Sherry Rankin Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Sherry Rankin is an American published author.

She grew up in the U.S. in the state of New Jersey. She has been teaching others writing and literature in west Texas ever since 1997. She won the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and was shortlisted for the Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize in 2017 for a novel that is as of yet unpublished.

Sherry would go on to be shortlisted in 2019 in the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition. She has a daughter in New Mexico. When she is not busy writing or reading, Sherry likes to garden and walk her dogs.

Her first published novel in The Killing Plains, followed by The Dark Below.

The Killing Plains is a 2025 novel from Sherry Rankin, winner of the Debut Dagger Award from the CWA. Have you been searching for a thriller novel that will keep you guessing until the end? Check out this book and find out more!

Twenty years apart, two victims point to a killer being out there. In Crest Bluff, located in West Texas, everyone there is familiar with everybody. As if that weren’t enough, it turns out that everybody has a secret.

When a victim turns up, everyone thinks that they know what’s going on. He’s a young boy that is discovered with the skin of a hare’s head in his hand, and the town is abuzz. They’re all convinced that they know personally who killed the kid. It had to be none other than the man known as Willis Newland, who has been released from prison after serving two decades for a murder that was identical.

Because the deaths are so similar, everyone thinks that it has to be Willis Newland. But what if they’re wrong about what they think they know? While it’s possible that it could have been Willis, it’s also just as likely that there’s a copycat killer out there or at least someone who is interested in throwing the authorities off of the scent and making it point towards Newland instead.

Detective Colly Newland decides to look into a case that appears to have the involvement of the entire town wrapped up in it. That also happens to include the extended family of her dead husband. The more that she looks into things, the more secrets she’s finding. As the threats against her only continue to go up, Colly is starting to realize that there is someone out there that doesn’t want any secrets out of there. On top of that, they’d be willing to kill if it meant keeping their own information secret.

Can she figure out what’s going on before it’s too late? Can Colly Newland catch a killer before she is the next one targeted in their crosshairs? Read this mystery to find out for yourself!

The Dark Below is a 2026 novel from Sherry Rankin. If you’ve been looking for an original story to read that you won’t find anywhere else, give this story a try.

When it comes to secrets, they don’t always stay buried. At the same time, not every death is what it appears to be. Chase Loudermilk is a veteran who has been known for his troubles. So when he is discovered dead, it’s just generally assumed that he took his own life.

That would be the easy assumption to make. But other people would not be so quick to agree with this analysis. His criminology professor Teddy Drummond would be one of those people. She is a cop that has to deal with many painful memories from the past. But more than that, she has her suspicions that the veteran has been murdered, and that there are more answers to be found by looking into Chase’s past.

Teddy is somehow gradually pulled into the case even though she has his doubts. She is paired up with Detective Raina Bragg, a woman who has every reason within her to hate her. The two look into more of the buried secrets of the town, and what they end up finding is more than just a motive to kill.

It ends up being a chain reaction of decisions, with each decision listed being darker than the one before. Just when they think that they have enough to deal with, another body ends up showing up. Now they’re in a spot in the case where it seems like everyone’s lives are getting all tangled up and just a few are really innocent.

It’s up to Teddy and Raina to take on the clock if they want to do their best to not only catch a killer and stop them from striking again but to show that there are some consequences out there that can take years to come to the surface. But sometimes, the most threatening secrets are the ones that no one ever is able to glimpse coming. Can they get to the bottom of it all before it’s too late? Read this thriller from Sherry Rankin to find out!