Patricia Smiley Books In Order

Publication Order of Detective Davie Richards Books

Publication Order of Tucker Sinclair Books

Patricia Smiley is an American author best known for writing the Tucker Sinclair series of novels. The Tucker Sinclair series features Tucker Sinclair, a management consultant who finds herself embroiled in murder mysteries necessitating that she become an amateur sleuth. Her other series of novels is the Pacific Homicide series of novels that is still ongoing. Smiley was born in a Washington, in a small agricultural town where her mother taught her to love books. It was during her childhood that she fell in love with books, particularly mysteries such as the adventures of Trixie Beldon. When she was older, she graduated to the likes of Christie, Chandler, and Hammett, before she went to college majoring in drama and graduating with a Sociology degree. She took two courses because she found sociology practical while the acting was fun. She has also written several short fiction works that have been published on “Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine” and an Elizabeth George edited anthology “Two of the Deadliest”. Besides her mystery writing, she has lectured on writing at various conferences in Canada and the U.S. and has been a ranking member of the Mystery Writers of America Southern California chapter and Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles president. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she writes her novels about her quirky and determined female characters.

Patricia first job after graduating from college was as a juvenile detention worker where she learnt how to curse and be paranoid. Four years later, she would get a job with the Washington State Legislature, before she left and returned to Seattle to take up a management job. Her job was with one of the leading cruise liners, and served as more education in paranoia and cursing. She would soon leave Seattle and head to sunny California, where she became the executive of a temporary personnel agency in Los Angeles. She would also do some acting in her free time but never took it very seriously. It was while she was in Los Angeles that she enrolled for a Master’s degree in Business Administration, as she felt she needed it to get ahead in her career. However, she soon discovered she had no passion for a business course, and that what she wanted to do more than anything is write a novel – a mystery novel with a Los Angeles setting. She came to love the city so much that she just had to write a novel set in it. During this time, she was a Specialist Reserve Officer and volunteer for the LAPD and even had her own caseload writing search warrants, interviewing suspects and witnesses, reviewing cold cases, and presenting cases to the DA. However, For Patricia Smiley, there was no one that had written about Los Angeles the way she had experienced it, and therefore she had to do the city justice. She thus wrote four humorous title about Tucker Sinclair a business management consultant turned amateur sleuth.

Tucker Sinclair is the lead character in Smiley’s most popular Tucker Sinclair series of novels. When we are introduced to Tucker in the first novel in the series, she is set up for a crime she did not do, forcing her to go into amateur sleuthing to redeem her reputation. Just as she is looking to get back her reputation, someone is murdered, and she is suddenly roped into the investigation. She is a strong and feisty female who always seems to run into all manner of trouble, which she nevertheless takes in her stride. Many of the elements of the novels are based on real life happenings and settings in the life of the author. For instance, one of the stories is inspired by an actual case about a woman who was found dumped in a sewer that the author went on to research and write a story about. The setting in Los Angeles also inspires the setting of her Pacific Homicide series. Growing up the author had always heard of the sometime questionable or unfair discipline meted out by the top LAPD brass on their juniors, and these elements make their way into the experiences of Davie Richards. Her police procedural series feature Davie Richards, a strong and determined woman whose experiences mirror the author’s work with the LAPD, when she worked for five years in the LAPD’S detective squad room.

“False Profits”, the first novel in the series introduces Tucker Sinclair, a Stephanie Plum type of character who seems to get into all kinds of trouble. Sinclair believes that she is on her way to making partner at her law firm, when she is suddenly woken from her reverie by the news that the firm is being sued for some work she had done. She had written some very honest business evaluation report for some Dr. Polk, which had resulted in some of his investors claiming his company, had lied to them. The investors are now suing to get their money back, threatening the doctor’s business survival. Tucker thinks it a small matter that she could quickly resolve, until the original report goes missing and Pol turns up dead. She now needs to find the report and save her career while she is in the sights of a demented killer. The novel is a fun read for anyone who loves a novel set in Los Angeles as it places the lead all over Los Angeles, and provides vivid description of daily life of a range of Los Angeles residents.

“Cover Your Assets”, the second novel in the Tucker Sinclair series is a delightful novel that sees Tucker’s life normalizes after the events of False Profits. However, everything changes when Evan Brice who had once been her lover in college walks back into her life. Ten years after he had walked out of their relationship to marry her best friend, he makes his grand reentry into her life. The man is doing well for himself as a Hollywood agent, though he is involved with drugs and has too many mistresses for his own good. A few days after meeting his old flame, the man turns up dead, brutally murdered with his wife the chief suspect. The widow turns to Tucker, her husband’s old friend for help. The case turns out to be a lot more than Tucker can chew, as she soon finds herself clashing with the detective in charge, narcissistic soap opera star, and a biker gang, all of who make it almost impossible for her to do any investigations.