Lisa Gardner's Rainie Conner/ Pierce Quincy Series

Lisa Gardner is the author of many mysteries, but none so compelling as her series of books based loosely on the same characters. Pierce Quincy, an FBI agent, begins the series. He is joined by his daughter Kimberly (also an FBI agent later in the series) and sheriff's deputy Rainie Conner in later novels. Gardner writes suspenseful page-turners, books that haunt your dreams if you read them too close to bedtime. Gardner's books take her characters to a variety of settings, from a small town supposed to be a fictionalized version of Tillamook, Oregon, to the metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia.

• 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.

Charlotte Hughes' Kate Holly Series

Hughes has written many books on her own, but her claim to fame is as a co-author with Janet Evanovich for the "Full" series starring small-town newspaper owner Jamie Swift and rich guy Max Holt (Full House, Full Tilt, and four more). This is Hughes' newest series written by herself, and it is absolutely hilarious. Think in the same vein as Evanovich's funny Jersey girl Stephanie Plum, but with an entirely new set of characters and set in Georgia. Kate Holly is a psychologist with issues of her own (OCD, for one). She and her assistant Mona, her crazy mother and aunt, her firefighter ex-husband , and a bad boy psychiatrist Thad who she once dated and can't get away from, all join forces to get themselves out of comic situations and away from patients who should be institutionalized.

• What Looks Like Crazy (2008)
• Nutcase (2009)
• High Anxiety (2009)*

*Currently reading

Kathy Hogan Trocheck's Callahan Garrity Series

Trocheck began her writing career with this series set in the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. Callahan Garrity and her mother Edna Mae run the cleaning business, House Mouse, as Garrity tries to make it as a private investigator -- and sometimes find themselves mid-mystery when they find bodies during routine house cleanings. As a ex-Atlanta cop, Garrity knows her way around a mystery and she solves crime after crime in this southern series.

• Every Crooked Nanny (1992)
  
• To Live and Die in Dixie (1993)
  
• Homemade Sin (1994)
• Happy Never After (1995)
• Heart Trouble (1996)
• Strange Brew (1997)
• Midnight Clear (1998)
• Irish Eyes (2000)