Connie Dial Books In Order

Publication Order of Mike Turner Mystery Books

Publication Order of Amanda Cleveland Mystery Books

Publication Order of Josie Corsino Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Connie Dial is American author of mystery and thriller novels best known as the author of Fallen Angels and Mike Turner Mystery series. She is a graduate of Citrus Jr. College; the University of West Los Angeles; California State University; LAPD’s Command Development School and FBI National Academy. The author has worked in the Los Angeles Police Department for 27 years, and before joining the police department, she worked as a journalist/reporter/photographer for a chain of newspapers companies based in San Gabriel Valley.

Currently, Connie Dial is a resident of Southern California where she lives with her beloved husband, a retired police investigator Jon Dial and their Yorkshire Terriers Bacall and Bogart. Connie became a published author in 2009 when Internal Affairs the first book in Mike Turner Mystery series was published. Since then the author has published two book series and two standalone novels.

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels isn’t like the Los Angeles squad we see on a TV show, The Closer. This is a story that portrays the LA police department in the way it likely operates. The author, Connie Dial writes from experience. She spent over two and half decades serving in the police department herself, and she rarely gets out of bounds with her narratives but instead sticks to the narration of the plot thus giving her characters the true colors of reality.

Anyone who reads a lot of mystery and crime books has a good feel of authenticity. This novel narrates what exactly happens in the modern society, depicting the Hollywood of today just as anyone would expect. The detail of everyday life serving in the police department comes across with grit shining bright light on the corners saturated with corruption which we may have been used to in many of the cop stories.

The plot line in a police procedural does not always have the tension/suspense of a true mystery like the classic Preston Child/Agatha Christie sense. In Fallen Angels, the plot centers on the death of a 17-year-old Hollywood star who is an out of control party girl and a heroin addict. The suspect list is pretty long, and it involves some cops who were probably involved with the little girl, a homeless man and even the man who owns the party house.

Captain Josie Corsino is tasked with the investigation with the help of the only man she trusts in the squad, Red Behan. They both only trust one more cop named Marge Bailey since the squad is full of corruption from the junior to the senior most.

The son to a troubled artist is also a good friend of Josie’s son who is a troubled musician. The two sons are in their 20’s and trying to grow up the hard way-rebellious. Unfortunately, Captain Josie faces problems with her husbands who quit his job as a lawyer in the District Attorney office in order to find a space of his own. Probably, it’s the normal way of police everywhere- professional and personal life clash. Josie doesn’t even seem to suspect another woman, and day after day, night after night, she puts her life in danger but thrives on that danger. She is a woman with a great deal of personal strength, and she does whatever it takes to uncover the mystery behind the starlet death with the help of the only man she can trust.

Not long, one of the main suspects, Misty, the starlet agent is also killed, and Josie is put in a difficult position when the city councilman’s son commits suicide with Josie’s son involvement. She wants to protect her son as any mother would do, but he is clearly involved. Connie Dial uses her main character to address the conflict of being a mother and a wife when Josie’s husband requests for space and Josie’s son involvement in the city councilman’s son suicide.

Fallen Angel is a brilliant story that portrays the every day life of a Los Angeles cop and the everyday struggles of being a female cop. Captain Josie investigations play out against the backdrop of betrayals small and large, personal and pervasive. For every step that she takes involves decisions who results might betray another and every trust that she places might end with trust betrayed.

The writing draws the readers deep into Josie’s world and does not let go. Whether you agree with Josie’s politics or not, whether you would trust the same people or whether you would make the same demands of your children, there is no denying Josie’s decisions, choices, and actions are powerfully honest and true. The playing out of her life against police investigation, a background murder, and the abuse of power offers a potent comparison between major and minor betrayals, and between truth and brutal deception. The punishment at the end may not fit the crime, but the players fit all their parts, and the readers are warmed by the knowledge that not all the angels fall and even though some fall, not all falls are fatal.

Internal Affairs

Internal Affairs is the first book in Mike Turner Mystery series. Los Angeles Police Department DC McGann goes out his routine morning jog only to find a vehicle blocking his driveway. The car is no ordinary one, it is a police car and in the car’s trunk is the naked body of a cop named Alexandra Williams.

For the Los Angeles Police Department, this is an thoroughgoing nightmare, and they are determined to clean it as soon as possible and keep it from the public. But for Mike Turner, the detective for Internal Affairs who is assigned to investigate the case- it’s a double-edged sword- it is a chance for him to prove that he is a real cop or to have his career destroyed forever. For the reader, it is a rare insider look into one of the United States most controversial police department.

The story is detailed, and Connie Dial’s knowledge of the police department is great. If you stay with the story throughout the confusions and the chaos of police department, then you will find a good weave take of corruption and murder.