Francine Mathews Books in Order (Merry Folger, Caroline Carmichael)
All of Francine Mathews’ books in order!
Who is Francine Mathews?
Francine Mathews is an ex-CIA intelligence analyst who is now a popular author known for writing mystery and spy novels. She also writes the Jane Austen Mysteries under the name Stephanie Barron.
Mathews’s best-known work is the Merry Folger Series about a police officer coming from a family of police officers in Nantucket.
She also wrote the Caroline Carmichael series, a spy series that was inspired by her time working with the CIA.
How to read Francine Mathews’s Books in Order?
The Merry Folger Series
- Death in the Off Season (1994)
- Death in Rough Water (1995)
- Death in a Mood Indigo (1997)
- Death in a Cold Hard Light (1998)
- Death on Nantucket (2017)
- Death on Tuckernuck (2020)
- Death on a Winter Stroll (2022)
What is the plot of the Merry Folger stories?
Set in the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, the series revolves around Merry Folger, a detective with the local police department.
Merry investigates a variety of crimes, from murder to theft to arson, all while navigating the complexities of life on a small island. Along the way, she must also confront her own personal demons and struggles, including her complicated relationship with her father, a retired police detective, and her feelings for her former lover, a local artist.
For more information about the books in the Merry Folger series by Francine Mathews, you’ll find below the official synopsis for all the books:
Death in the Off Season (1994) – When Rusty Mason, scion of one of Nantucket’s oldest and wealthiest families, is found dead in a flooded cranberry bog one foggy fall night, thirty-two-year-old detective Merry Folger is faced with her first murder case. Merry is the daughter of the local police chief and granddaughter of his predecessor; her father is a strict boss and Merry feels pressure to go the extra mile to prove her promotion to detective isn’t just nepotism.
Death in Rough Water (1995) – When Joe Duarte, a fishing boat captain with decades of experience on the wild seas off Nantucket, is swept overboard during a spring storm, his death is pronounced accidental. But his estranged daughter, Del, is convinced it’s murder. She moves back to Nantucket to get closer to the truth, and enlists her old friend, detective Merry Folger, to help.
Death in a Mood Indigo (1997) – Word travels fast in Nantucket when two children and their dog discover a skeleton in the dunes of the cold Sconset beach. Could the dead woman be the latest victim of the serial killer who has been terrorizing mainland Massachusetts? The FBI seems to think so and sends their forensic psychiatrist to the scene. But Police Detective Merry Folger has her own suspicions, and starts looking into a cold case that has long baffled Nantucket police: the disappearance of a beautiful Harvard-educated psychiatrist seven years ago.
Death in a Cold Hard Light (1998) – After a trying case, detective Merry Folger begrudgingly agrees to take a leave from work to meet her fussy future in-laws in Greenwich, but it isn’t long before she is summoned back to Nantucket. The body of a 21-year-old was discovered in the frigid waters of the Sound in the days leading up to the annual Christmas celebration, and the death isn’t sitting well with Merry’s father, the local police chief, who fears the track marks on the victim’s arms may be indicative of a growing drug problem on the island. Feeling a constant need to live up to her father’s expectations, Merry rushes home to her fiancé, Peter’s, annoyance, only to find that heroin isn’t the only destructive force in Nantucket.
Death on Nantucket (2017) – Spencer Murphy is a national treasure. A famous Vietnam War correspondent who escaped captivity in Southeast Asia, he made a fortune off of his books and television appearances. But Spence is growing forgetful with age; he’s started to wander and even fails to come home one night. When a body is discovered at Step Above, the sprawling Murphy house near Steps Beach, Nantucket police detective Meredith Folger is called in to investigate.
Death on Tuckernuck (2020) – A Category 3 hurricane bears down on Nantucket. When the coast guard notifies the Nantucket police of a luxury yacht grounded in the shoals off Tuckernuck’s northern edge-with two shooting victims lying in the main cabin-detective Meredith Folger throws herself into an investigation before the hurricane sweeps all crime-scene evidence out to sea.
