Brothers Grimm Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Brothers Grimm Mystery Books

The Brothers Grimm Mystery book series is a popular series of fantasy, mystery, adult fiction, humor, crime fiction, historical fiction, and cozy mystery novels. It is written by a NY Times bestselling English author named Paula Brackston under the pen name of P.J. Brackston. The series is comprised of a total of 4 books released between 2014 and 2017. Brackston has set the books’ stories in Bavaria in the 18th century. In each book, she has featured the main character in the role of Gretel, who is shown as residing with her brother named Hans. Every book describes an adult crime story and follows the adventures of the 35-year old Gretel, who has grown quite large. Gretel works as a Private Detective to earn her livelihood. The various cases that she takes up for investigation takes her to places like Nuremberg, Gesternstadt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Friesian islands. Brackston has mentioned the other essential character besides Gretel and Hans in the form of Albrecht Durer, Princess Charlotte, Herr Schmerz, etc. Each book follows a distinct case of mystery that Gretel goes on to solve with her intelligence and wit.

Paula Brackston is a well-known author from Dorset, England. She is popular for writing historical fantasy, contemporary fantasy, historical mystery, adult fiction, and crime fiction novels. Brackston is particularly well known for writing The Witch’s Daughter series. In addition to writing under her original name, she has written several fantasy novels, short stories, nonfiction books, and anthologies under the pseudonym of P.J. Davy and P.J. Brackston. Before starting her career in the writing field, Brackston used to work as a travel agent, an English teacher, a secretary, a goat herd, and a groom. She has studied at Lancaster University and earned her master’s degree in creative writing.

Along with meeting the deadlines from her publishers, Brackston teaches at the University of Wales as a visiting professor. Author Brackston was born in Dorset and was brought up in Wales. As of today, she resides in Wales along with her loving partner and 2 children. The other places that she has lived include Brecon Beacons National Park and central London. She made her writing debut in 2009 with the novel called The Witch’s Daughter. Every book that Brackston has written in her literary career can be read as standalone novels. Quite often, they have different settings and time periods. Brackston is quite satisfied with the way her career has progressed and hopes to continue writing entertaining books in the years to come.

A very well known book of the Brothers Grimm Mystery series written by author Paula Brackston is entitled ‘Once Upon a Crime’. It was released in 2015 by the Pegasus Books publication. This book serves as the prequel to the debut novel called Gretel & the Case of the Missing Frog Prints. It is set in the year 1776 in Bavaria and features Gretel, Princess Charlotte, and Hans in the main roles. Initially, Gretel is introduced as a private investigator. She is in her mid-thirties, lives with Hans, and seems to have grown very large in size. Gretel gets her new case for investigation in which the workshop of a cart maker catches fire and everything is burned to the ground. This incident shakes the small town of Gesternstadt to its foundations when a dead body is found from the ashes after the fire is controlled. When Gretel witnesses the victim’s body, she notices that a finger is missing from his hand.

At first, Gretel appears to miss out on the significance of the missing finger as she gets occupied with a new case. The client of the new case shows the willingness to pay much more than her usual fee to find the trace of 3 missing cats. As Gretel gets involved in the search of the cats, her involvement in the investigation of the intriguing murder begins to lessen. And it is only later that Gretel realizes the 2 cases are dangerously and inextricably connected. Her attempts to find the missing cats lead Gretel into the frightening company and perilous situations. At the next set of events, Gretel lands herself in a lot of troubles. She gets accused of abducting Princess Charlotte and gets locked up in Summer Schloss cells twice. Later, she is strapped in a torture chamber and flees a murder charge. When nothing seems to be going her way, Gretel’s brother Hans comes to her rescue. He helps her prove that she is not responsible for Princess Charlotte’s kidnapping and then the two go on to solve the mystery behind the unidentified corpse found after the fire break out at the cart maker’s workshop. Gretel is also worried about finding the cats and hopes they don’t meet a gruesome end before she finds them.

Another exciting novel of the series is called ‘The Case of the Fickle Mermaid’. It was also published by the Pegasus publication in 2016. The story opens by showing that Gretel experiences a pique in her professional interest when she learns that people are whispering about some mysterious happenings near the Schleswig-Holstein coast. Gretel comes to know about the disappearances of sailors and sightings of mermaids and other sea creatures near the coast. Ordinarily, Gretel doesn’t show any interest in any kind of sea-life other than the edible ones that are served on her plate doused with garlic and butter. As the cases of the missing sailors continue to be on the rise, Gretel is approached by the Arabella ship’s captain. He offers her a good amount of money and a cruise free of cost for providing detective services to find about what is causing the sailors to go missing.

Gretel sees it as a good deal as she would be getting 2 weeks of erudite company and fine dining while sailing around the beautiful Friesian islands. She takes Hans along with her as her bodyguard with the hope that nothing would go wrong. But, all her hopes and plans go for a toss as soon as she begins the investigation. During the course of the investigation, Gretel faces a lot of difficulties and obstacles that make her wonder why she ended up having a career in private investigation. However, she manages to overcome all the obstacles and solves the mystery related to the mermaids before time runs out.