Sean Stranahan Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Sean Stranahan Books

The Sean Stranahan Mystery series is a collection of novels from author Keith McCafferty. The books have been praised for their strong characters and humor.

+The Story

As one might have guessed from the title, the Sean Stranahan Mystery series tells the story of Sean Stranahan, a resident of Montana that enjoys solving mysteries. Sean had a life elsewhere. That life was a little more fast-paced but also uninspiring. And after his marriage failed, the fly fisherman saw fit to abandon everything, including his lackluster career to find peace in Montana

There, the painter indulges in his love for the wild. He meets new people, encounters unexpected mysteries and puts his wisdom to good use. A Has-been private detective, Sean is often lending his abilities to Sheriff Martha Ettinger, especially when she comes across a case that challenges her understanding.

When Sean Stranahan and Martha meet in ‘The Royal Wulff Murders’, Sean is just the newcomer in the community and Martha is a little hesitant to open up to him. However, as the pair encounters one intriguing mystery after another and as Sean proves to be quite the useful asset, Martha gradually learns to rely on his abilities and isn’t even shy about asking him to assist her when the need arises.

There is an attraction between Martha and Sean, and it is difficult to ignore the chemistry that sparks between them when they first meet. However, that burgeoning relationship between them is more of a slow burn. Keith doesn’t fall into the popular trap of throwing his protagonists into an immediate relationship.

There is no instant love to be had in these books, and that makes Martha and Sean’s relationship all the more enticing. One cannot help but get invested in the manner in which the flirting between the two characters keeps evolving as they grow comfortable in one another’s company.

Besides Martha and Sean, Keith endeavors to populate the world of the Sean Stranahan Mystery series with noteworthy supporting characters, individuals that actually contribute to the story at hand.

Keith McCafferty’s love for the outdoors comes through in these books. Each novel attempts to educate readers about an aspect of the wilderness, the goal being to inspire audiences to learn to appreciate everything that nature has to offer.

+The Author

Keith McCafferty comes from Ohio. A child of the Appalachian hills, Keith was always enamored by the woods. He preferred strolling through nature to leaping about on a concrete playground. And the dangers never really gave him pause.

In fact, Keith developed a thing for snakes at a very early age, though that might have had something to do with the fact that snakes were always slithering in and around Keith’s home. As an adult, Keith took the first opportunity that came his way to study nature, eventually getting his Zoology degree from Duke University.

The Masters in Journalism (University of Michigan) was a little unexpected, at least for those people who knew Keith McCafferty. But it made sense to the author who sought to spend his life writing about the great outdoors.

And he went on to do just that, though the first few years of Keith’s journey to success were a little exhausting. Keith did a number of odd jobs, from cleaning rat cages in school to doing hard labor in steel mills before finally finding his place in the job market.

Interestingly enough, even when Keith began doing what he loved, he quickly found that it wasn’t nearly as appealing as he initially assumed. Certainly, he was traveling the world, gaining new experiences and reproducing them in articles for different forms of media. But the work wasn’t easy.

Keith loved earning a living as a writer. But he would have loved to get his writing done from the confines of a café in his favorite city and, hopefully, with a warm cup of coffee in hands. He wasn’t enthused by the prospect of spending nights in the dark and empty wilderness, and freezing his nose off in intolerable environments just so he could write engaging material for readers.

It was during one such freezing night in the wild that Keith McCafferty began to ponder the possibility of making a living as a novelist and even crafted the idea for his first mystery novel. That night more or less changed Keith’s life, setting him on the path to becoming a renowned author of mysteries.

Since finding success as an author, Keith hasn’t completely given up on the wild. He still does a lot of traveling to exotic places. However, he no longer pushes himself unnecessarily.

+The Royal Wulff Murders

The Madison is a treasure amongst Montana Trout Rivers. No one expected it to hold the remains of a young man, but that is exactly what a fishing guide found. And it eventually came down to Sheriff Martha Ettinger to solve the case and find out who murdered the young man.

Martha was pretty certain that it was murder. It wasn’t just the stick in the corpse’s eye that got her thinking but also the Royal Wulff trout fly in his lower lip. Because Sean Stranahan is a fly fisherman, it only made sense for the has-been private detective to cross paths with Martha.

Sean Stranahan is new to the community. Sean left a lackluster career and a failed marriage behind when he came to Montana, and he hasn’t yet regretted his decision. Because he hasn’t had much luck with clients, Sean’s attention is piqued when a Southern Siren forces her way into his life and asks Sean to find her missing brother. Sean eventually begins to suspect that his case and Martha’s case might be connected.

+The Gray Ghost Murders

When Martha is tasked with solving the murders of two men whose bodies were discovered on Sphinx Mountain, she tries to acquire Sean Stranahan’s help. However Sean is a little tied up. A fishermen’s club wants him to find a stolen fly of considerable value.

However, there is more to the case than meets the eye. There are whispers of the gray ghosts and their involvement in a disappeared vintage Gray Ghost from a Madison Valley Cabin.