These Two Jane Tesh Mystery Series Will Keep You Busy All Summer

The series opens with Mac on an unremarkable July morning while the crickets might as well be chirping at her eponymous agency—nobody wants to hire a former Miss Parkland, North Carolina as a PI.

However, all that changes when Jerry Fairweather, Mac’s lifelong pal and possible love interest, inherits a property in a strange little town called Celosia, where there just so happens to be a beauty pageant and one of the contestants has been murdered.   

With a successful investigation under her belt, Madeline is ready for the respect she deserves. Clients begin to roll in, but at the same time, her relationship with Jerry Fairweather has reached a stalemate.

Jerry is preoccupied by his past and the accident that claimed his parents’ lives as well as a nagging certainty that he is unlovable. He also happens to be a total con man. 

Meanwhile, a film director has scouted the house Jerry inherited as a potential location for his upcoming horror film shoot about a cryptid creature rumored to live in Celosia. When the director turns up dead, Mac has no choice but to aim her magnifying glass straight at the man she loves.  

Married now, Madeline and Jerry, who has sworn off his antics, set roots in Celosia, and all is well until a teacher at the local elementary school dies mysteriously.

Simultaneously, Mac is hired to help a client solve a riddle left behind by a relative only to realize that perhaps the riddle and the death of Miss Amelia Lever may very well be connected.

Fast-paced and colorful with characters, this installment showcases the small-town charm of Celosia.  

The new art gallery set to open in Celosia is the talk of the town when suddenly its owner, Wendall Clarke, is murdered.

Mac takes on the case, but it’s not as simple as it seems, especially while working to ensure her husband isn’t arrested for another one of his schemes.

Tackling a suspect list that might as well be a mile long, Mac has her hands plenty full, but wait, there’s more—Madeline Maclin might be pregnant! 

The fifth installment of the Madeline Maclin series takes a dark turn when a body is found on a vineyard in Celosia covered in occult symbols.

Mac’s first instinct is to investigate the local Darkrose Coven of Witches, but then she’s hired by the wealthy Amanda Price to dig into yet another murder in Celosia.

This second murder is tied to a local theatre production in which Price seems to be the prime suspect—and Madeline must ask herself if these two heinous acts are connected.  

Reeling from tragedy and recently kicked out after his divorce, Detective David Randall accepts an invitation to move into his psychic friend Camden’s boarding house on Grace Street.

A cozy read with characters that feel like friends, things get quite strange when Randall begins investigating two separate murders closely tied to music and the spirit of someone involved possesses Cam, refusing to let go until Randall proves his innocence.  

It’s Christmas at Grace Street, and what should be a quant holiday in the small town is anything but—Cam’s friend is murdered, and his visions make him believe he’s connected to the killer.

An investigation ensues revealing a fraud and embezzlement scheme at the Parkland Museum of History, and Randall finds himself navigating a series of underground tunnels while working alongside a team of Parkland natives with supernatural powers to crack the case.  

A dip into the world of magic, Now You See It follows Randall as he is hired to track down a stolen box that once belonged to Harry Houdini. Instead, he finds the body of the owner of the box, and now there’s a murder to solve, too.

The investigation that follows takes Randall into the underbelly of the magic community in Parkland where there’s bad blood, plenty of romance, and rivalries run deep.  

In this installment of the series, desperate for work, David Randall takes on the missing persons case of an ailing actress in Parkland, North Carolina, and this time around, he calls on his pal Cam to use his psychic abilities to hunt for clues.

When her body turns up in the basement of her home, thanks to a tip from Cam, David must decide—is the Parkland Little Theatre Company behind her death?

Cam volunteers to go undercover just to find out! 

When one of Cam’s friends, Rufus Jackson, learns he is a father, and shortly after, the mother of his child turns up dead and the baby goes missing, David Randall begins investigating Rufus.

But this case is tough to crack when the community of Parkland North Carolina needs Randall more than ever before.

The characters of the series are as vibrant as they come in this installment and readers are left wondering if Randall will be able to focus long enough to find the missing baby girl in the end.  

When a local actor’s highly-prized glass dragonfly is stolen, Davis Randall is called to the case.

But before he can crack it, a murder rocks the art community in Parkland. Then more of the board members of the local art museum begin to disappear. 

David and Cam must work together, but as they do they come to a shocking realization—the stolen dragonfly might be cursed!