Janet Dawson

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Janet Dawson's Latest Book

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  • Bibliography:
    32 Books (2 Series)
  • First Book:
    June 1990
  • Latest Book:
    March 2021
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Full Series List in Order

A California Zephyr Mystery

1 - Death Rides the Zephyr (Sep-2013)
2 - Death Deals a Hand (Apr-2016)
3 - The Ghost in Roomette Four (Apr-2018)

A Jeri Howard Mystery

1 - Kindred Crimes (Jun-1990)
2 - Till the Old Men Die (Apr-1993)
3 - Take a Number (Aug-1993)
4 - Don't Turn Your Back on the Ocean (Sep-1994)
5 - Nobody's Child (Sep-1995)
6 - A Credible Threat (Oct-1996)
7 - Witness to Evil (Oct-1997)
8 - Where the Bodies Are Buried (Oct-1998)
8.5 - Little Red Corvette (Jan-2000)
9 - A Killing at the Track (Jun-2000)
10 - Bit Player (Apr-2011)
10.5 - Candles On The Corner (Jun-2011)
10.6 - Slayer Statute (Oct-2011)
10.8 - Blue Eyes (Oct-2011)
11 - Cold Trail (Apr-2015)
12 - Water Signs (Apr-2017)

Book List in Order: 32 titles

  • Kindred Crimes

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 1

    When P.I. Jeri Howard takes on a missing-persons case, she's not the only person confused. The vanished woman's husband doesn't even know his wife's real name. But as Jeri digs deeper, she reveals long-buried secrets, old public scandals, and the rea...

  • Till the Old Men Die

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 2

    THE PAST NEVER DIES, IT'S JUST COVERED UP. When Dr. Lito Manibusan, a Filipino professor of history at Cal State, is murdered, the police chalk it up to the random urban violence that is no stranger to San Francisco. But four months later, a woman...

  • Take a Number

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 3

    In Alameda County, east of San Francisco, the all-American pastimes of adultery, divorce, and mindless violence prosper--and a cad like Petty Officer First Class Sam Raynor, USN, fits right in. Private investigator Jeri Howard is working for Raynor's...

  • Don't Turn Your Back on the Ocean

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 4

    Beautiful Ariel Logan was last seen quarreling with her boyfriend outside a Monterey pub. Now she lies dead on a California beach. An autopsy reveals that Ariel's death is no accidental drowning, but a cold-blooded killing. Vacationing private inve...

  • Nobody's Child

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 5

    When a decomposing body is dug up by a construction company, authorities suspect murder. Private investigator Jeri Howard's abrasive client, Naomi Smith, thinks the victim could be her daughter, Maureen, who ran away from home two years ago. Jeri dis...

  • A Credible Threat

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 6

    With the dramatic, sometimes menacing Northern California coast as her backdrop, Janet Dawson consistently writes gripping, psychologically adept mystery novels featuring a socially conscious detective in unforgettable stories torn from today's headl...

  • Witness to Evil

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 7

    Private investigator Jeri Howard can scarcely believe that someone is actually paying her to go to Paris, even if it is only to fetch a wild teenager home. But the wanderer, eighteen-year-old Darcy, turns out to have a serious reason for her unauthor...

  • Where the Bodies Are Buried

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 8

    When Oakland P.I. Jeri Howard's new client, Rob Lawter, takes a header through his living-room window soon after he's hired her, Jeri is in a quandary. Lawter, a paralegal at a food-processing firm, had received a threatening anonymous note, sent be...

  • Mrs. Lincoln's Dilemma

    in First Lady Murders

    Nineteen of today's finest mystery writers--including Anne Perry, P. M. Carlson, John Lutz, Judith Kelman, Gillian Roberts, and Sarah Shankman--offer an entertaining selection of original mystery stories centered around America's First Ladies. Origin...



  • Little Red Corvette

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 8.5

    A classic red Corvette, pristine, with low mileage, abandoned at a repair shop. Now the mechanic is trying to sell it. But is the sale legal?In this Jeri Howard short story, the Oakland private investigator looks into the car’s provenance â€" and f...

  • A Killing at the Track

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 9

    Investigator Jeri Howard is fascinated by the beautiful horses and the zealous spectators at stylish Edgewater Downs. But behind the scenes, where the owners, trainers, jockeys, and grooms mingle, life is not so pretty. Someone is terrorizing owne...

  • Scam and Eggs

    SCAM AND EGGS is a fine mystery anthology that contains mostly contemporary contributions, but also has two enjoyable historcials including a spin on First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln that will open readers' minds to this intriguing much maligned figure. ...

  • Bit Player

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 10

    Old movies, old memories, old crimes - and present-day murder. Oakland PI Jeri Howard finds all of these when a chance encounter in a movie memorabilia shop sets her on an investigation into her grandmother's past life in Hollywood. Before marrying J...

  • Candles On The Corner

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 10.5

    Twelve-year-old Emily Gebhardt is dead â€" struck down by a hit-and-run driver while walking home from school. The makeshift shrine of candles and flowers on the corner is a daily reminder of her parents’ pain and loss. It’s also a starting point...

