Below is the complete list of J. T. Ellison books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of A Brit in the FBI Books
with Catherine Coulter
Publication Order of Taylor Jackson Books
- The Wolves Come at Night (2023)
The Wolves Come at Night was published in 2023 and is listed as book #11 in the Taylor Jackson series.
Publication Order of Dr. Samantha Owens Books
Publication Order of Guardians Books
with R.L. Perez,with as Joss Walker
Publication Order of Jayne Thorne, CIA Librarian Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
Publication Order of Short Story Collections Books
- Sweet Little Lies (2010)
Sweet Little Lies was published in 2010 and is listed as book #1 in the Short Story Collections series. 
Publication Order of Erica Spindler Short Stories/Novellas Books
with Alex Kava, Erica Spindler
Publication Order of We Could Be Heroes Books
About J. T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison is an American thriller writer whose career spans police procedurals, forensic suspense, domestic noir, psychological thrillers, collaborative espionage novels, and fantasy under a separate pen name. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, she has published more than thirty novels and is best known for creating homicide detective Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Samantha Owens. Her fiction tends to combine intricate crimes with psychologically damaged characters, placing as much emphasis on secrets, relationships, and emotional consequences as on identifying a killer.
Ellison grew up in Colorado before moving to McLean, Virginia, during high school. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, where she studied politics and English creative writing with a minor in economics, and later earned a master’s degree from George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management. Before becoming a novelist, she was a presidential appointee and worked at the White House and Department of Commerce, then entered the private sector as a financial analyst and marketing director for defense and aerospace contractors. After moving to Nashville, an interest in forensic science and crime—and renewed enthusiasm for storytelling after reading John Sandford’s Prey novels—helped redirect her toward fiction.
Her published career began with All the Pretty Girls in 2007, introducing Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson. Nashville is integral to these novels rather than merely a convenient backdrop, and Ellison has drawn on research with the Metro Nashville Police Department and FBI as well as firsthand study of forensic procedures. The Taylor Jackson books established her combination of serial-killer suspense, police investigation, forensic detail, and continuing character relationships. The Cold Room won the International Thriller Writers Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original, while the series eventually returned after a lengthy gap with The Wolves Come at Night.
Medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens, originally part of Taylor Jackson’s world, became the center of her own four-book series beginning with A Deeper Darkness. The shift allowed Ellison to retain some continuity with her established fictional universe while changing location and perspective. Samantha’s stories place forensic expertise and personal loss closer to the foreground, demonstrating how Ellison’s recurring characters can support different kinds of suspense without simply repeating the Taylor Jackson formula.
Another substantial branch of Ellison’s bibliography came through her collaboration with Catherine Coulter. Together they wrote six A Brit in the FBI novels, beginning with The Final Cut in 2013 and concluding with The Last Second in 2019. Centered on Nicholas Drummond, the series broadened Ellison’s range into international conspiracy, espionage, and large-scale action while connecting with Coulter’s established FBI fiction.
Ellison has increasingly become associated with standalone psychological suspense and domestic noir. Novels including No One Knows, Lie to Me, It’s One of Us, A Very Bad Thing, and Last Seen emphasize unstable marriages, family secrets, missing people, hidden identities, memory, and the destructive consequences of concealed histories. Her forthcoming You Know Why, scheduled for August 25, 2026, continues this strand of her work.
Beyond crime fiction, Ellison writes fantasy as Joss Walker, including the Jayne Thorne, CIA Librarian books, allowing her to pursue supernatural and adventure-oriented material under a distinct identity. She is also the Emmy Award-winning cohost of the literary television program A Word on Words and founded Two Tales Press for short fiction and related projects. These different activities make her bibliography broader than her reputation as a thriller novelist alone, but suspense remains its center: dangerous secrets, compromised trust, forensic investigation, and characters forced to discover how little they truly know about the people around them.