Cold Case Investigation Books in Order
Part ofLissa Marie Redmond Books in OrderSee the Cold Case Investigation books by Lissa Marie Redmond in order, with short summaries, series background, and where new readers should start.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
6 books
A Cold Day in Hell
by Lissa Marie Redmond
2018
Buffalo cold case detective Lauren Riley is hired by a defense lawyer she despises to investigate a teenager's murder charge. The deeper she digs, the shakier the evidence looks, and her own past moves closer.
A Means to an End
by Lissa Marie Redmond
2019
Still recovering from violence, Lauren finds a young woman's remains and sees the pattern of an old enemy, David Spencer. To stop him, she builds a task force, but proof is harder than instinct.
The Murder Book
by Lissa Marie Redmond
2019
After Lauren is beaten and stabbed in police headquarters, her active cold case files disappear with the attacker. Recovering at home, she has to find which fellow officer would kill to keep an old secret buried.
A Full Cold Moon
by Lissa Marie Redmond
2020
While Shane recovers from injury, Lauren works homicide and catches the brutal killing of an Icelandic visitor near his Buffalo hotel. The case echoes her first unsolved cold case and soon draws international pressure.
The Parting Glass
by Lissa Marie Redmond
2021
Forced onto medical leave, Lauren renews her PI license and takes a search for a Picasso stolen during a bitter Buffalo divorce. The trail leads to rural Ireland, where a dead suspect and a ransacked house raise the stakes.
Catch Your Death
by Lissa Marie Redmond
2022
Lauren Riley and Shane Reese attend a school reunion at a luxury spa resort, only for a snowstorm to trap them with suspects from a 17-year-old murder. When another guest dies, Shane's hidden connection to the old case becomes impossible to ignore.
Series background & context
The Cold Case Investigation series begins with A Cold Day in Hell, and it puts readers beside Lauren Riley, a Buffalo police detective whose job is to reopen old homicide files. Lauren is sharp, stubborn, and not especially interested in making life easy for defense attorneys, bosses, or suspects. She also holds a private investigator license, which means her cases can pull her outside the normal lane of department work.
The hook is simple: the past is never done.
Lauren's regular partner is Shane Reese, and their partnership gives the series much of its shape. Shane is capable and steady, but he is not just a sidekick. Across the books, he becomes part of the emotional risk of the job, especially when injuries, old friendships, and secrets complicate the clean lines Lauren wants to draw between work and home.
The early books stay close to Buffalo and to the pressure of police work. In A Cold Day in Hell, Lauren is asked by defense lawyer Frank Violanti to look again at a murder charge against David Spencer, an 18-year-old suspect. The Murder Book turns inward, toward a violent attack on Lauren and missing case files that point to rot inside the department. A Means to an End keeps the David Spencer thread alive as Lauren tries to prove what instinct alone cannot carry.
As the series grows, the cases spread out without losing the procedural feel. A Full Cold Moon starts with the murder of an Icelandic visitor in Buffalo and pushes Lauren into an investigation with international pressure. The Parting Glass sends her to rural Ireland to hunt for a stolen Picasso. Catch Your Death closes the circle in a different way, trapping Lauren and Shane at a snowbound reunion with suspects from a 17-year-old murder.
These are not cozy mysteries, but they are not all grim either. Redmond keeps the focus on patient work: interviews, timelines, old evidence, office politics, and the stubborn need to give families answers. The suspense often comes from what people choose not to say until they have no choice.
Start with A Cold Day in Hell if you can. Each mystery has its own central case, but Lauren's history, her connection to Shane, and the David Spencer storyline make more sense when read in order.
Edited by
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