  • By The Book

    Accident? Or suicide?That’s the question Navy Lieutenant Dinah Gray must answer when a sailor at her Navy command drives a car into San Francisco Bay. In this short story, Dinah discovers a lot of people would rather she didn’t make waves, includ...

  • Pack Rat

    “When the neighbors saw rats climbing the curtains . . . they called the cops.”A pack rat â€" of the human variety â€" lives in the rundown house, surrounded by the junk he hoards. As the officers discover, there’s more to this short story than...

  • Voice Mail

    Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Short Story. The way we communicate now â€" by e-mail, text messages, voice mail â€" all detached and at a distance, without the immediate feedback of a face-to-face conversation, or even the voice-to-voice excha...

  • Blue Eyes

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 10.8

    “That’s a lot of cat crunchies,” says Oakland private investigator Jeri Howard, in this short story involving a cat with blue eyes.The substantial sum in Mrs. Littlejohn’s will has been left to her niece, for the specific care of her cat unti...

  • Slayer Statute

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 10.6

    “I have to hand it to you . . . This one is a stinker.”In this Shamus-nominated short story, private investigator Jeri Howard sorts out a stinker of a case. A husband and wife are dead â€" looks like murder-suicide. Who gets the insurance money? ...



  • Invisible Time

    Greta and Hank are orphaned and homeless, scrabbling for survival on the cold, rainy streets of San Francisco. In this short story, a noir take on Hansel and Gretel, the little girl struggles to keep herself and her brother from falling through the c...

  • What The Cat Dragged In

    Hattie Ballew is a gold miner in California’s Mother Lode. She works a claim with her brothers, and enjoys the company of her cat Little Bit, who pilfers things from the cabin and the surrounding woods.As Hattie finds out in this short story, the l...

  • Witchcraft

    Backing the wrong horse can be murder. And in this short story, jockey Deakin Kelley is about to be taken for the ride of his life.Deakin’s bewitched. He’s fallen under the spell of a beautiful woman, one with a sleek figure and a sly, come-hithe...

  • What You Wish For

    History professor Lindsey Page has a quiet, well-ordered life, but it's about to get complicated. Her daughter, with whom she has a troubled relationship, shows up on her doorstep. The immigrant woman Lindsey is interviewing for a book asks her for h...

  • Death Rides the Zephyr

    A California Zephyr Mystery - 1

    December 23, 1952. A transcontinental train is stopped cold by an avalanche in a remote Colorado canyon. There's a murderer aboard, one who has already killed, and will kill again unless stopped. The California Zephyr, with its run from Oakland to Ch...

  • Cold Trail

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 11

    Oakland PI Jeri Howard tackles her most personal case yet. Her brother, Brian, has disappeared and has been missing for four days before she is notified. The trail is getting colder as the anxious PI searches for Brian across Sonoma County for clues ...

  • Death Deals a Hand

    A California Zephyr Mystery - 2

    It's April 1953, and Zephyrette Jill McLeod is back on the rails, aboard the fabled train called the California Zephyr. Heading west from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area, Jill looks forward to reuniting with family members and the new man in he...

  • Water Signs

    A Jeri Howard Mystery - 12

    Oakland, California, is a city shaped by water. The waterfront, home to the ship and rail yards, is also ripe for development. Thereââ,¬â"˘s lots of money to be made, so greed and crime inevitably follow. PI Jeri Howard looks into the murder of a fo...

  • But Not Forgotten

    From Book 1: Everyone Seems To Know But Me starts as a simple dare between Mats and his beautiful wife-to-be, but soon becomes an intense journey into psychological warfare he never thought existed.

    After several years together, the couple f...

  • The Ghost in Roomette Four

    A California Zephyr Mystery - 3

    It's almost midnight on the sleek streamliner known as the California Zephyr, en route from Oakland to Chicago in 1953. Heading for her quarters, Zephyrette Jill McLeod walks through the Silver Gorge Pullman car, and sees something she can't explain....



  • The Devil Close Behind

    Private investigator Jeri Howard is on vacation in New Orleans when a friend asks a favor: her sister Laurette has disappeared with a boyfriend, and Jeri’s trip turns into a case. Slade, a mercurial musician, tends to strike out when thwarted, some...

  • Death Above the Line

    "Jill McLeod is playing her real-life role as a Zephyrette in front of movie cameras after a director proclaims she''s ""perfect for the part"" in his film noir. Now she finds herself before the cameras in a Niles, California, warehouse that''s been ...

  • The Sacrificial Daughter

    THE SACRIFICIAL DAUGHTER.That's the adult child of elderly parents, usually a daughter, tasked with looking after Mom or Dad.When caregiving gets to be too much and nerves are at the breaking point, they call Kay Dexter. She specializes in eldercare....

Award-Winning Books by Janet Dawson

Voice Mail
2003 Macavity Award -- Short Story


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Janet Dawson has published 32 books.

Janet Dawson does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Sacrificial Daughter, was published in March 2021.

The first book by Janet Dawson, Kindred Crimes, was published in June 1990.

Yes. Janet Dawson has 2 series.
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