P.I. Julie Collins Books In Order

Publication Order of PI Julie Collins Books

P.I. Julie Collins is the protagonist in a crime thriller series written by New York and Americas bestselling author Lori G Armstrong. Julie Collins works as a secretary in sheriff’s department and also as a part time Private Investigator (PI) in South West Dakota.

Author Lori G. Armstrong novels have been recognized making her a two-time Shamus Award winner and New York bestselling author Julie Collins series and others such as Mercy Gunderson Mystery. The debut novel in Julie Collins series is Blood Ties published in 2009. The second book Hallowed Ground was released the following year after the debut novel.

Blood Ties
Julie Collins life has been in turmoil. She is mourning over her mother’s death who died in a fatal car crash, and not too long her half brother is brutally murdered. The mystery surrounding the death of her brother remains unsolved, and she thinks that the reason is that her brother was half Lakota-Native Indian Americans. While still grieving over the death of her two family members she takes up a job with the Bear Butte County Sherriff as a secretary with anticipations that she might get some peace of mind. Several days later a new murder turns up and this time a 16- year old white girl has been killed and now everyone is interested in solving the mystery surrounding her death.

She discovers that her childhood best friend, Kevin now a Private Investigator has been hired to investigate the mysterious death of the young girl. Kevin asks for Julie assistance in conducting the whole investigation. However she reluctantly agrees, but before she knows it, the duo finds themselves almost too close to finding the killer. Unfortunately, the killer too is determined to keeping his identity a secret and is willing to do anything under his capability to ensure his secrecy is maintained. Sooner bodies of the young girl relatives begin piling up, and sooner Julie and Kevin find themselves on the killer’s list, and therefore they must act fast or else wind up dead too.

Hallowed Ground

Kevin Wells is grieving after his beloved passes on, apparently due to cancer, this worries Julie Collins. Tony Martinez the owner of several bars and other businesses in town wants to hire Julie Private investigative skills for some good amount of money. With Kevin grief, Julie is left with no alternative and thus takes up the job. She is tasked with finding Chloe Back Dog, a five-year-old missing niece of Tony’s friend, Harvey.

In her investigations, Julie assumes that Chloe’s dad Donovan hid the child instead of taking her to her biological mom, Rondelle Eagle now his ex-wife. Tracking Donovan is no hard task, and she finds him at Brush Creek Construction, this makes Julie wonder why Martinez did not do the task himself. Both Julie and Donovan meet and talk in Bear Butte a place where her brother had died some year back. Donovan ends up denying having abducted his daughter, and thus he informs Julie to Smart Start School and Rondelle, shortly later Donovan is shot dead.

As Julie gets closer to solving the mystery surrounding Chloe disappearance, she surfaces the truth regarding Native American Casinos, Carlucci gang and soon finds herself targeted by the killer who will do anything to keep anyone from learning the truth.

Shallow Grave
In Bear Butte County, the two private investigators; Kevin Wells and Julie Collins are hired by Rushmore West Insurance Company who believes that Langston Everett has been pulling an injury compensation fraud. While doing their surveillance work, they observe Langston as he leaves his home compound to ride an ATV. The two, Julie and Kevin continue filming his activity until his ATV suddenly rolls in the air. He dies of his injury, and there is a big hole in the ground apparently through where he drove partly before the accident.

Kevin immediately reports to the sheriff’s office, later sheriff AI Richard arrives at the scene with his team, as well as Langston fiancé June. June requests Julie not to say a word regarding the hole that was covered, but it is later discovered that the hole contained human remains. Sheriff Richard asks Julie to help him with the investigations as he lacks workforce. This leads to issue related to Standing Elk Family and the info that they hid regarding Julie brother Ben. Later Abita Kahlen from Arizona arrives accompanied by her son Jericho whose resemblance could only mean one thing; he is Jules Nephew.

Snow Blind
The whole winter season seems boring for the two private investigators, Julie and Collins until they are assigned a task by a young woman. They are to carry out an investigation on the possible problems facing her granddad assisted living facility. They encounter all sorts of problems including disorganized senior volunteer organization, lax security, and unqualified personnel. Julie barely has enough time to handle the case before she randomly meets with her dad in a deserted cattle shelter during a snowstorm. She cannot escape from her father due to the biting cold despite the bitter memories he brings to her. Private Investigator Julie Collins is forced to deal with questions that not only resurface old wounds but also make her question her family loyalties. Soon bodies and snow begin piling up thus leaving Julie with one question, Is she being blinded by love or hate?

Dead Flowers/Baited
This is a duo of Julie Novellas. In Dead Flowers, the private investigator Julie is keeping an eye on cheating lovers. This leads her to question about her relationship with Tony Martinez. The second novella Baited, Kevin Wells is off the duty, Julie is assigned to carry out investigations relating to the disappearance of a fisherman in Butte. There is no clue regarding the missing fisherman; she has to rely on assistance from Jimmer her friend and Tony Martinez her boyfriend.

In summary, P.I Julie Collins series is quite intriguing; the plot is nicely crafted, and the readers get to grow with the character from the first chapter of the debut novel to the latest installment.