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Irene Kelly book cover 1
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Irene Kelly
Series · 11 books · 1993-2011

Books in series

Goodnight, Irene book cover
#1

Goodnight, Irene

1993

In the bestselling tradition of Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky—a new mystery series featuring Irene Kelly, reporter, amateur sleuth, and woman of today. When a veteran reporter is killed while trying to solve a murder that occurred in 1955, Irene Kelly attempts to find out who silenced her comrade—and quickly becomes the killer's next target.
Sweet Dreams, Irene book cover
#2

Sweet Dreams, Irene

1994

Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult. The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered, and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay.
Dear Irene book cover
#3

Dear Irene

1995

When a strange letter signed "Thanatos" — the ancient Greek name for death—lands on Irene Kelly's desk, the intrepid reporter doesn't think much of it; she gets crazy mail all the time. A less cryptic message is sent when a body turns up the next morning. As more letters roll in, the death toll mounts...and Irene fears that her mysterious pen pal has cast her in his own private Greek tragedy as Cassandra, the seer whom others refused to believe. It's the killer's dream to challenge Irene to follow his ancient blueprint for murder. It's his ultimate desire to make her face the inevitable—that she is the next to die.
Remember Me, Irene book cover
#4

Remember Me, Irene

1996

'I'm not who I used to be....' The remark, whispered by a stranger on the street to Irene Kelly, becomes all the more unnerving when the newswoman realizes she knows the man. He's Lucas Monroe, her former college instructor who had looked forward to a brilliant future. Now he's a derelict in hiding, an unlikely suspect in blackmail and murder. What happened to Monroe's life strikes Irene as bizarre. But it's what happens to him in death that fills her with dread. Her long-lost mentor is found murdered, and whatever the picturesque town of Las Piernas is hiding has made some people very rich, very guilty, and very dangerous.
Hocus book cover
#5

Hocus

1997

For reporter Irene Kelly it's a terrifying investigation - because it's so personal. Her husband, Detective Frank Harriman, has been kidnapped by terrorists who call themselves Hocus - deadly manipulators who give Irene three days to meet their demands before killing their hostage. But Irene's biggest shock is yet to come - as she uncovers her husband's history, and learns of a horrific crime committed a decade earlier. As seconds slip away, Irene willingly steps into a trap set by two madmen with a score to settle. And when she does, someone is going to pay for the sins of the past.
Liar book cover
#6

Liar

1998

Investigative reporting has its hazards, but trouble hits home for Irene Kelly when her estranged aunt is murdered—and Irene becomes the leading suspect. With the police hot on her trail, Irene sets out to find cousin Travis, her dead aunt's son, convinced he's the next target. But when Irene finds Travis, a camper-driving children's storyteller with suspiciously deep pockets, things blow up—literally. It takes several brushes with death, staying one step ahead of the law, and a few not-so-sweet reunions for Irene to untangle a complex web of family secrets and long-held grudges, and discover just who is killing off the Kelly clan—and why.
Bones book cover
#7

Bones

1999

Vicious serial killer Nicholas Parrish agrees to exchange information about the location of the body of a missing woman, Judith Sayre, for a deal in which authorities will not seek the death penalty for his crimes, an agreement that traps journalist Irene Kelly in the remote wilderness with a murderer. Winner of the Edgar Award. Reissue.
Flight book cover
#8

Flight

2001

Hot off the publication of "Bones," the winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, Jan Burke explodes onto the suspense scene with "Flight," featuring the hard-edged Detective Frank Harriman, husband of Jan's beloved series heroine Irene Kelly. A family is found murdered. In a cruel twist, one of the Las Piernas Police Department's own, Philip Lefebvre, is suspected of killing the only witness. When that detective disappears, a crime boss goes free. And the LPPD is forever changed. Called in to investigate the wreckage of the missing detective's plane, Frank Harriman is given a set of cold cases that have suddenly become white hot. Detective Harriman's conviction that the LPPD tagged the wrong murder suspect is wildly unpopular. Alone, his instincts and integrity questioned at every turn, Harriman must stop the killer before hundreds of lives, including Harriman's own, are lost. "Flight" is a heart-pounding marriage of Jan Burke's "intricate plotting" "(Washington Times)," "chilling suspense" (Clive Cussler), and trademark "crisp, crackling prose" "(Library Journal)" that will thrill newcomers and veteran Burke fans, cover to cover.
Bloodlines book cover
#9

Bloodlines

2005

Edgar® Award winner Jan Burke continues her USA Today bestselling Irene Kelly series with a suspense-laced novel of buried secrets, old friends, and new dangers—in "a brilliant exhibition of what the crime genre can offer" ( The Baltimore Sun ). Sweeping across decades, Burke masterfully unearths a cold case that is far from closed while introducing an intrepid novice reporter, Irene Kelly, learning the ropes from her mentor, Conn O'Connor. From the late fifties, when a bloodstained car is buried on a farm and a wealthy family disappears at sea . . . to the seventies, when Irene makes shocking connections and brashly tracks a killer from the past . . . to today, when new threats and deadly surprises are closing in on the veteran journalist and her husband, Frank Harriman, Bloodlines follows a fascinating labyrinth of lives, loves, sins, and secrets—with the irrepressible Irene Kelly at its core.
Kidnapped book cover
#10

Kidnapped

2006

Reporter Irene Kelly and her husband, Detective Frank Harriman, are back in this New York Times bestseller, in which they work to untangle the threads of a past crime and a haunting disappearance while trying to survive the present.
Disturbance book cover
#11

Disturbance

2011

Irene Kelly fights for her life in this blood-chilling sequel to the Edgar Award–winning smash hit Bones. Despite her reporter’s nose for trouble, Irene Kelly’s life has almost returned to normal—the Las Piernas News Express wobbles along in defiancé of its financial woes, and with the help of her husband, Frank, and a good therapist, she’s recovered from the debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder that haunted her after her near-fatal encounter with notorious serial killer Nick Parrish. Until she receives some unwelcome news: Parrish, once thought permanently paralyzed by the injuries he sustained fleeing recapture, is walking again. And the rumor among the Moths, Parrish’s online fan club, is that he’s coming after Irene. Suddenly Irene is on the other end of the microphone, being hounded by the media for interviews and plied with questions she’d hoped never to have to answer again. She tries to believe that she is safe from Parrish, who is imprisoned in a maximum security facility, and that the growing stream of threats from the Moths is all just talk. But an unnerving prank soon lets her know that someone, at least, wants her to be afraid. And when a young woman’s body turns up in the trunk of a car near her home—naked, frozen solid, and decorated from head to toe in elaborately painted moths—it becomes clear that Irene will once again find herself pitted against a brutal murderer. She knows the twisted hunter who is stalking her all too well . . . or does she?

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