Below is the complete list of Mary Stone’s Kylie Hatfield books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Kylie Hatfield Books
with Bella Cross
About Kylie Hatfield
Mary Stone’s Kylie Hatfield series is a completed amateur-sleuth mystery sequence co-written with Bella Cross. The main series consists of five books—Deadly Act, Deadly Lies, Deadly Games, Deadly Dreams, and Deadly Silence—with Deadly Beginnings serving as a prequel. Compared with Stone’s darker FBI and detective-led series, Kylie Hatfield has a slightly lighter entry point: a young woman trying to prove herself as a private investigator, a loyal rescue dog named Vader, and a knack for finding trouble before she has quite earned the authority to manage it.
Kylie begins the series as the office assistant at Starr Investigations, but she wants more than paperwork and errands. She is curious, impulsive, emotionally open, and eager to show that she can handle real cases. That ambition gives the early books their charm. Kylie is not an established federal agent like Winter Black or Autumn Trent, nor a hardened detective like Ellie Kline or Charli Cross. She starts closer to the ground, learning investigation through risk, instinct, mistakes, and the uncomfortable discovery that missing-person cases and suspicious clients can turn deadly very quickly.
Deadly Act establishes the basic shape of the series when Kylie becomes involved in the disappearance of Jessica Hilyard. The case gives her a chance to prove herself, but it also makes clear that amateur sleuthing in Stone’s world still carries real danger. Kylie may have energy and heart, but she is entering a field where people lie, victims vanish, and good intentions do not guarantee survival. That balance between amateur determination and thriller stakes defines the sequence.
Vader, Kylie’s large black Newfoundland rescue dog, is one of the series’ most distinctive features. He adds warmth, humor, and personality, but he is not merely decorative. His presence connects the books to search-and-rescue work and reinforces Kylie’s instinct to look for the lost. The bond between Kylie and Vader gives the series a softer emotional center than some of Stone’s more violent procedural lines, even when the crimes themselves become disturbing.
Lincoln “Linc” Coulter also becomes central to the series’ development. As an ex-military search-and-rescue trainer, he brings experience and steadiness to Kylie’s more impulsive investigative drive. Their relationship gives the books a romantic and personal arc alongside the mystery plots. Over the course of the series, Kylie’s professional identity and private life develop together, moving her from assistant and hopeful investigator toward a more confident woman with her own business, her own partnership, and her own responsibilities.
The later books widen the stakes. Deadly Lies gives Kylie a case involving family, inheritance, and danger hidden behind wealth. Deadly Games turns inward, pushing her toward questions about her missing father and the unresolved history of her own family. Deadly Dreams brings search-and-rescue responders into danger, tying the investigation more closely to Linc’s world. Deadly Silence closes the main sequence with a darker case involving missing babies and murdered mothers, forcing Kylie to confront crimes that target the most vulnerable.
The Kylie Hatfield books are best read in publication order because Kylie’s growth matters. The individual mysteries offer case-by-case suspense, but the series’ real appeal lies in watching her become more capable without losing the emotional openness that makes her distinct. It is a smaller, warmer corner of Mary Stone’s bibliography, but still built around her familiar themes: missing people, buried secrets, women under pressure, and the stubborn refusal to look away when someone needs to be found.