credited to a man called the eco-killer, and soon Rainie and Quincy join her to find this latest murderer.
  
• Gone (2006) Rainie disappears, and her estranged husband Quincy begins the hunt for her. Quincy is joined by his daughter Kimberly.
• Say Goodbye (2008) FBI agent Kimberly Quincy is five months pregnant, and on the trail of a serial killer who preys on young girls and kills them using an unusual weapon -- poisonous spiders.

I go a bit over the top when it comes to reading books in a series in order; after listening to Gone, I obviously know that Rainie and Quincy have become romantically involved at some point in the series. However, I think it'll be worth it to go back and find out how. Also, while she's no literary genius, Lisa Gardner writes interesting page-turners that keep me entertained. Thus, it won't be a hardship to go back and read the other books in this series.

Gardner talks about her writing and her native city of Boston: