Riley Paige Books In Order

Publication Order of Riley Paige Mystery Books

Publication Order of Riley Paige Short Stories/Novellas Books

Publication Order of Making of Riley Paige Books

The name ‘Riley Page’ refers to a series of novels written by Blake Pierce. ‘Riley Paige’ is also the name of the primary protagonist of the Riley Paige series of novels.

+The Story

Riley Paige is an FBI agent working for the Behavioral Analysis Unit. The BAU is a segment of the FBI that constitutes individuals who use their knowledge of behavioral science to bring resolution to difficult cases.

While Riley Paige is just one of several members of the BAU, she is by no means ordinary. Riley Paige is the BAU’s special weapon, an expert that the FBI calls upon when they encounter killers, murderers, and criminals of a, particularly, depraved nature.

Riley’s job is to walk into situations where there are no viable clues and paint a picture of the culprit. And Riley never fails, not really. The heroine’s strengths lie in her ability to get into the minds of killers.

She has the innate skill to understand depraved minds and to think like they do. As such, she can predict why they are doing what they are doing and how they might act in the future, thereby laying out a map for her colleagues to follow in their efforts to stop further crimes.

Riley’s work is by no means easy and straightforward. Certainly, she can get into the minds of killers better than anyone else. But criminals are not the most predictable individuals, and Riley often gets things wrong. Her failures are like crushing blows that sometimes threaten to break her, and it takes her considerable will to bounce back, pick up the pieces, find those missing clues and stop her target.

The Riley Paige series does not take things easy on its heroine. Riley is very obsessive. That is why she is such a great agent. She doesn’t know how to let a bone go once she sinks her teeth into it. And this often leaves her hollow and spent once she finishes a case.

Each new book in the Riley Paige series finds its lead character struggling to essentially recover from the effects of her last case. And that often makes the actions she takes going forward that much more difficult. This is because each new Riley Paige book brings a new depraved criminal to the table. And it is normally a struggle for Riley to throw off the baggage of her last case in order to deal with the new case.

Though, Riley always proves the strength of her will in the way she always recovers. Like most intellectually superior characters in the psychological crime drama genre, Riley is a little damaged. Her work takes too much out of her and the negatively affects her home life. The heroine isn’t always on the best terms with the father of her daughter.

Not that she understands her daughter any better, though the pair finds ways of making things work. This isn’t always the case with the men in Riley’s life. She doesn’t always make it easy for people to care for her.

Unfortunately, Riley Paige is written to need a lot of care. Her preoccupation with her work is such that she requires constant reminders to take care of herself, not to mention her child.

The Riley Paige series has been criticized for being a little generic. Riley Paige joins the numerous other sad and tortured detectives that already exist in the crime drama genre and who are always called upon to solve impossible cases.

And like many of her counterparts, Riley is somehow superior to all her colleagues in the FBI. She is written to be the last hope for the Bureau anytime they encounter a complex case, the only operative on hand that can be relied upon to do the impossible. And for Riley, delivering results sometimes means exceeding her mandate as a BAU agent.

Where Riley Paige fails, at least as far as some readers are concerned, is in the vagueness of her abilities. It isn’t made clear why Riley is so good at what she does, or what she does that allows her to stand apart. It is simply stated that Riley can get into the minds of killers, and that approach is a little too generic and vague for some audiences.

And because Riley’s abilities aren’t always properly quantified, it becomes a little too easy to question the manner in which she comes to some of her more random yet surprisingly accurate conclusions.

+Once Gone

When the remains of women are found scattered in the outskirts of Virginia, the grotesque nature of the case necessitates the involvement of the FBI. However, when the FBI takes up the case, they quickly realize they are out of their depth. This leads them to call upon Special Agent Riley Paige, the only operative with the cunning to solve the case.

Riley isn’t too keen on undertaking a new assignment. Still fragile from her last bout with a serial killer, Riley is forced to end her leave in order to join the hunt for a brutal criminal. Her search soon tests her understanding of depravity.

The killer she is chasing is unlike any she has ever encountered. Riley realizes that she must overcome her demons and give the hunt her all before the case breaks her will, shatters her career and puts her family in further danger.

But that is the reason why Riley Paige was put on the case. Her superiors know that she doesn’t know how to quit. Once she catches the scent of a killer, she will keep following it until she gets her man.

The first novel in the Riley Paige series is a dark psychological thriller about Special Agent Riley and her partner Bill as they try to solve a series of murders.

+Once Taken

The FBI is called upon to investigate the murders of women whose remains are found hanging in chains. When the clues grow scarce, Special Agent Riley Paige is called upon to shine a light on the mystery.

But Riley isn’t in the best shape mentally, not after her last case. The idea of taking a new case and chasing down a new killer doesn’t appeal to her, not when she believes that another killer is out to get her.

But she soon realizes that her skills might prove necessary to prevent future murders. So she jumps back on the horse, certain that she has what it takes to stop two serial killers and regain her sanity.

One Response to “Riley Paige”

1. Joanne: 4 years ago

   Why does the narrator seem to have a British accent when the series takes place in US?

   Reply