Mercy Allcutt Books in Order: How to read Alice Duncan’s series?

The Mercy Allcutt series, written by American author Alice Duncan, is a historical cozy mystery novel that takes place in Los Angeles, California, in 1926. Mercy Allcutt, a Boston Brahmin who wants to experience life in all of its roughness, is the main character of the narrative.

That’s what brought her to a struggling private investigator called Ernest Templeton in Hollywood. Mercy was quite excited after understanding what a private investigator (PI) does and begins working for Mr. Ernest Templeton, a sleuth in 1920s Los Angeles.

How to read the Mercy Allcutt Series in Order?

Although each entry in the Mercy Allcutt book series may be read independently, the lives of the many characters change as the series progresses.

1. Lost Among the Angels – Mercy Allcutt, who was raised in the high society of respectable Boston, is thrilled to be hired by private investigator Ernest Templeton. Ernie, a jaded ex-cop, finds it unbelievable. Together, they had to deal with Mercy’s vivid imagination, a stray child, kidnapping, blackmail, murder, a toy poodle, a vamp, a stalker, and Ernie’s fierce protective instinct. If Mercy and Ernie can survive long enough to tell the tale, their drama will put the film business to shame. However, that is if they can survive a speakeasy, Chinatown, and a pair of nasty crooks.
2. Angel’s Flight – When Mercy Allcutt first opens the door and sees her mother waiting for her, she is overjoyed with her new position as private investigator Ernie Templeton’s secretary. Except for a few cold-blooded killers she’s encountered in recent weeks, Mrs. Allcutt is the last person Mercy wants to meet on Earth. She is known to her friends as Honoria and to her daughters as the Wrath of God. But the budding detective is in for more shocks when he encounters a few fake spiritualists, a Hollywood gossip journalist who is shooed out of a séance, a semi-famous actress, and numerous more interesting personalities. Mercy soon discovers herself in extremely deep seas.
3. Fallen Angels – Boston native Mercy Allcutt has worked as private eye Ernie Templeton’s secretary and had some fairly thrilling experiences. When Mercy goes out to locate her wandering boss one sweltering September afternoon, she finds Ernie tied and gagged in addition to a dead body. Mercy sets out to disprove the LA police, who believe Ernie to be the murderer.

4. Angels of Mercy – Mercy Allcutt, a former Boston brahmin, is thrilled to be renting suites of rooms in her new Bunker Hill residence to deserving working women. Even though her boss, private eye Ernie Templeton, is dubious about her plan, she sees it as a good-hearted gesture. Mercy pushes Ernie to solve the crime after learning that her housekeeper’s son was jailed for killing a prominent Hollywood figure.
5. Thanksgiving Angels – The week of Mercy Allcutt, who must spend Thanksgiving with her parents, is made more worse when she looks into a woman’s death after she was thrown down a flight of stairs.
6. Angels Adrift – Mercy Allcutt’s imagination is more interesting than her position as Ernie Templeton’s personal investigator’s secretary. She does nothing but stare out the office window at Pasadena as usual and think about the novels she wants to write someday. She usually has to picture someone being strangled as she monitors the alley behind the Figueroa Building, but today was different. Before she finishes up the phone from calling the police to report the murder, the body has vanished.

7. Christmas Angels – Mercy and Lulu go to one of Ernie Templeton’s favorite Chinatown holes, Charley Wu’s silken goods store, which is run by Ernie’s acquaintance. When they see a young Chinese woman being pulled hysterically inside the store by the owner, their holiday shopping plans are put on hold. The woman’s cries for assistance as she passes Lulu and Mercy are even more terrifying. The police detain Charley for the murder after an old Chinese man’s body is discovered in an area alley the next day.
8. Hollywood Angels (2023) – December 1926. Lulu LaBelle, a friend of Mercy Allcutt, has an unfortunate meeting with a purported talent scout, producer, and director in the developing Los Angeles film industry. When the philandering producer is discovered dead in his office, Lulu is taken into custody by the police when witnesses claim to have seen her enter and exit the building.

Please remember to bookmark our post on reading the Mercy Allcutt series in order if you liked it. You also may want to take a look at the Daisy Gumm Majesty Mystery series or the Lady Hardcastle series.