Death on a Winter Stroll (2022) – Nantucket Police Chief Meredith Folger is acutely conscious of the stress COVID-19 has placed on the community she loves. Although the island has proved a refuge for many during the pandemic, the cost to Nantucket has been high. Merry hopes that the Christmas Stroll, one of Nantucket’s favorite traditions, in which Main Street is transformed into a winter wonderland, will lift the island’s spirits. But the arrival of a large-scale TV production, and the Secretary of State and her family, complicates matters significantly.
The Caroline Carmichael series
With her background in international espionage, Mathews presents a suspenseful novel that is incredibly authentic and intense, blurring the lines between what’s fact and fiction in a lethal way.
The Cut Out (2001) – They were partners – lovers in a business where betrayal is a heartbeat away. CIA analyst Caroline Carmichael lost her husband Eric when his plane was blown out of the sky by an elite group of terrorists known as 30 April. Now her dead husband has surfaced among those responsible for an explosion that rocks Berlin – and the brutal kidnapping of the U.S. Vice President. Uncertain of Eric’s motives and loyalties, the Agency plays its last, best card: Eric’s wife – the Cutout.
Blown (2005) – As thousands of runners line up for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., no one suspects that in a matter of hours the event will become a race between life and death. CIA analyst Caroline Carmichael is about to tender her resignation, when the first reports of a terrorist attack pour in–and she instantly recognizes the hand of an enemy she’s battled for years: the 30 April Organization.
Other Novels written by Francine Mathews
The Secret Agent (2002) – Trained by the OSS, Jack Roderick plummeted into Bangkok one rainy morning in 1945 and never left. Silk King, pirate, ruthless collector of beautiful objects–especially women–Roderick was feared and respected as a foreign spy, a business kingpin, and a trader in men’s souls. And then, at the height of the Vietnam War, caught in a killing web of treachery and revenge that would determine the fate of his only son, Rory, Jack Roderick walked into the jungle…and vanished from the face of the earth. Four decades later, can the mystery be solved?
The Sunken Sailor (2004) – Fourteen masters of the mystery and suspense genre, each contribute an individual chapter to a round robin mystery about a weekend house party in a small English village that is turned upside down by murder. With Simon Brett, Jan Burke, Dorothy Cannell, Margaret Coel, Deborah Crombie, Eileen Dreyer, Carolyn Hart, Edward Marston, Sharan Newman, Alexandra Ripley, Walter Satterthwait, Sarah Smith, and Carolyn Wheat.
The Alibi Club (2006) – It’s the city’s most infamous after-hours haunt-a glittering hotbed of deals and debaucheries. The sordid death of Philip Stilwell sends shock waves through the Alibi Club…for there’s much more to Stilwell’s untimely end than a sex game gone wrong. His murder and the desperate attempt to keep a deadly weapon out of German hands will bring together the strands of a twisted plot of betrayal, passion, and espionage-one connected to the Alibi Club…and to the most explosive secret of the war. As the Nazis march on Paris and the crisis escalates, four remarkable characters are swept into the maelstrom. Their courage will change the course of history
Jack 1939 (2012) – It’s the spring of 1939, and the prospect of war in Europe looms large. The United States has no intelligence service. In Washington, D.C., President Franklin Roosevelt may run for an unprecedented third term and needs someone he can trust to find out what the Nazis are up to. His choice: John F. Kennedy.
Too Bad to Die (2015) – November, 1943. Weary of his deskbound status in the Royal Navy, intelligence officer Ian Fleming spends his spare time spinning stories in his head that are much more exciting than his own life…until the critical Tehran Conference, when Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Josef Stalin meet to finalize the D-Day invasion. With the Big Three in one place, Fleming is tipped off that Hitler’s top assassin has infiltrated the conference. Seizing his chance to play a part in a real-life action story, Fleming goes undercover to stop the Nazi killer.
What should you read if you like Francine Mathews’ novels?
If you like reading Francine Mathews’ stories, you may be interested in the work she published under the Stephanie Barron name like the Jane Austen Mysteries.
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