Maddy Hunter Books In Order

Publication Order of Passport to Peril Books

Maddy Hunter is one of the prominent American novelists of the cozy mystery genre. She has written the highly successful mystery series, Passport of Peril. Maddy says that she got interested in the idea of writing the series after she went with one of her friends on a tour of seniors to Switzerland. On the tour, she got the idea about the character descriptions and spent no time in developing the series around them. As a beginner, Maddy used to write romance novels, however, she had to stop writing them after her publisher refused to publish any of her romances. Therefore, she decided to change the course of her writing career to cozy mysteries and wrote the first novel of the series in the year 2003. Maddy has said that she had to face a lot of struggle and difficulty before her becoming a cozy mystery writer as she was not able yo think about any appropriate characters. She had to spend several years trying to penning a long historical drama, which turned out to unfruitful and this disheartened Maddy even more. Then came the tour of Switzerland, which was sponsored by the bank of one of her friends for its club members. When she reached in Lucerne along with her touring group, she was welcomed by extremely miserable weather conditions and tasteless foods.

The experience gave Maddy a rough idea about the cozy mystery series. She also says that while traveling to Iowa, along with the group of seniors, she was very well treated by them. They were very polite towards her and welcomed her happily into their group for the tour. She would also take care of them on the tour by buying them drinks, playing poker with them in the lobby of their hotel and at the same time enjoyed the tour very much. Although, she had to take 2 mortgages on her house in order to make out for the expenses. The group consisted of practical jokers, along with some sincere, thoughtful and quietly competent. One among them was a 93 year old woman who was very sharp and another named George Farkas, who was one-legged. In this way, the main character of her new mystery series was developed based on her experience of the tour. Maddy described the main protagonist as Emily Andrew, a combination of the names of two of her friends, as a reluctant sleuth. She would always land in the wrong place and gets dragged in unfavorable situations. Maddy decided to give a different international location to each novel of the series in order to make them look fresh. Maddy also introduced the character of Nana, Emily’s grandmother based on the experiences of living with her own grandmother in the same house. Her real grandmother used to make weekly visits to the hospitals to take care of the needy, and would help to set up housekeeping for the family of those who died in her vicinity, even when she did not know them. She did not have the license to drive, wore bloomers and girdles, drank Tom Collins as her favorite drink, and loved loved to play poker. Maddy used all these characteristics to describe the Nana of Emily Andrew.

The Passport to Peril mystery series written by author Maddy Hunter consists of a total of 10 novels published between the years 2003 and 2015. The series is currently an ongoing one as the author is busy writing the plot of the latest novel of the series. The first novel of the series was published under the title ‘Alpine For You’. It was released by the Pocket Books publishing house in the year 2003. The plot of the novel was set in Switzerland and featured the main character in the form of Emily Andrew. The plot of the series shows an account of the tour of Switzerland with Emily Andrew, which she considered to be a trip worth dying for. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Emily goes on a trip of seniors to Switzerland, accompanying her grandmother. She hopes that the trip will be full of spectacular scenery, classy European hotels, great food, all of them away from her hometown in rural Iowa. She had envisioned these things by reading a travel brochure.

However, the tour takes an ugly turn and lips into a mayhem as the tour escort named Andy Simon is discovered dead. Andy was considered to a smooth-talking person and his sudden death had left everyone in shock. He had the habit of trying his chance on every touring lady and was randy as a Viagra-consumed mountain goat. Emily was getting frustrated because of his constant advancement in his attempt. Now, after his death, she is left with the most important question of whether someone killed him or he dies his natural death. Since, Emily and her touring group had lost their tour escort, it was now up to Emily to lead the group in his absence. Soon, she discovers that one of her fellow traveler has taken a fatal plunge. She could not remain neutral as she was convinced that a murder is lurking among them. A bold and sexy detective named Etienne Miceli had come to investigate the case with her precision timing. Emily gets warmed by the presence of the suave detective, but is more worried about the safety of her touring group. She wonders whether there is any safe place anywhere near the Alps mountains or not?

The second novel of the series was published by the Pocket Books publishing house in the year 2003. The novel was titled ‘Top O’ the Mountain’ and continued to depict Emily Andrew as the main protagonist. The plot of the novel opens up with Emily Andrew going on a trip to Ireland with her group of seniors, one among them being her beloved Nana. However, just like the trip in the first novel, this trip too, seemed to bring a lot of troubles in their peaceful lives. As the group lands in Ireland, they witness a death-defying incident involving a horse-drawn carriage. To add to her troubles on the tour, Emily encounters her ex-husband named Jack, who has become Jackie. As the tour proceeds, the group of seniors settles in the Ballybantry Castle, with the plot getting thicker like the Irish stew. Soon, they come to know that the walls of the Ballybantry Castle were being wandered by a ghost. And their belief becomes true when they find a dead body in one of the guest rooms. With the plot getting murderous, Emily strives to get closer to the truth about the ghost in the hotel. However, the murderer seemed to be a step ahead of her all the time. It was just a matter of time for Emily to find the killer among the tourists of the trip.

2 Responses to “Maddy Hunter”

1. Name (required): 3 years ago

   I have all of the passport to peril paperbacks & waiting for the next one, which seems like a long time coming since the Alaska trip. Any idea when the next book will be here??

   Reply
   • Ann: 3 years ago

     Is there another book after the Alaska trip?These are terrific reads! Combining mystery with real life travellogues is made to order for me.

     Reply