Chelsea Cain's Heart Series

Chelsea Cain's female serial killer is decidely unlady-like and yet very feminine, all at the same time. Gretchen Lowell is the Hannibal to police detective Archie Sheridan's career. Known as The Beauty Killer, Lowell has been in jail for some time when this series opens. But she still has Archie Sheridan tied around her little finger. Chasing her and solving the murders she committed has become more than a full-time job for Sheridan. In these three novels, Cain shows just how true this is. Cain incorporates much of the setting of Portland, Oregon, into her novels.

• Heartsick (2007)
• Sweetheart (2008)
• Evil At Heart (2009)

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch Series

I have written several posts on Michael Connelly, and several specifically about his protagonist, police detective Harry Bosch. Even a few about Mickey Haller, Connelly's sometimes weasel-like, but ultimately loveable lawyer. Connelly has written a set of novels that I consider one of the best mystery series ever written. What I especially like is that he intertwines everything he writes into Harry Bosch's world. Even when Harry is absent (like in Void Moon), the characters always pop back up in a later Bosch novel. Connelly got his start as a crime journalist, and his true crime stories flow into his novels seamlessly. For a taste of gritty detective work, tortured souls, and the darker side of Los Angeles, dive into Connelly's excellent series.

• The Black Echo (1992):Harry Bosch
• The Black Ice (1993): Harry Bosch
• The Concrete Blonde (1994):Harry Bosch
• The Last Coyote (1995):Harry Bosch
• The Poet (1996): Jack McEvoy & Rachel Walling
• Trunk Music (1997):Harry Bosch
• Blood Work (1998): Terry McCaleb
• Angels Flight (1999):Harry Bosch
• Void Moon (2000): Cassie Black
• A Darkness More Than Night (2001): Harry Bosch, with Terry McCaleb & Jack McEvoy
• City Of Bones (2002): Harry Bosch
• Chasing the Dime (2002): Henry Pierce
• Lost Light (2003): Harry Bosch
• The Narrows (2004): Harry Bosch, with Rachel Walling & Terry McCaleb
• The Closers (2005): Harry Bosch
• The Lincoln Lawyer (2005): Mickey Haller
• Echo Park (2006): Harry Bosch, with Rachel Walling
• The Overlook (2007): Harry Bosch, with Rachel Walling
• The Brass Verdict (2008): Harry Bosch, with Mickey Haller & Jack McEvoy
• The Scarecrow (2009): Jack McEvoy & Rachel Walling
• 9 Dragons (2009): Harry Bosch

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.

Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Series

Faye Kellerman writes interesting novels about Jewish homemaker Rina Lazarus and her unlikely Southern Baptist-turned-Orthodox Jewish husband Peter Decker. Decker is a police dectective in Los Angeles, California, and he meets Rina while investigating a case early on in the series at a yeshiva. The two main characters are likeable and their relationship is a close one, even through their extreme differences. Kellerman presents the world of Orthodox Judaism in an unlikely format -- the mystery novel -- but it works. Later in the series, Decker's daughter from a previous marriage, Cindy, becomes a dectective, as well, joins forces with her father, and eventually becomes the main protagonist in some books.

• The Ritual Bath (1986)
• Sacred and Profane (1987)
• Milk and Honey (1990)
• Day of Atonement (1991)
• False Prophet (1992)
• Grievous Sin (1993)
• Sanctuary (1994)
• Justice (1995)
• Prayers for the Dead (1996)
• Serpent's Tooth (1997)
• Jupiter's Bones (1999)
• Stalker (2000)
• The Forgotten (2001)
• Stone Kiss (2002)
• Street Dreams (2003)*
• The Burnt House (2007)*
  
• The Mercedes Coffin (2008)*

*Not yet read