Cal Claxton Books in Order: How to read Warren C. Easley’s series?

Troubles in Oregon’s wine country.

What is the Cal Claxton series about?

Written by chemist and American author Warren C. Easley, this series is about an attorney who wants to start a new life in Oregon.

In the aftermath of his wife’s suicide, former LA prosecutor Cal Claxton is now practicing law in Oregon’s wine country and works to fish.

He starts a one-man law practice and buys an old farmhouse up in the Dundee Hills he calls his Aerie. Soon, Cal develops a reputation as a man who will fight for his clients, even if they lack financial resources.

How to read the Cal Claxton Books in Order?

Every book in the Cal Claxton series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

1. Matters of Doubt – Cal Claxton is determined to reinvent himself as a small-town lawyer in the aftermath of his wife’s suicide. Once a hard-charging L.A. prosecutor, he now lives in an old farmhouse overlooking the Oregon wine country. When a scruffy, tattooed kid shows up asking for help in solving his mother’s cold case murder, Cal wants to say no. But something about his determination touches Cal. Cal accepts Picasso as a client, but things quickly take an ugly turn when Picasso is charged with the murder of a major business figure.
2. Dead Float – Cal Claxton has to pinch himself when his best friend Philip Lone Deer asks him to assist in guiding a group of executives from a high-tech firm in Portland. The execs, however, aren’t coming just to fish. They’re engaging in a conflict-resolution exercise where the future of the firm is to be determined. And Cal learns, too late, that the company’s CEO is bringing his wife, the woman with whom Cal had a fling after their last Lone Deer-guided fishing trip…
3. Never Look Down – Cal Claxton encounters another urban teen at risk, Kelly Spence, also a tagger. Using climbing skills learned from her much-loved deceased father, a mountaineer, Kelly is four stories up at 3:00 one morning when she looks down and witnesses the brutal murder of a woman in the parking lot below. Unluckily the killer spies on her but Kelly escapes. The police soon seek her as a witness. Desperate to stay anonymous, she seeks help from someone on the street she trusts. Too soon she finds his mutilated body and becomes even more afraid.

4. Not Dead Enough – The first closing of the floodgates of the mammoth Dalles Dam on the Columbia River inundated the sacred falls and the Native American village at Celilo. That 1957 night, Nelson Queah, a passionate opponent of the dam, Nelson Queah vanished without a trace. Fifty years later, Cal Claxton attends a commemoration of the flooding with his friend, Philip Lone Deer, who introduces Cal to his cousin, Winona Cloud. Winona is Nelson Queah’s granddaughter. She reveals she’s found a cache of letters at her grandmother’s home, letters Queah wrote to his wife before he vanished. They suggest foul play, and not an accidental drowning. Cal agrees to check out the cold case.
5. Blood For Wine – When Cal Claxton’s neighbor, Jim Kavanaugh, the owner and gifted vintner of an up-and-coming winery, is accused of murdering his wife, his freedom is suddenly in jeopardy along with his reputation, and his business begins to slide. No gentleman farmer, this puts the rugged winemaker’s property, his only financial asset, in play. When a blackmail plot is hatched against the owner of adjacent land, it begins to look like a brutal game of real-life Monopoly is underway.
6. Moving Targets – When a young woman walks into Caffeine Central, Cal Claxton’s law office, he has no idea that agreeing to help her will turn his life upside down. His new client, sculptor Angela Wingate, once a wild child, and her recently widowed mother, Margaret, had grown close after years of estrangement. A grieving Angela is hesitant but nonetheless determined to learn if Margaret’s recent death was a hit-and-run while out on her morning jog in her ritzy neighborhood, or something more―like murder.

7. No Way to Die – Cal Claxton just wants to go fishing with his daughter, Claire, and he knows the best place. But their vacation takes a dark turn with the discovery of a body in the river. As an investigation is launched into the suspicious death, Cal and Claire find themselves drawn into the life of the local bookshop owner and vocal environmental activist, whose grandson was convicted for murder at age sixteen. She believes he was wrongly accused and convinces Cal to reexamine the case.
8. No Witness – Running a one-man law practice in the heart of Oregon’s wine country, Cal Claxton hires a young, undocumented man as an assistant, hoping to give him an opportunity to create more stability for himself and his family. Timoteo Fuentes is a bright, hardworking student by day and Cal’s legal clerk by night, juggling both roles with determination and grit. When one of Timoteo’s family members is brutally murdered, the migrant community is reluctant to cooperate with the police investigation for fear of deportation.
9. Fatal Flaw – It’s winter in the Oregon wine country, and small-town lawyer Cal Claxton deserves a respite after his last grueling case. But just as the world learns about a threatening new virus variant, a woman named Willow Daniels shows up at his office, asking Cal to represent her in the settlement of her uncle’s estate. The uncle’s death was ruled a suicide, but Willow isn’t buying it. Getting involved is against Cal’s better judgment, but how can he resist this single mother who tows her young daughter in a trailer behind her bike, takes gorgeous photos of Portland’s bridges, and serves delicious French cuisine from her Portland food cart?

If you like Cal Claxton, you may also want to see our guide to the Sean Stranahan series. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.