Author Information
Jon Talton's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    14 Books (3 Series)
  • First Book:
    July 2001
  • Latest Book:
    December 2023
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Full Series List in Order

A Cincinnatti Casebook

The Pain Nurse (Apr-2009)
Powers of Arrest (May-2012)

A David Mapstone Mystery

1 - Cactus Heart (May-2007)
2 - Concrete Desert (Jul-2001)
3 - Camelback Falls (Jan-2003)
4 - Dry Heat (Oct-2004)
5 - Arizona Dreams (Oct-2006)
6 - South Phoenix Rules (Dec-2010)
7 - The Night Detectives (May-2013)
8 - High Country Nocturne (Jun-2015)
9 - The Bomb Shelter (May-2018)

A Gene Hammons Novel

1 - City of Dark Corners (May-2021)
2 - The Nurse Murders (Dec-2023)

Book List in Order: 14 titles



  • Meet David Mapstone, a recently unemployed history professor who has just returned to Phoenix, Arizona a town now brimming over--much to Mapstone's dismay--with rich retirees. To fill his time, Mapstone takes a temporary job with friend Maricopa Coun...



  • Historian-turned-deputy-sheriff David Mapstone returns in this exciting sequel to Jon Talton's Concrete Desert. When his friend Peralta, newly sworn in as sheriff, is shot by a sniper, "History Shamus" Mapstone can't keep a cool, academic distance. A...



  • The past is never past on the mean streets of Phoenix, especially when the mercury hits a hundred and it's only April. Half a century after the unsolved murder of an FBI agent, the missing badge is found on the body of a dead transient. The case seem...



  • When a former student turns up in David Mapstone's office, she seems to have the perfect case for this history-professor-turned-deputy: a letter left by her deceased father, confessing to a forty-year-old murder and providing directions to the body. ...



  • In this "prequel" to the popular David Mapstone mysteries, author Jon Talton takes us back to 1999, when everything dot-com was making money, the Y2K bug was the greatest danger facing the world, and the good times seemed as if they would never end. ...



  • Jon Talton staked out the Southwest in his award-winning David Mapstone mysteries. The Washington Post called Concrete Desert, "more intelligent and rewarding than most contemporary mysteries." And author John Lescroart labeled Arizona Dreams, "a pur...



  • He’s a man whose life is so intertwined with his job that we know him only as "the columnist." He writes for a newspaper in Seattle, isn’t afraid to stir up trouble and keeps his life-- including his multiple lovers and his past--in safe compartm...



  • A handsome young New York professor comes to Phoenix to research his new book. But when he’s brutally murdered, police connect him to one of the world’s most deadly drug cartels. This shouldn’t be a case for historian-turned-deputy David Mapsto...



  • Cincinnati homicide Detective Will Borders now walks with a cane and lives alone with constant discomfort. He's lucky to be alive. He's lucky to have a job, as public information officer for the department. But when a star cop is brutally murdered, h...






  • The private-detective business starts out badly for former Phoenix Deputy David Mapstone, who has teamed up with his old friend and boss, Sheriff Mike Peralta. Their first client is gunned down just after hiring them. The case: A suspicious death inv...



  • A cache of diamonds is stolen in Phoenix. The prime suspect is former Maricopa County Sheriff Mike Peralta, now a private investigator. Disappearing into Arizona’s mountainous High Country, Peralta leaves his business partner and longtime friend Da...



  • The past never rests easy in Arizona. Forty years ago, a Phoenix reporter was killed by a car bomb in one of America's most notorious crimes. Three men went to prison - but was there more to the story of Charles Page's assassination? More than thr...



  • "Talton shines in weaving together the mystery elements of the plots with historical events from the Prohibition period. Fast-paced, gritty, and exciting, this one will have fans of both Depression-era and southwestern-set crime fiction begging for m...



  • A sadistic killer is terrorizing Phoenix, and he’s got Gene Hammons’ number…It’s 1936, and private investigator Gene Hammons has more work than he can handle. A crime syndicate, J. Edgar Hoover, a wealthy family from back East, and a wily sta...


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Jon Talton has published 14 books.

Jon Talton does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Nurse Murders, was published in December 2023.

The first book by Jon Talton, Concrete Desert, was published in July 2001.

Yes. Jon Talton has 3 series.