Below is the complete list of Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Gaslight Mystery Books
- Murder on Pleasant Avenue (2020)
Murder on Pleasant Avenue is a 2020 release and appears as book #23 in the Gaslight Mystery series. 
About Gaslight Mystery
Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight Mysteries are historical murder mysteries set in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York City, where enormous wealth exists only blocks from tenements, overcrowded immigrant neighborhoods, and communities struggling with poverty. The series begins with Murder on Astor Place in 1999 and follows midwife Sarah Brandt and Irish-American detective Frank Malloy, whose very different positions in New York society allow them to investigate crimes across boundaries of class, ethnicity, and gender that would otherwise be difficult to cross.
Sarah was born into the wealthy Decker family but chose a life far removed from the expectations of her social class. Widowed before the series begins, she works as a midwife and regularly enters homes ranging from comfortable townhouses to impoverished tenements. Her profession gives her access to women and families who might never speak candidly with the police, while her privileged upbringing allows her to move through upper-class society when an investigation requires it.
Frank begins from almost the opposite direction. A widowed New York City police detective, he understands the realities of working inside a force where corruption and political influence remain serious problems. His initial relationship with Sarah is marked by irritation and distrust, but they gradually discover that their methods complement each other. Sarah can learn things unavailable to an official investigator, while Frank brings professional experience and a much clearer understanding of the dangers involved.
Their changing relationship becomes one of the series’ most important continuing threads. What begins as reluctant cooperation develops slowly through friendship and romance rather than displacing the mysteries themselves. Frank’s inheritance eventually allows him to leave the police department and establish himself as a private investigator, altering the practical way the pair become involved in cases. By the later books Sarah and Frank are married, but marriage does not end their investigative partnership; it gives them greater freedom to work together.
Thompson makes extensive use of historical New York. Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Bowery, Wall Street, Fifth Avenue, Morningside Heights, and other recognizable districts provide more than titles. Their populations and institutions shape the crimes occurring there. Midwifery, women’s education, immigration, labor unrest, political corruption, sensational journalism, religious movements, medical practices, suffrage, and changing expectations for women all become part of the investigative environment.
The timeline also advances steadily. The first mystery takes place in April 1896, and by Murder in Rose Hill the story has reached September 1901. That passage of time allows Sarah and Frank’s circumstances to change while New York itself moves toward a new century.
Recurring family members strengthen that sense of continuity. Sarah’s wealthy parents gradually become more involved in the world she has chosen, while Frank’s son Brian and other characters develop across multiple books. Their lives prevent the series from feeling like a succession of murders in which everything outside the case returns to its original state afterward.
Victoria Thompson wrote twenty-seven Gaslight Mysteries, concluding her contribution with Murder in Rose Hill. Following her death in 2024, her daughter Ellen Thompson undertook the continuation of the series. Murder on Park Avenue, officially designated Gaslight Mystery #28 and set in May 1902, is scheduled for publication in September 2027.
The enduring strength of Gaslight lies in the partnership at its center. Sarah understands how status can open doors while concealing abuse and desperation; Frank knows how institutions charged with delivering justice can fail the people who need them. Their investigations repeatedly bring those perspectives together against a New York whose elegant façades and gaslit streets conceal considerably more than respectable society wants acknowledged.