Below is the complete list of Faith Martin’s Lyssa Moore Mysteries books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Lyssa Moore Mysteries Books
About Lyssa Moore Mysteries
Oxford biographer Lyssa Moore makes her living researching other people’s lives, examining historical records, and separating documented facts from carefully cultivated public reputations. Her work takes a dangerous turn when an assignment involving a celebrated 1960s musician leads her to question the circumstances of a death that occurred decades earlier. Faith Martin’s Lyssa Moore Mysteries, also known as The Oxford Detective Society series, combines amateur investigation, historical secrets, and traditional British mystery fiction against the atmospheric backdrop of Oxfordshire.
The series introduces a different kind of investigator from Martin’s established police detectives. Lyssa has no formal law-enforcement authority, but her profession requires patience, curiosity, and an ability to recognise inconsistencies in personal accounts. These qualities become particularly valuable when researching people whose reputations have been shaped by publicity, gossip, and selective recollections.
The opening novel, The Oxford Detective Society (2026), follows Lyssa after she receives a commission to write a biography of Amelia “Monty” Montrose, a famous musician associated with the cultural excitement of the 1960s.
Montrose died under mysterious circumstances at her birthday celebration in 1966. Although her public image suggested a rebellious celebrity enjoying the freedoms of the decade, Lyssa’s research reveals that her private life was considerably more complicated.
As she examines Montrose’s history, interviews people connected with the musician, and reconstructs events surrounding the fatal celebration, Lyssa begins questioning whether the death was truly accidental.
Her investigation soon produces troubling consequences. Someone breaks into her flat, her telephone begins behaving strangely, and she develops the unsettling impression that she is being followed.
These incidents suggest that the events of 1966 remain important to someone determined to prevent the truth from emerging. What began as a professional research assignment becomes a potentially dangerous investigation involving people who have spent decades concealing their secrets.
Lyssa’s friends become involved in her efforts to uncover what happened, forming the Oxford Detective Society. Their informal collaboration introduces a communal element to the mystery, allowing different perspectives and abilities to contribute to the investigation.
Her cat, Bibbie, also forms part of her domestic world, providing a lighter contrast to the increasingly disturbing circumstances surrounding her research.
One of the novel’s distinctive features is its examination of the difference between public celebrity and private experience. Montrose’s reputation as a rebellious musician offers only a partial understanding of her life, requiring Lyssa to question assumptions that have survived for sixty years.
The Oxfordshire setting contributes another important element. Country houses, established social circles, and carefully maintained gardens provide an outward appearance of respectability, while the investigation exposes the possibility of wrongdoing hidden beneath those familiar surroundings.
Martin uses the historical distance between the original death and Lyssa’s investigation to create uncertainty. Memories may have faded, witnesses may have died, and those who remain have had decades to reconsider or conceal their involvement.
The second novel, Death at Deepdene Hall, is scheduled for publication in April 2027. It follows Lyssa as she accepts an assignment to write the memoirs of Dominic Dane, a celebrated British actor.
What initially promises to be an absorbing professional project becomes another investigation when Dominic’s younger brother is discovered dead beneath a cedar treehouse at the family estate.
Further disturbing incidents, including an apparent attempt on Dominic’s life and the death of his former wife, raise questions about whether someone within the household is deliberately targeting people connected to the actor.
The announced storyline continues the series’ interest in prominent public figures whose carefully maintained reputations conceal complicated personal histories. It also returns Lyssa to a country-house environment where relationships, inheritance, and longstanding grievances may provide motives for violence.
As of October 2026, The Oxford Detective Society is the only published novel in the series, with Death at Deepdene Hall announced as its second instalment.
The Lyssa Moore Mysteries represents a development of Martin’s longstanding interest in Oxfordshire crime fiction. While her DI Hillary Greene novels emphasise professional policing and her Ryder and Loveday books examine historical investigations through an unusual partnership, Lyssa approaches mysteries through biography and archival research.
Her work creates opportunities to explore how personal histories are recorded, misunderstood, and sometimes deliberately falsified. The mysteries draw their tension from the possibility that apparently settled events may conceal truths capable of threatening people many years later.
Through Lyssa and her investigative companions, Martin combines the intellectual appeal of historical research with the suspense of contemporary danger, establishing a series in which understanding the past becomes essential to surviving the present.