Jack McMorrow Books in Order

How to Read the Jack McMorrow Mysteries

For the best experience, readers should follow the Jack McMorrow series in publication order. Because the books span over thirty years of Jack’s life, his relationships, his family, and the technology he uses to report all evolve chronologically. Reading the series in order allows you to watch Jack transition from a cynical, solitary ex-journalist into a committed family man defending his loved ones from the violence of the rural underworld.

Jack McMorrow Books in Publication Order

Here is the complete list of Jack McMorrow novels in the order they were published:

1. Deadline (1993): Jack McMorrow escapes the high-pressure newsroom of The New York Times to edit a weekly paper in small-town Androscoggin, Maine. When a local photographer is found drowned, Jack's reporting instincts pull him into a dangerous web of local corruption.
2. Bloodline (1995): Jack investigates the murder of a teenage mother, exposing the harsh realities of rural poverty, local scandals, and the complexities of the regional adoption system.
3. Lifeline (1996): Taking a part-time gig as a courthouse reporter for the Kennebec Observer, Jack writes about a young woman seeking a restraining order against an abusive boyfriend. When she is murdered, Jack risks his life to find the truth behind the official police narrative.
4. Potshot (1997): Jack secures a freelance story for the Boston Globe focusing on a group of hippies advocating for marijuana legalization in the Maine woods. When the group's leaders vanish, Jack and his combat-veteran friend Clair dive into a violent confrontation with out-of-state drug dealers.
5. Borderline (1998): A simple trip near the Canadian border plunges Jack into a web of smuggling, illegal border crossings, and rural isolation where local law enforcement is stretched thin.
6. Cover Story (2000): Jack returns to the urban jungle of New York City. When the city's mayor is assassinated in a hotel restroom, Jack finds himself under intense police scrutiny as he struggles to establish his whereabouts.
7. Pretty Dead (2003): Set in the wealthy enclaves of coastal Maine, Jack digs into the lives of the social elite when a prominent local figure is found dead under suspicious circumstances.
8. Home Body (2004): Jack confronts the dark side of small-town youth culture, exploring themes of isolation, neglect, and the volatile nature of teenage alliances in rural communities.
9. Damaged Goods (2010): When Jack’s wife Roxanne, a social worker, receives death threats from a man involved in local satanism, the danger hits home. While protecting his family, Jack's investigation into an escort service inadvertently blurs his professional and personal boundaries.
10. Once Burned (2015): In the town of Prosperity, Roxanne is stalked by a grieving mother who blames her for a foster child’s death. Meanwhile, Jack investigates a series of suspicious fires in nearby Sanctuary, calling in his veteran friend Clair for protection.
11. Straw Man (2016): Jack uncovers an illegal gun-running pipeline linking Maine gun owners to homicides in Boston. The investigation forces him to navigate cultural clashes with local Mennonites and online cyberbullying, putting a strain on his marriage.
12. Random Act (2019): A seemingly random act of violence turns out to have deep, calculated roots. Jack is forced to dismantle a complex criminal network operating in the shadows of the Maine wilderness.
13. Robbed Blind (2022): Investigating a series of robberies in the struggling mill town of Clarkston, Jack loses his newspaper backing but refuses to walk away. This book sets up a direct continuity loop with the final novel and features a crossover appearance by Portland police officer Brandon Blake.
14. Hard Line (2024): The series finale picks up directly after the events of Robbed Blind. Jack faces a lethal biker gang, a personal vendetta against a family friend, and a dramatic final stand-off that tests his moral limits.

The Gerry Boyle Universe and Crossovers

Gerry Boyle has written another crime fiction series set in the same Maine universe. The Brandon Blake series follows a loner and former trainee police officer living on a wooden cruiser in Portland, Maine. The books in that series include:

• Port City Shakedown (2009)
• Port City Black and White (2011)
• Port City Crossfire (2019)
• Port City Rat Trap (2026)

For readers who love a shared literary universe, Brandon Blake (often called "Shooter") makes a crossover appearance in the 13th Jack McMorrow book, Robbed Blind (2022), linking the two series together before Jack's final chapter in Hard Line.

What to Know Before You Start

Gerry Boyle’s work is a staple of "Maine noir." Unlike crime fiction that highlights the picturesque, postcard-perfect lighthouses of the Maine coast, the Jack McMorrow series focuses on inland Maine—the gritty mill towns, quiet woods, and hardscrabble communities that tourists rarely see. Because Boyle worked as a newspaper reporter for the Rumford Falls Times and the Waterville Morning Sentinel, the journalism details and small-town dynamics are exceptionally realistic.

While each book features a self-contained mystery that is resolved by the final page, the personal lives of Jack McMorrow, his social worker partner Roxanne Masterson, and his fiercely loyal friends Clair and Lewis carry over from book to book. Reading them in order ensures you don't spoil key developments in their family life, including the birth and growth of Jack and Roxanne's daughter, Sophie.