Stella Bixby Books In Order

Publication Order of Magical Mane Mystery Books

Publication Order of Rylie Cooper Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Shayla Murphy Books

Chronological Order of Shayla Murphy Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Stella Bixby is a bestselling novelist of cozy mystery fiction from Colorado. Living in Colorado, she has always loved to play the guitar, snowboard in the mountains, and spend a lot of time playing board games with her family.
Before she became a bestselling novelist, she used to work as a park ranger and a volunteer firefighter. She published “Catfished,” her debut novel and the first of the “Rylie Cooper Mystery” series in 2018.

Speaking in interviews, Stella Bixby has said that in writing the series, she intended to add more books to the market that were similar to the “Heather Wells Mystery” series by Meg Cabot and the “Stephanie Plum” series by Janet Evanovich.
These are series that provide humor and romance to spice up a satisfying mystery. As such, when Stella was writing her novels, she wanted to pen light-hearted mysteries, as she pivoted away from the young adult fantasies that she had tried and failed with.
Over the years, she has continued writing mysteries but also ventured into paranormal cozy mysteries. She now spends much of her time trying to figure out what she will make for dinner and writing her stories.

Outside of her writing, Stella Bixby is a much sought-after speaker at writer conferences and seminars.

One of the most popular conferences where she has spoken a lot of times is the Montezuma, Iowa “All Iowa Writer’s Conference,” which is usually held in the fall.
It is a small enough conference that only one speaker author speaks each hour and Stella Bixby is sometimes one of these.

She is also very active online and maintains an active newsletter in addition to keeping her fans up to date with what is happening through social media.
She is very consistent in her online activities and usually collaborates with other authors on their Facebook Lives to get more exposure.

In interviews, she has said that she is a huge believer in consistency and this is why she tries to send a newsletter regularly and post on Instagram following a schedule.

For Bixby, it is all about finding your readers and going to where they are, and her strategy seems to be working very well for her, particularly on Facebook, where she has some insane reach and engagement.

Apart from her strategy on social media, Stella Bixby also loves to create a connection with her fans through giveaways. On that front, she has a ton of short story freebies in her newsletter which she gives to readers at different times.
Some of these are bonuses that she pens to keep readers busy in between reading different series while some are prequels she used to get readers interested in her novels.

She will sometimes add a small Easter egg to a novel and then include a free link to a free short story about the little Easter egg at the end of the novel. Her go-to email subscription tool that she uses to gather email is BookFunnel.

Stella Bixby’s “Catfished” is a witty murder mystery with a hint of romance and snarky romance and the first novel of the “Rylie Cooper Mystery” series.

The lead in the novel was Rylie whose life could not have been worse. She had been lied to, and cheated on and now finds herself unemployed and homeless, as everything falls apart.

She believes that the only option she has is to move into her parents’ basement temporarily and start over. Nonetheless, the best thing that could happen to her is finding a job as a ranger at an urban park.

However, on her first day on the job and the first shift, she discovers a dead body caught in a catfish trap and thinks she could have gotten in too deep. Luckily, Luke Hannah her first love and the man in charge of the case comes onto the scene.
If it was not for him, she could have quit and gone back to looking for another job in the help-wanted ads. However, she will now do anything to prove herself capable of doing her job.

At some point, the police pin the murder on the wrong man and Rylie will not let that stand as she sets out to clear the man’s name and catch the real killer. But this means she risks becoming catfish bait or losing her job altogether.

“Suckered” by Stella Bixby continues to follow the lead of the series Rylie.

She has been living with her parents which has been driving her crazy. But lately, she has been conjuring men in her mind and she is certain it is not because it has been too long since she had a date.

She has men all around her every day and all day since she works as an urban park ranger. When she corners some smugglers on a boat, most of them flee except for one, who seems more interested in discussing her online dating profile rather than smuggling.
But then she finds a dead body and dating is the last thing on her mind. But the man is persistent and it is not long before they are going out.

Things get interesting when she finds a dead body and her man who is recently released from prison is the lead suspect. When he is arrested by Luke her colleague, Rylie finds herself caught between the two men.
It is now up to her to investigate and find the real killer but getting to the truth could be dangerous and may just leave her jobless and even dead if she is not careful.

Stella Bixby’s novel “Throttled” is an interesting addition to the “Rylie Cooper Mystery” series. If Rylie the lead had a checklist, it would have no dead bodies in months – check, serious boyfriend – check, and a full-time job – check.
On paper, it was a fantastic position to be in but the real situation is that she has never felt like she belonged in the Rangers, she still lives in her parents’ basement and knows it is only a matter of time before they find another body.
When she finds a teenage boy suffering from life-threatening hypothermia, she knows the only option is to collaborate with one of her biggest antagonists to get to the bottom of the case.

The boy is from the brutal world of high school with college applications, parties cliques, and championship games.

But despite all this, Rylie believed she could solve the case until they found another kid.