Laurel McKay Books In Order

Publication Order of Laurel McKay Mysteries Books

The Laurel McKay series is a famous series of cozy mystery, thriller, and suspense books. It is written by a popular author America named Cindy Sample. The series is comprised of a total of 6 books, which were released between the years 2010 and 2016. Each and every book of this series depicts the chief protagonist in the role of Laurel McKay. She is described as a divorced mother of 2 children. Laurel McKay works at the Hangtown Bank in Placerville, California. Besides working her way out at her job and looking after her kids, Laurel tries to sort out and unravel the various mysteries that keep happening around her. After living as a single mother for a few years, Laurel wishes to have a Mr. Right in her life. For this purpose, she looks for a loyal man with whom she could spend the rest of her life with peace and happiness. Laurel has made up her mind that she will accept a man in her life only if he is ready to accept her along with her children. She even starts glancing through the dating sites to find such a man. As the series begins, Laurel McKay is shown as joining a well known dating service among the locals, The Love Club. She dresses very well and goes to meet her first date at a restaurant. However, the date ends miserably as Laurel breaks the nose of the man after he passes rude comments at her. The next morning, the man is discovered dead and Laurel finds herself being the primary suspect. This is how the mysterious problems in Laurel’s life begin. She knows that she has not killed the man and so, she sets out to find and reveal the identity of the real killer. In the meantime, she also continues to look for her Mr. Right and goes for the second date. This man disappears mysteriously in the middle of the dinner and is not found anywhere. Laurel is again seen as a suspect. But, the handsome detective appointed to investigate does not see her as the culprit. He makes Laurel believe that she might be the next in line on the killer’s target list. Laurel feels motivated enough to join the detective in finding the murderer and clearing her name. This way, the readers are introduced to Laurel McKay’s character. With the progress of the series, Laurel is seen getting involved in several other mysteries and coming out of them successfully with her courage and determination.

Author Cindy Sample is a former CEO of a corporate company, who now works as a full time writer. She thinks that plotting murder stories are much more interesting than scratching her head through the boring paperwork. Before the start of her writing career, Cindy tried her hand at a few mergers. But, nothing seemed to work out well and she retired to focus on writing mystery stories. Cindy Sample struck gold with her very first humorous mystery book series as it went on to become a national bestseller and won several prestigious awards for Cindy. She likes to set her stories in California’s gold country town. Being a single mom herself and having some experience with the online dating agencies and dating sites helped Cindy to come up with the books of Laurel McKay. She has typically combined mystery with humor, funny chase scences, and homicides. Author Cindy has been the finalist for the Lefty Award for 4 times in her career. She has repeatedly been nominated in the Best Humor Mystery category and hopes that she will someday win the award too. Cindy has served as the president of Sisters in Crime’s Sacramento Chapter in the past. She has also been given the chance of serving on the boards of the YWCA and Sacramento Opera. Cindy Sample hopes to continue writing funny mystery stories for her fans in the years to come. She wishes to add more fame to her name and get enlisted among the top authors of the humorous mystery genre.

An earlier book of the Laurel McKay series written by author Cindy Sample is entitled ‘Dying for a Dance’. It was released by the CreateSpace publishers in the year 2010. The central characters of the book include Laurel McKay, Detective Hunter, Marilyn, etc. At the start of the book’s story, it is shown that Laurel McKay tries to learn dancing for the upcoming Lake Tahoe marriage of her best friend. She knows she has 2 left feet and seems worried about it. But, what worries her even more is the fact that she discovers the dead body of a dance star from Russia with the broken heel or her shore stuffed in the dancer’s mouth. And to add to her problems, Laurel learns that the detective chosen to handle this case is the man she had dated once for a short period before he chose to move out of her life. Later, one more death takes place on a ballroom floor. Laurel McKay knows a serial killer is roaming freely on the streets and is targeting dancers for reasons best known to him. As she begins to investigate the matte with the assistance of Detective Hunter, Laurel discovers some dark secrets about the Golden Hills Studio. Laurel has her hands full with raising her kids, wedding planning, her career, and the latest addition-murder investigation. She wonders how she is going to manage all this and deal with a killer, who won’t hesitate to come after her after her involvement in the investigation?

Another well written book of this cozy mystery series is called ‘Dying for a Daiquiri’. This book is also set in California and consists of the same characters as the previous book. At the beginning of the story of the book, it is depicted that Laural McKay goes to attend a wedding in the Hawaiian islands and hopes to use the outing as a small vacation away from her busy professional and personal life. But, post the marriage, Laurel’s holiday is disturbed because of the discovery of a lovely hula dancer’s body. The dead body is found near the rocks below an oceanfront restaurant called Daiquiri Dave’s. The case seems very important to solve for Laurel because the owners of the restaurant are her sister and brother-in-law. After Laurel’s brother is taken in for questioning in relation to the murder, she finds herself being plunged into the mystery of the exotic locations of the Big Island. The case reveals the deadly side of the island as opposed to its beautiful coffee plantations, volcano, and sand beaches. This case also forces her to come close to her on again-off again detective boyfriend named Hunter, who makes her feel reluctant to talk. Laurel McKay succeeds in finding important hidden secrets related to the island, which also help her in unearthing the killer’s identity and closing the murder mystery once and for all.