Detective Harriet Blue

About the Detective Harriet Blue series

Sydney detective Harriet "Harry" Blue is impulsive, combative and constantly at war with her own department -- so when her own brother becomes a murder suspect in the series opener, she's exiled to the brutal outback town of Last Chance Bay rather than allowed near the case. James Patterson paired with Australian crime writer Candice Fox to give the series real regional texture: outback isolation, Sydney's criminal underworld, and a lead whose loyalty to her family keeps colliding with her instincts as a cop.

The series is short but complete -- a prequel novella (Black & Blue) followed by four novels running from Never Never (2016) to Hush Hush (2019) -- with Harry's fraught relationship with her brother Sam running through the whole arc. Fox's on-the-ground knowledge of Australian crime fiction and setting complements Patterson's usual short-chapter pacing, giving the series a sharper regional identity than most of his other collaborations.

How to read this series

Read in publication order starting with the short prequel Black & Blue (2016) if you want the character's introduction, then Never Never (2016), which sets up Harry's exile and her brother's case -- the central arc that carries through all four novels. The series is a complete, closed story rather than an open-ended franchise, so there's real payoff in reading it start to finish rather than dipping in partway through.

Black & Blue is an optional short lead-in rather than essential reading; you can start directly with Never Never and pick up everything you need about Harry's situation there.