Widow’s Island Books In Order

Publication Order of Widow's Island Books

Widow’s Island Series by Melinda Leigh & Kendra Elliot

Ms. Leigh is known for writing romantic suspense stories. Like all authors, she started with her love of reading which lead to her writing. After living the crazy life as banker, she decided to become a serious writer.

Ms. Leigh has created ten different series of stories and her books have sold over a ten million copies. She has been nominated for and has been recognized with several writing awards.

Kendra Elliot has been widely recognized for her writing, having sold millions of books and being listed with the Wall Street Journal. She was awarded the Daphne du Maurier Award, and has been a three-time winner of the International Thriller Writers finalist. She has also been a finalist for Romantic Times for best Romantic Suspense.

Ms. Elliott was born and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. From a young age she read books about Laura Ingalls, Nancy Drew and similar heroines. She was a voracious reader but writing didn’t bring her much joy and her school writing assignments reflected that.

Ms. Elliot attended the University of Oregon where, ironically, she earned a degree in journalism. That career path didn’t entice her so she went back to school and earned a dental hygiene license. She practiced this for sixteen years and she decided to revisit the writing.

She still lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, three daughters, and cats and dogs.

The Widow’s Island Series of ten novellas, co-authored by Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot, has captured the attention of both critics and readers. The two highly successful writers, in their own right, have published dozens of books on their own.

Now they come together to deliver a few different series of novellas. Rather than teaming up and writing each story together, they have each written a few of the novellas alone while building a cohesive story line through the series.

Each story in the series is short- novella in length. It’s recommended to read them in order due to the relationships between the story characters.

FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde has returned to the remote Pacific Northwest Widow Island for some much needed rest while recuperating from an injury. She has moved in with her grandmother and helps her out with her bakery/bookshop.

Cate and her best childhood friend, Tessa, who’s the local deputy, are both in law enforcement. When Cate and Tessa were teenagers, they were two-thirds of a tight knit group with Samantha rounding them out. Then Samantha disappeared without a trace. The duo get drawn into the investigation of current serious crimes on the island.

Now they are back on the island, investigating crimes on the island, and they decide to start a new investigation into Samantha’s disappearance. This series of novellas is good if you are looking for a suspenseful, quick read.

The first story, Close to the Bone written by Kendra Elliot, has FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde back home in the Pacific Northwest on the remote Widow’s Island. She’s there to rest and recuperate from an injury but she gets a call that on a nearby island skeletal remains of a teenager has been found.

Her childhood best friend, Tessa Black, a local deputy, works with Cate to determine if the skeletal remains are indeed those of their best friend Samantha. Samantha disappeared without a trace when they were all just fourteen.

The weather is bleak and dreary. Add on complications with the coroner. The similarities with the remains and twenty-year-old memories of the disappearance of Samantha has Cate distracted.

It’s been too many years and Cate is no longer considered a local- who have all become closed mouthed to her. They have buried their town secrets and Cate and Tessa are struggling to unravel this case.

The second story, A Bone to Pick by Melinda Leigh, has Deputy Tessa Black returning to Widow’s Island in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle PD’s loss is Widow’s Island’s gain.

The former detective is now calling the island home, working as a deputy while taking care of her mother’s serious illness. Tessa learned what she thought was the worst with mom’s illness wasn’t after she was called to a crime scene and found a man harpooned to a state park sign.

The victim had secrets that became clear as the murder investigation unwrapped the victim’s life. With her best friend, FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde who also left her big city career to care for family, along with Logan Wilde, the park ranger, are attempting put put all the pieces together before anyone gets in harm’s way.

Along the way of this critical investigation, Tessa and Cate always have Samantha’s disappearance in the back of their minds. They are still trying to discover the truth and are always on the lookout for clues.