Steven Axelrod Books In Order

Publication Order of Henry Kennis Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Author Steven Axelrod was born in New York City, and grew up in Beverly Hills and Manhattan. He watched his dad (a playwright and screenwriter named George Axelrod) work on such films as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “The Manchurian Candidate”.

He spent his youth pitching and rewriting scripts, Steven is still a member of the Writers Guild of America and has an MFA in the field of writing from Vermont College.

Axelrod is a father of two and lives on Nantucket Island. Here, he paints houses and writes novels. At times, he works on both at the same time, much to his customers’ annoyance.

His first novel was released in the year 2000, and was called “Paranoid”. Axelrod’s work is from the genre of mystery, and he writes the “Henry Kennis Mystery” series. This series began publication in the year 2013, when “Nantucket Sawbuck” was released.

“Nantucket Sawbuck” is the first novel in the “Henry Kennis Mystery” series, which was released in the year 2013. Preston Lomax (a Nantucket homeowner) is killed in his McMansion, and it makes everyone on the island a suspect. Lomax lived huge, owed people money, and word was getting out that he was plotting to stiff everyone of them and vanish. Chief of Police Henry Kennis, who just moved to town from California, is investigating the case and getting assistance from the State Police.

Together, they are able to find the killer. That is what it looks like, anyway. Kennis is unable to shake a nagging feeling that they are missing something. He quickly finds scandals and intrigues lurking behind the scenes in one of the most exclusive resorts in all of America.

This glamorous setting has an eclectic cast of locals: surfing carpenters, wealthy homeowners, their slacker kids, drug dealers, and odd journalists. Kennis finds out a truth that lies in between the good neighbors and bad blood. He realizes that the actual answer hits very close to home.

The plot of the book has quite a few twists and turns and is clever at all times. There are some clever plot devices that are used simply to take the reader in the wrong direction. The setting is well used in this novel, and the characters are likable. Axelrod kicks off this series off right with this book.

“Nantucket Fivespot” is the second novel in the “Henry Kennis Mystery” series, which was released in the year 2015. Henry Kennis, the police chief of Nantucket island who writes poetry returns to investigate another challenging case. During the summer tourist season’s height, a bomb threat at the annual Boston Pops Concert might destroy the economy of the island. Not to mention its reputation for being a safe, if typically only during the summer, haven for the ruling class of America.

Threat of terrorism brings Homeland Security out to Nantucket, and with it, prospect of rekindling a love affair, as Henry’s former love now works for DHS.

Any aspects to the attack prove to only be a red herring. The truth is really a lot closer to home. Initially, suspicion falls on Bill Delavane (a local carpenter), but Henry investigates and finds that Billy is being set up. The new suspect he finds is also being framed, for the almost undetectable and odd crime of setting up someone else.

Each piece of evidence works three ways in the search for a killer that is rooted in infidelity, a betrayed friendship, and the silent and poisonous feuds of life in a small town. Henry traces the attacks’ origin back to about twenty years. He discovers an obsessive revenge conspiracy that he has to unravel all by himself, now he is on the run and discredited. All before another disaster hits.

“Nantucket Grand” is the third novel in the “Henry Kennis Mystery” series, which was released in the year 2016. A Land Bank executive dies after a suspicious hunting accident, a teenage girl lies comatose due to a drug overdose, and an affluent local family’s historic summer home burns as a result of arson. Spring turns to summer and the tourists start hitting the island, the mysterious violence cycle begins to spin even faster.

A young Jamaican boy is found dead in the harbor, a beloved local hero is killed in cold blood, and a sex-for-drugs porn ring is uncovered. Is it possible that these events are part of the same conspiracy? Henry Kennis doubts it. Jane Stiles, Henry’s new girlfriend and cozy mystery author, thinks it is all linked together. In a book of hers, they would be related. Henry is not a believer.

The cords pull tighter, and Henry gets pulled into a scandal that is going to change Nantucket forever. He begins to see that Jane could be right, after all. It might be too late already. The case he has been investigating comes to an end as a vengeful dad, a ruthless billionaire, a damaged beauty, and a stone cold murderer come together on the 150 foot luxury yacht. Henry has to put his life at stake and take desperate action to make things right. Not to mention saving his small little comma of dune grass and scrub pine that he calls home.

“Nantucket Red Tickets” is the fourth novel in the “Henry Kennis Mystery” series, which was released in the year 2017. Henry Kennis is investigating the cold Coddington case with Jackson Blum the prime suspect, while he works a plot to rig the traditional five grand Red Tickets raffle.

He struggles to shut down a local dealer of opioids selling from a house on Tuckernuck Island (which is a bleak vista of wild moors, dirt roads, and unpainted homes a hundred years old) to high school kids. It is a time machine, Kennis notes. It comes with a whaling history.

Henry’s own daughter has been edged out of the high school a capella singing group, his son has been accused of cheating, and his girlfriend’s Christmas play is headed for disaster. It is looking like a holiday filled with calamity for all.