Janet Evanovich & Charlotte Hughes' Full Series

Janet Evanovich is known for her Stephanie Plum series set in Trenton, New Jersey, but in this series she teams up with romance writer Charlotte Hughes to write about a cast of characters living in Beaumont, South Carolina. Jamie Swift is the owner of the newspaper there, but she has a silent partner in Maximillian Holt. Max turns out to be a sexy and notorious love interest for Jamie, and the two of them fall into mystery after mystery -- and for each other.

• Full House (1989) (Originally as Steffie Hall, Re-released in expanded form in 2002)
• Full Tilt (2003)
• Full Speed (2003)
• Full Blast (2004)
• Full Bloom (2005)
• Full Scoop (2006)*

*Not yet read

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series

Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter who lacks both skill in her chosen career field and luck. With her ragtag crew of friends, Stephanie scours the streets of Trenton, New Jersey, looking for criminals who've failed to appear in court and as much junk food as a person can eat. They succeed in great portions at the junk food part (fried chicken and doughnuts being their poison of choice), and sometimes manage to catch some bail skips, as well. Stephanie is joined by former hooker Lula, hunky (but kind of scary) mystery-man Ranger, sexy police detective Joe Morelli, and often her Grandma Mazur.

• One for the Money (1994)
• Two for the Dough (1996)
• Three to Get Deadly (1997)
• "The Last Peep" (A Stephanie Plum short story included in Mary Higgins Clark presents The Plot Thickens) (1997)*
• Four to Score (1998)
• High Five (1999)
• Hot Six (2000)
• Seven Up (2001)
• Hard Eight (2002)
• Visions of Sugar Plums (2003), Holiday novella
• To the Nines (2003)
• Ten Big Ones (2004)
• Eleven on Top (2005)
• Twelve Sharp (2006)
• Plum Lovin' (2007), Holiday novella
• Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
• Plum Lucky (2008), Holiday novella
• Fearless Fourteen (2008)
• Plum Spooky (2009), Holiday novel
• Finger Lickin' Fifteen (2009)
• Sizzlin' Sixteen* (to be released June 2010)
  

* Not yet read

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.

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Series

Sue Grafton's gritty female private eye Kinsey Millhone lives and works in Santa Teresa (a fictional version of Santa Barbara), California. Grafton's series has spanned more than two decades in publication time, but in fictional time only four or five years have passed since the novels began. Kinsey is hardened and a loner most of the time; her family is all but gone until she discovers some long-lost relatives late in the series. Grafton's "Alphabet Series" is one of the longest-standing and most-read mystery series around.

• "A" Is for Alibi (1982)
• "B" Is for Burglar (1985)
• "C" Is for Corpse (1986)
• "D" Is for Deadbeat (1987)
• "E" Is for Evidence (1988)
• "F" Is for Fugitive (1989)
• "G" Is for Gumshoe (1990)
• "H" Is for Homicide (1991)
• "I" Is for Innocent (1992)
• "J" Is for Judgment (1993)
• "K" Is for Killer (1994)
• "L" Is for Lawless (1995)
• "M" Is for Malice (1996)
• "N" Is for Noose (1998)
• "O" Is for Outlaw (1999)
• "P" Is for Peril (2001)
• "Q" Is for Quarry (2002)
• "R" Is for Ricochet (2004)
• "S" Is for Silence (2005)
• "T" Is for Trespass (2007)
• "U" Is for Undertow (2009)

Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse Series

Also called the Southern Vampire Series, Charlaine Harris's series featuring Sookie Stackhouse has recently become more popular than ever due to the production of the HBO television series True Blood. Sookie, a waitress in small town Bon Temps, Louisiana, is a telepath dealing with a world that becomes ever-more strange. First vampires announce their presence to the world. As the world adjusts to this news and Sookie meets her first vampire, other supernatural beings begin coming out of the woodwork. More grown-up than most other vampire series, Harris also lends a bit of humor and romance to this series.

• Dead Until Dark (2001)
• Living Dead in Dallas (2002)
• Club Dead (2003)
• Dead to the World (2004)
• "Fairy Dust" in Powers of Detection (2004)
• "Dancers in the Dark" a novella in Night's Edge (Harlequin Enterprises) (2004), a Sookie-universe story without the character of Sookie Stackhouse*
• "One Word Answer" in Bite (2005)
• Dead as a Doornail (2005)
• Definitely Dead (2006)
• "Tacky" in My Big, Fat Supernatural Wedding (2006), a Sookie-universe story without the character of Sookie Stackhouse*
• All Together Dead (2007)
  
• "Dracula Night" in Many Bloody Returns (2007)
• From Dead to Worse (2008)
• "Gift Wrap" in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008)
• "Lucky" in Unusual Suspects (2008)
• Dead and Gone (2009)
• "Bacon" in Strange Brew (2009), a Sookie-universe story without the character of Sookie Stackhouse*
• "The Britlingens Go To Hell" in Must Love Hellhounds (2009), a Sookie-universe story without the character of Sookie Stackhouse*
• A Touch of Dead (2009), a compilation of all the Sookie short stories
• Dead in the Family (will be released in May 2010)*

*Not yet read

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

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