Below is the complete list of Lisa Jackson’s Alvarez and Pescoli books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Alvarez and Pescoli Books
About Alvarez and Pescoli
Lisa Jackson’s Alvarez and Pescoli series, also known as the Montana “To Die” series, is a dark romantic-suspense and crime-thriller sequence set in and around Grizzly Falls, Montana. The books follow Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli as they investigate murders that often involve serial predators, missing women, family secrets, old obsessions, and killers who use the isolation of the Montana landscape to their advantage. The series has the brisk, danger-heavy style Jackson is known for, but its identity comes especially from the contrast between its two lead detectives and the unforgiving setting they work in.
Regan Pescoli is the more openly impulsive and emotionally exposed of the pair. She is a divorced mother with a complicated personal life, a sharp tongue, and a habit of pushing herself into danger because she refuses to back down from a case. Selena Alvarez is cooler, more controlled, and more guarded, often providing a steadier counterweight to Pescoli’s volatility. Their partnership gives the series its strongest continuity. They are not written as flawless investigators, but as women doing difficult work under pressure while their own lives remain messy, vulnerable, and subject to the same fear and uncertainty as the victims they try to protect.
The series begins with Left to Die, which introduces the chilling atmosphere of Grizzly Falls through a killer targeting women in the snowy Montana wilderness. Chosen to Die continues that early arc and places Pescoli herself in extreme danger, making the opening books feel closely linked. These first entries establish many of the series’ defining features: harsh winter settings, procedural urgency, romantic tension, personal stakes, and crimes that feel both physically brutal and psychologically calculated.
As the books continue, Jackson broadens the series beyond one killer or one immediate threat. Born to Die, Afraid to Die, and Ready to Die keep the focus on Alvarez and Pescoli while introducing new victims, suspects, and personal complications. The cases frequently involve women under threat, hidden identities, twisted revenge, and past violence returning in present form. Jackson’s villains are often theatrical in their cruelty, but the detectives’ reactions keep the books grounded in the practical work of finding evidence, reading behavior, and staying alive long enough to stop the next attack.
Grizzly Falls is essential to the series’ mood. The town and its surrounding wilderness create a sense of beauty undercut by menace. Snow, remote roads, cabins, mountains, and small-community gossip all help Jackson create suspense that feels claustrophobic despite the wide-open landscape. The setting also gives the crimes a particular kind of threat: people can disappear, secrets can be protected by distance, and danger can arrive long before help does.
The Alvarez and Pescoli books are case-driven, but the continuing lives of the detectives matter. Pescoli’s family, romantic relationships, and personal risks add emotional pressure, while Alvarez’s more private nature creates a quieter thread of tension. Their partnership grows through repeated exposure to violence, distrust, and danger, and the series works best when read as an accumulation of cases that gradually deepen the reader’s understanding of both women.
This is one of Lisa Jackson’s clearest examples of romantic suspense leaning hard into serial-killer thriller territory. The books combine police work, fear, attraction, family drama, and bleak Montana atmosphere, creating a series where every investigation feels personal because Alvarez and Pescoli are never safely outside the danger they are trying to solve.