Grimstone
romantic thriller
Series · romantic suspense
Rocky Start
The Rocky Start series by Jennifer Crusie has 3 known books (3 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Rocky Start (2024).
- Books
- 3 known books (3 novels)
- Published
- 3
- First published
- 2024
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: Rocky Start (2024) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Rocky Start
Rocky Start (2024) opens the trilogy at 443 pages, the longest of the three, as single mother Rose Malone loses her job and home in the same week she's pulled into a murder investigation alongside Appalachian Trail hiker Max Reddy.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Rocky Start - Book 2:
Very Nice Funerals
Very Nice Funerals, published the same year at 423 pages, continues Rose and Max's story deeper into their Smoky Mountains town's cast of retired covert operatives.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Very Nice Funerals - Book 3:
The Honey Pot Plot
The shortest of the trilogy at 416 pages, The Honey Pot Plot (2025) closes out Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer's Rocky Start trilogy, following Very Nice Funerals into deeper small-town secrets among the Smoky Mountains community's unusual number of retired covert operatives. It completes single mother Rose Malone and Appalachian Trail hiker Max Reddy's story, the pair's second joint series after the unrelated Liz Danger trilogy.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Honey Pot Plot
About the Rocky Start series
Rocky Start is a three-book comic mystery series by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, set in a small Smoky Mountains town straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina line and populated with an unusual number of retired covert operatives. Rocky Start (2024) opens with single mother Rose Malone losing both her job and her home when her landlord and employer dies, on top of a nineteen-year-old arrest warrant hanging over her; when a stranger claiming to be her late boss's son tries to throw her out, she's rescued by Max Reddy, an Appalachian Trail hiker with a mysterious past of his own, and the two are pulled into a murder investigation neither of them wanted. Very Nice Funerals (2024) and The Honey Pot Plot (2025) continue the series in the same town, following Rose and Max deeper into the community's retired-operative cast as further deaths and small-town secrets surface. As with Crusie and Mayer's earlier Liz Danger trilogy, Rocky Start pairs Crusie's comic, character-driven dialogue with Mayer's procedural and espionage-adjacent plotting, though this series trades Liz Danger's Ohio setting and cast for an entirely new town, characters and premise.
Frequently asked questions
How many Rocky Start books are there?
Three: Rocky Start (2024), Very Nice Funerals (2024) and The Honey Pot Plot (2025).
Who writes the Rocky Start series?
Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, the same co-writing team behind the earlier Liz Danger trilogy.
Is Rocky Start connected to Liz Danger?
No -- both are small-town comic mysteries co-written by Crusie and Mayer, but Rocky Start has an entirely different setting and cast.
What order should I read the Rocky Start books in?
Publication order: Rocky Start, Very Nice Funerals, The Honey Pot Plot.
Where is the Rocky Start series set?
A small town in the Smoky Mountains straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina line, home to an unusual number of retired covert operatives.
If you like the Rocky Start series
Reading order last verified .