Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli Books In Order

Publication Order of Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli Books

Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli is a series of romantic suspense novels written by Lisa Jackson. The books tell the stories of two female detectives who solve crimes in Grizzly Falls, Montana.

+The Story

The Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli series has been called the Montana Series and the ‘To Die’ Series. Each name is an apt description of Lisa Jackson’s story. For instance, the books primarily take place in Montana.

The protagonists are Regan Pescoli and Selena Alvarez. Additionally, each of the book’s titles ends with ‘To Die’. Regardless of what you call the series, you can expect Lisa Jackson’s fans to understand the books to which you refer.

Lisa Jackson has been commended by her fans for writing a series of novels that perfectly balance romance and suspense. The romance genre is generally dominated by female authors.

And there has been a tendency for readers to expect female authors to specialize in the romance genre. That expectation has been cemented by the many female authors who, despite producing fiction outside the romance genre, have chosen to litter their stories with strong doses of romance.

As such, one wouldn’t be faulted for going into the Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli series expecting a collection of mystery novels that tend to elevate the romance above all else.

However, whether or not it was intentional, Lisa Jackson upends expectations with the Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli series by writing a collection of stories that endeavor to deliver on the mystery and the suspense above all else.

Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are detectives living in and operating out of Grizzly Falls, a town in Montana. Selena and Regan are partners. When they are introduced in ‘Left to Die’, the first book in the series, the pair is hunting for a serial killer with a taste for female victims.

Selena and Regan know that their suspect might have a victim in his clutches, a victim they must locate and rescue before it is too late. However, even with the involvement of the FBI, Regan, and Selena find that they are nowhere near close to determining the identity of the killer or understanding his motivations.

That is often the case with this series. Selena and Regan are always facing off against demented serial killers and murderers. Sometimes their cases hit a little too close to home. There are cases where either Selena or Regan is captured by a criminal and it falls on the shoulders of their partner to rescue them.

In other instances, the pair is merely targeted by the wrong sort of individual and they make it their business to find him before he finds them.

While some of the crimes committed in the Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli series are disturbing, Lisa Jackson doesn’t get unnecessarily gory, at least not in her descriptions. Though, the author definitely endeavors to make each of her villains worse in their motivations and actions than their predecessor.

These books tend to stand out because of their heroines. There are plenty of mystery novels on bookshelves today led by strong female characters. However, you would be hard-pressed to find a mystery or suspense novel featuring two female police detectives as the leads.

Their partnership as detectives is, on its own, quite rare, and it allows Lisa Jackson to explore an entirely new dynamic of policing.

While Selena and Regan spend a lot of time chasing after bad guys, some emphasis is given to their personal lives. Regan’s life is the more complicated of the two. She is divorced and she has two teenagers that she must care for.

Regan’s personal life is a constant source of turmoil. Her children seem to hate her—and strangely enough, their bratty behavior has not endeared them to readers who find them rather annoying.

Regan’s ex-husband and his new wife do not make thing easy for her. She tends to find escape in superficial relationships that revolve around a lot of meaningless sex and alcohol.

Selena is her total opposite. She is a very solitary individual whose life revolves around her work. In fact, she does not seem to have a life outside her job.

New love interests keep fleeting in and out of the series, with each new man having a diverse impact on the Selena and Regan dynamic.

Lisa Jackson has been criticized for getting repetitive with these books. The author has a tendency to keep repeating certain explanations, almost as if she does not trust her readers to keep up with the developments of the plot and the backgrounds of all her characters.

Some readers have suggested that the approach is a little patronizing because it shows Lisa’s lack of faith in the intelligence of her audience.

+Left to Die

The first book in the Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli series puts Detectives Selena and Regan at the center of a chilling mystery.

There is a serial killer haunting the outskirts of Grizzly Falls. This particular killer shoots out the tires of the cars of female drivers, forcing them into accidents. He then shows up as an innocent bystander who rescues them from their crash.

He leads them to a remote cabin in the mountains, tends to their wounds and gains their trust. By the time they realize the truth, it is too late.

Selena and Regan know there’s a killer on the loose but even with the assistance of the FBI, they are making no progress.

Meanwhile, Jillian is a Seattle Resident who comes to Montana to look for her missing husband. When her tires are shot out, she barely survives the accident that follows. However, she doesn’t know what to make of Zane MacGregor, the man that rescued her.

Jillian has heard the stories. She knows there’s a killer on the prowl. She must decide whether or not to trust her kind rescuer.

+Chosen to Die

Detective Regan Pescoli is a great detective, and she was pretty sure that she would crack the Star-Crossed Killer case. Months later, Regan has fallen prey to her target. She is now the prisoner of a madman and she must find a way to avoid the fate that befell his previous victims.

Fortunately for Regan, Nate Santana will do everything in his power to find her. Nate has never met anyone like Regan. And once he learns of her fate, he quickly seeks out Detective Selena Alvarez, her partner.

The pair must crack the puzzle of the Star-Crossed Killer before the body count rises.

3 Responses to “Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli”

1. Wendy Post: 3 years ago

   Hi ..I just wondered when you would be out with book 9 in the Alvarez/Pescoli series? I love these characters. Thank you so much..Wendy

   Reply
2. Carla Mullen: 3 years ago

   Within any of the series do u have to read them in order. I luv books written by Lisa Jackson and her sister Nancy Bush

   Reply
   • mary: 3 years ago

     Hi, Carla…
     I literally just finished the last book written in this series (to date) and each story can be read on its own. There are references to previous cases and a short recap on what happened, but to be honest, that’s why I ended up reading all of them.

     I did not read the first two in order, but, then I held off until I had them the rest and read those in order!

     Enjoy!!

     Reply