John Scherber Books In Order

Publication Order of Murder in Mexico Books

Publication Order of The Townshend Vampire Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

John Scherber is a mystery thriller author from Minnesota but who currently lives in Mexico. He is best known as the author of “The Murder in Mexico” mystery series that are set in San Miguel de Allende, the old colonial hill town in Mexico. “Twenty Centavos” the debut novel of the series was first published in 2010 and has spawned more than two dozen titles since. The novel has been optioned and is currently in development and is set to be made into a TV series. Scherber is also the author of the “Townshend Vampire Trilogy” in addition to several other non-fiction works that detail his experiences as an expatriate in Mexico. The author is known for writing novels that are full of irreverent humor, fast pace, and are light-hearted journeys into the worlds of antiques and art. He is also a master at writing cutting edge suspense fiction works and admits that he sees himself in some of his characters.

Scherber’s journey to becoming an author took a circuitous route. Straight out of college, he got a writing job in mental health but he always knew that fiction was what he always wanted to do. During this time, he wrote two fiction novels but they were so bad that he quit and never wrote again for thirty-seven years. However, once he published “Twenty Centavos,” he was hooked and soon was thinking of himself as a professional author. Still, the euphoria only lasted a few years as he got sucked into other things. He would become an entrepreneur running three very successful companies. He ran an architectural shop and did custom furniture, high-end interiors, concealed doors, and paneled rooms. He also worked restoring ancient Victorian Houses in St Paul Minnesota after he got tired of running a company doing wholesale distribution of Weyerhaeuser commercial doors. He tried to go back into writing many times over the years but never felt the connection. Every time John would sit down to write, he would feel a lot of stress and would soon abandon the whole thing. In 2005, he moved to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and it was here that he had the inspiration and time to start writing again.

John Scherber got the inspiration for “Twenty Centavos” while he was undertaking a painting trip. He was driving on a long curving mountain road in the south of New Mexico when he thought of a scene in which some woman posed in the nude in his painter’s studio. She was an amateur model but did not need the portrait for work but instead wanted a frozen frame of what she looked like at twenty-eight. She also wanted to have a fun rendezvous with a painter if he was interested. She had heard that he liked women and given how attractive he was, she wanted a piece of him. Scherber developed the scene over the remaining miles and immediately after he got back to his hotel, he sat down and began writing it. Even before he was done writing the first novel, he had the idea for “The Fifth Codex,” the second novel of the series.

Starting in 2015, John Scherber now has more than thirty novels that fall into the relationship and artifact categories. His debut novel “Twenty Centavos” is a story based on Mayan ceramics from a previous age while “The Fifth Codex” tells of the discovery of a fifth Maya book whereas everyone had believed there had only been four. Even though Scherber has had many influences, he asserts that he had been most inspired by the works of Tony Hillerman, Michael Connelly, Patricia Highsmith, and Robert Crais. In 2018, he was approached by two-time Emmy winner, screenwriter, producer, and director Dorothy Lyman who wanted to purchase the screen rights to the “Murder in Mexico” series. She had spent several of her vacations in San Miguel and during her time there had read the novels. He made a deal and he will soon have his works aired as a series in the United States.

In “Twenty Centavos” by John Scherber, Paul Zacher the painter who makes his home in Yucatan is making preparations for a gallery show. But then is unwillingly dragged into a homicide investigation that has happened several hundred miles away in Mexico, in the small town of San Miguel de Allende. A popular and leading citizen of the town that dealt in antiques was shot and killed in a bizarre homicide. In his mouth was found a twenty centavo coin. Zacher enlists the expertise and help of Maya Sanchez his Mexican girlfriend and Cody Williams his detective friend who retired a few years back. Zacher needs to stay out of the police radar even as he trawls through the expatriate community for any clues he may find. The action takes place in the steamy jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula to the heart of colonial Mexico. Zacher shows himself as an expert detective as he inches closer to the killer until the man is spooked and marks him as his next target.

“The Fifth Codex” sees Paul Zacher engages in another of his routine painting jobs even though he has gained quite a reputation for his investigative abilities. In this work, he is charged with facilitating the transfer and authentication of what is believed to be an original Mayan codex from the 16th century. There had only been four that had come to the attention of scholars and archeologists and the discovery of a fifth would be groundbreaking. But the book has an inflammatory message and soon there is a three-way struggle for it between a private collector with seemingly unlimited resources, the Chiapas rebels, and the Mexican government. Murder is followed by kidnapping as the forces fight to get their hands on the codex which forces Zacher to commit a crime that at first glance looks like an execution done in cold blood. The survival of Paul and the Zacher agency is thrown into doubt following his reckless act.

“Brushwork” the second novel of the “Murder in Mexico” series is one of the most interesting in the set. What had looked like a simple portrait commission turns disastrous when the former vice president is killed after only doing one session. Paul Zacher the artist turned detective wants to know what the former vice president had been doing in San Miguel. But Zacher becomes alarmed when the evidence collected increasingly shows that he is the killer. At the reading of the will, the motive of the killer comes to light and Maya and Paul have to run away if they are not to be arrested by the Mexican authorities who believe they are guilty. A ruthless conglomerate teams up with the police and Paul must dig deep to expose the plotters and go on the offensive.