Medlar Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Medlar Mystery Books

The “Medlar Mystery” Series is a set of investigative novels by Jude Devereaux, a historical, contemporary and investigative fiction author. The New York Times bestselling author and Romantic Times award winning author is a prolific writer with a distinguished career that she launched in 1980. She now has more than sixty million of her novels sold across the world. As the eldest of four children, Jude grew up in Louisville, Kentucky a small town where she spent much of her childhood. As a teenager, she went to Murray State University where she studied art and specialized in ceramics and fiber arts. Upon graduation from college, she went to live in Santa Fe New Mexico where she wanted to work in the art field. But jobs were scarce for someone that studied art and she spent several years teaching fifth graders while she took graduate course at the University of New Mexico.

It was during this time that Jude Devereaux got interested in bookstores and would get two fat paperbacks from the store and stay up all night Friday reading them. The novel that really had her thinking was when a hero in a rape saga raped a woman until, she said she loved him. She started thinking of the perfect plot if she ever wrote a novel. She would think of the plot for her novel for three days and knew that the only thing that would make it stop was if she wrote it down. She got a binder and started writing. After she was done, she sent the manuscript to Avon Books as she did not know one needed to have an agent to submit. But she was surprised when she got a letter from the publisher one month later asking for permission to publish and to send her an advance. She quit her job the following day and has been writing ever since.

Apart from writing, Jude loves to travel across the globe and documents her adventures in photographs. According to the author, she writes better when she is traveling than when she is on firm ground. She has lived in several states in the US and countries such as Egypt, Cairo and England. When she is not writing, she loves to do weight lifting and engage in boxing. He still watches English TV shows and writes all her manuscripts in shorthand. When she is in the US she makes her home in Florida in a house full of art she has collected in her many adventures across the globe. When Jude takes a break from her writing she loves to drive around in her MINI Cooper or sit in her comfortable chair in her screened-in patio.

The lead of the “Medlar Mystery” series is Sarah Medlar, a retired romance author now living in Lachlan Florida. She is joined by Jackson Wyatt, a long term house guest at her house and her niece Kate. Together they engage in trying to resolve a series of gruesome murders in their small town. The three come from very different backgrounds and have very different personalities given that they are also of different ages. However, they share commonality in having dysfunctional family backgrounds. Still, it is fascinating that they all live in the same house and often go out on their own to work things before coming back together to find common solutions. Despite their differences they have some interesting interactions as they gel to become a supporting, loving little family. They often find themselves having to investigate mysterious cases and it is usually not long before it becomes personal to them. The further they get into trying to resolve the mystery, the more they find themselves way in over their heads though they never give up.

In “A Willing Murder” the first novel of the series, we are introduced to Sara Medlar, who has made a name for herself selling millions of romance novels. But she is now back home in Lachlan Florida bored out of her mind. She lives in a huge mansion she always wanted as a child but it is too lonely as she lives alone. But then Kate her niece, is offered a real estate job in Lachlan and has to live with her aunt before she gets settled. But when she arrives at her aunt’s place, she finds that she has already taken in another guest. In one of the rooms is Jackson Wyatt, a good looking and charming man that seems to have her aunt wrapped around his little finger. She finds him irritating but she has no choice but to live with the two eccentrics. But when skeletons are unearthed in a tranquil part of town, the three team-up to try to find the answers to a mystery almost everyone wants to keep just that. They are united by a desire to right ancient wrongs and a sense of justice. But they will have to dig deep into the town’s dark past to unearth awful truths and unravel some dank secrets.

“A Justified Murder” the second novel of the “Medlar Mystery” series is set a year after the discovery of two bodies in the roots of a tree felled by a storm. Jack Wyatt, Kate and Sara Medlar dive deep into the investigation hoping to find answers to a decades-old mystery. It is a dangerous mission as they narrowly escape death and decide to never involve themselves until Beeson Janet’s body is found. It was a violent and shocking murder as the sweet old lady who could never harm a fly had been stabbed shot and then poisoned. As expected, there are few suspects though there are many townspeople eager to help and in the process clear their names. Even the sheriff hopes that they will be able to resolve the murder mystery that has baffled the best of law enforcement. But once everybody begins speaking, it is clear that Lachlan may have a lot of buried secrets.

“A Forgotten Murder” the third novel of the “Medlar Mystery” series, the three amateur sleuths decide to change scenery by visiting England. They are all living at a centuries old estate named the Oxley Manor that has been converted into a luxury hotel. But once they are at the hotel, Sarah summons several other people and tells them the real reason she has brought them over. Decades earlier, two people had gone missing from the manor and had not been seen or heard from ever since. Sara is interested in resolving the case. They start by reenacting the events of the night of the disappearance but it quickly becomes apparent that a lot of people involved have something to hide. When a body is found, the sleuths realize that at least one of the people that went missing had been killed. Kate, Jack and Sara once again find themselves embroiled in an interesting murder case. But this is no ordinary case as the killer will do anything to ensure he is not caught.