One piece of advice you’ll hear when you want to start writing is to write what you know. And that’s exactly what author Kristi Belcamino did.
Leaning into her experience as a crime reporter, she created the Gabriella Giovanni Mystery Series. Each book in this award-nominated six-book series can be read alone, but reading them in order provides a much deeper and layered back story that will keep you hooked.
If you’ve been curious about diving into this compelling series, here are all six books in order.
Blessed are the Dead
Gabriella Giovanni is a reporter for the San Francisco Bay Area paper. She works the crime beat, spending her days in other people’s nightmares.
But she gets to walk away. Until a little girl goes missing on her way to her school bus stop, and Gabriella smells a front-page story.
The case hits too close to home, as Gabriella's little sister was kidnapped and left dead on the side of the road 22 years earlier. And things get even more tangled when convicted kidnapper Jack Dean Johnson is brought in as a suspect and Gabriella is the only person he’ll talk to.
What started as a story turns into an obsession, and Gabriella risks everything to find a killer and stop him from murdering another little girl.
Blessed are the Meek
A string of high-profile murders has the city on edge, but none more than reporter Gabriella Giovanni. After all, when the investigation points to a single link in every death, suddenly her boyfriend, Detective Sean Donovan, is a suspect.
That link is his ex-girlfriend, Annalisa Cruz. Every man she’s ever dated ends up dead. Every man except Sean.
With Sean arrested and dubbed the jealous ex, Gabriella is left to frantically uncover the truth. But that truth might be darker than she ever imagined.
Sean has secrets he’d rather take to the grave.
Blessed are Those Who Weep
When San Francisco reporter Gabriella Giovanni stumbles upon a horrific crime scene, she goes into shock. There's only one survivor: a baby girl crawling between slaughtered family members like a scene straight out of a nightmares.
By the time social services pries the little girl from her arms, Gabriella is determined to see justice for the infant. But finding this elusive killer is harder than she ever dreamed.
As the clues lead to dead end after dead end, determination shifts into obsession until Gabriella's quest for truth puts all she holds dear in jeopardy.
Blessed are Those Who Mourn
Gabriella Giovanni finally has it all. She’s in a loving relationship with Detective Sean Donovan and her career as a reporter for the San Francisco Bay Area paper is thriving.
But when a string of dead coeds plagues the city, Gabriella can’t help but feel like the killer is sending her a message. Every dead body has Biblical verses left on their bodies—the same verses the man she suspects kidnapped and murdered her sister over 20 years ago left Gabriella.
And when her own family is attacked, Gabriella’s fears start to come true. With time running out, she will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves most.
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Gabriella Giovanni knows her husband’s work schedule is a good problem to have. After all, it’s an important new job with the DEA and their little girl is safe at home.
But when his plane crashes in the Guatemalan jungles and she’s told Sean is dead, Gabriella’s life turns upside down. Just when she thinks things can’t possibly get any worse, the US government can’t find any trace of the plane or the passengers inside.
Determined to get answers, Gabriella heads to Guatemala to search the deepest, darkest parts of the jungle for the truth. It doesn’t take long before she realizes she’s in way over her head.
Even worse, if she can’t make it out alive, she’s risking not only her life, but everything she loves.
Blessed are the Merciful
Gabriella Giovanni may have earned the happy life she’s built, but that doesn’t mean the fight is over. She thought she put the dark events of the Guatemala jungle behind her, but one phone call changes everything.
To protect her husband and daughter, Gabriella will have to face her deadliest enemy yet. He will stop at nothing to make Gabriella pay for what she took from him.
But Gabriella is used to being underestimated. There’s nothing she won’t do to keep her family safe—even if that means facing death head on.