BookSeriesInOrder.com





Book Notification

Max Wirestone Books In Order

Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Publication Order of Dahlia Moss Mysteries Books

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon

Max Wirestone is an American author best known for writing award-winning fantasy and mystery novels. Wirestone announced his entry into the world of publishing with his debut novel “The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss” of the Dahlia Moss Mysteries, that quickly went on to become a bestselling title. Max was born in the City of Steeples that goes by the official name of Concord, New Hampshire, a small town where most businesses are closed by six PM. Wirestone has an English degree from Washington University, St Louis, and also graduated with a Science and Mathematics degree from the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science. After completing his college studies, he spent most of his time as a librarian working in several libraries across the United States. It was in New England where he finally settled down when he was appointed the director of a small town library, that enabled him indulge in his love for geekery, mysteries, and books in general. Since then he has become the town’s resource on how to build Mindstorm Lego robots, pronounce the names of the characters in Game of Thrones, and dust for fingerprints. He lives in a century old house in Concord, NH with his editor wife and their four-year-old son. When he is not writing he loves to play games, build toys and enjoy a cold breeze on his balcony.

Working as a librarian gave the budding author a great opportunity for studying trends of what novel lovers were into. As the head of collection development, he discovered that many readers that were on the wait list for George RR Martin’s books were also on the Alan Bradley’s “Flavia De Luce” mysteries wait list. This information meant that there were a significant number of readers looking for geek themed novels and that he could be the one to fill the gap. Within two months, he had written the first draft of his debut novel “The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss”. He then embarked on the quest to find an agent that would get him published. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he took his rejections very positively as he would implement every suggestion for change that the agents sent to him, until the third agent asked for the full manuscript. Nonetheless, he contacted more than twenty agents in fantasy and mystery and got four offers for representation. He finally went with Liza Dawson Associate agent Caitlin Blasdell, who got her first novel published. Wirestone credits his relatively smooth path to publishing to the knowledge he gathered while working as a librarian, that made it possible for him to write novels that are in demand, and the covers and titles that readers respond to.

The Dahlia Moss Mysteries are best described as geek cozy mysteries. Max Wirestone asserted that the novels are geek narratives with geek characters given that such characters are often made sidekicks in similar novels. As such, the novels have a PAX or Comicon feel to them offering that crazy, warm, and safe feeling that is geeky yet having the same tantalizing mystery and gore to be found in the classic cozy mystery. Dahlia the lead character is an unusual character as she is a geek that is hired to solve all manner of mysteries in online environments. Nevertheless, over the course of trying to solve the virtual mystery, she usually ends up having to solve the murder mystery of her employer. However, even as she is a geek, she lives a life that is ridiculous, hilarious, and adventurous as she surrounds herself with some of the most bizarre characters. She makes some of the most unfortunate of decisions, but always manages to get herself out of trouble time and again. What makes the novels so fascinating is that their mysteries including their murders, digital thievery, and multiplayer online role-playing games are written in geek. The author assembles one of the best knowledge that analyzes how geeky interests may become highly interesting and adventurous. With the great cross genre stockpile of knowledge that Wirestone has included in the novels, they may fit different classifications including Young Adult Crossover, light crime fiction, chic geek, and crossover cozy mystery.

“The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss” the first novel of the series introduces Dahlia, a flat out broke and unemployed girl who is living with her rich roommate. She is surprised when she is offered a job to track down some virtual item that the owner believes was stolen. While she is confident of doing the job, she has only two qualifications. The qualifications include the fact that she had once played a popular multiplayer virtual game known as Zoth, and that she had at one time worked for a private investigations agency. The stolen item is a collection of pixels that make a very rare spear in the game. Dahlia believes this one of the easiest jobs she ever has to take, as she simply has to research and trail the thief. She thinks one of her employer’s friends must be responsible for the theft and it is simply a matter of elimination. Things go hairy when the man that hired her for the job turns up dead, a day after. He has been killed with a full-scale perfect replica of the game spear that had been stolen from his game account. Dahlia’s hunt for a thief of virtual objects is now a full-blown murder mystery that only she can solve.

“The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss” sees Dahlia make a comeback after excelling in the first. You would think that she would not go anywhere near guns again after taking a bullet to the hand, but that is not the type of person Dahlia is. She had faced down death and came out of her ordeal with a scar, which she treated like street cred – like some type of gang tattoo. However, she may have bitten more than she can chew this time as she has made a few fundamental errors for a person in her line of work. She had agreed to meet with a person that goes by the name of Dr. X, despite everyone advising against it. She had eaten a large meal prior to examining a corpse and stood very near to the edge of a steamboat while lying to herself that she could do nothing wrong. Kidnapping is a very real threat, particularly given that the said Dr. X is a relatively unknown person that could be an internet stalker intent on doing her harm.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Max Wirestone

Leave a Reply