All of the books have some common characters, however, two of the books are not tied as much to the series as the other current eight books. So, those can be read out of the order in which they were written. So, I’ll start with the written order:

• Planning Vengeance
• Dig Two Graves
• You Don’t Know Jack
• Who, What, When, Why?
• Triple Cross *
• Lies and Omissions *
• Unknown Caller
• Grafton

However, a couple of people have said they wanted to read them chronologically. That is a little tougher because Grafton and Who, What, When, Why? both have multiple stories that take place at different times. Grafton has the origin story on Melody, which is before everything but the flashbacks in the other books. Aside from that story, everything in Grafton is after You Don’t Know Jack and before Unknown Caller. Who, What, When, Why? has stories that are intertwined around the first three books.

So, chronologically by story date:

• Melody (from Grafton)
• Lies and Omissions
• Planning Vengeance
• Dig Two Graves
• Who, What, When, Why?
• You Don’t Know Jack
• Grafton
• Triple Cross
• Unknown Caller

One thing to keep in mind though, is that aside from Planning Vengeance/Dig Two Graves, I tried to keep the spoilers to a minimum. Lies and Omissions and Triple Cross are outside of the regular series anyway… which is why they are asterisked *.

The Sheriff kept his hand resting on the butt of his pistol, menacingly, as he glared at Melody.  He had close to a foot in height on her, and an easy hundred pounds.  He kept staring, a smirk on his lips. 

“Sheriff, you don’t want to mess with her.  She’ll drop you to the ground and cuff you with your own cuffs before you even think to call for backup,” Gunny said, still smiling at the baby.

The Sheriff snorted… the glare never leaving his face as he stared down the slender woman.

Melody stared right back up at him.  There was fire in her dark eyes.  Her normally pale skin was red with fury.  She was not one that would be intimidated.  Gunny, standing off to the side, continued to entertain the baby.  Off to Melody’s sides, Ric and Bobby, both in tactical gear again, were standing with their rifles less than casually slung over their shoulders.  They would back Melody if it came to that. 

“I’m gonna take that woman in and book her for attempted murder.  Now, you best get out my way before I come up with half a dozen things to charge you with.  I let you play your little game, out of respect for Wallace Boudry’s parents, but that is over now.”

The Sheriff tried to push past Melody, but she grabbed his gun hand and folded his wrist down and then twisted his arm behind his back.  In her next smooth move, she bumped the back of his knees, driving him to the ground on his stomach.  She swept his cuffs from his belt and cuffed him as he fumed and flailed. 

“Let me tell you how this is going to go, Sheriff,” Melody said, her sneer coming through her voice loud and clear, “you’re NOT going to charge Lisa Clay Boudry with anything.”

The Sheriff struggled and started to talk.

“Shut up and let me finish,” she replied.  “In fact, she is going to get on our plane and fly away to God knows where.  In the meantime, you can choose to explain what happened to Wallace’s parents.  Wallace has been beating that young woman for months.  She has been admitted to the hospital at least three times for… accidents… that you were supposed to investigate.  And a couple of days ago, Wallace came out here with his hunting rifle, to either kill or seriously injure her.”

“That’s not true,” the Sheriff said, still struggling in his cuffs, ”he was just gonna scare her.”

“So, you knew that a serial abuser was coming out here to illegally use a firearm to commit a crime and you did nothing?” 

“I…”

“In a minute, I’m going to let you out of your cuffs.  You’re going to answer your phone, then you are going to plop your happy ass in your cruiser and drive away.  We are going to collect our medic from the hospital, where I’m told Wallace is in serious but stable condition and expected to recover, and we are going to drive to the airport and fly away. 

“If you choose to charge her, an army of blood sucking ghouls, our lawyers, will descend on this town.  By the time they leave, you… the former Sheriff… will be able to drive by the Lisa Clay Law Enforcement and Public Safety facility in the town square.  Now, Sheriff, do YOU understand how it’s going to work?” Melody finished. 

She looked over to Bobby, he nodded back, tightening his grip on his rifle.  Melody unsnapped the cuffs from the Sheriff’s wrists, still pinning him down on the ground.  As she held him there, his phone rang. 

Melody let go of him and stood up.  The Sheriff dusted himself off and reached into his pocket for his phone.  He answered it and held it up to his ear.  After saying his name, he just looked around as the voice at the other end talked. 

The Sheriff straightened his uniform and Melody handed him back his cuffs and his key.  He walked back toward his car. 

“You haven’t heard the last of me, Melody Grafton,” he said, as ominously as he could manage.

“Yeah… I have.  You don’t want to take me on.  You aren’t man enough,” Melody shot back. 

She turned and walked over to Lisa. 

“Lisa, you need to come with us.  We’re going to drop you off with a friend.  She’ll get you and your daughter on a new path, ok?”

“I can’t pay you…”

“Dropping that blowhard was enough for me,” Melody replied, smiling. 

“What if he comes after me?”

“You’ll be in a new place with a new name and a new life before long.  He won’t find you unless you go looking for him.  Don’t do that,” Melody said, giving her a hug. 

Gunny, Melody, Lisa and her baby loaded up in one of the Suburbans, while Bobby and Ric loaded into the other.  They headed into town, to the hospital to pick up Patrick, then out to the regional airport to drop off the rentals and fly out.

Three hours later, Lisa and her baby were in a shelter in Atlanta, Melody sitting next to them, Gunny standing nearby.  Instead of tactical gear, he wore a simple pair of jeans and a polo shirt. 

“Hi, Lisa.  Welcome to Maria’s House.  My name is Anna Weber.  You’re safe here.”  She turned to Gunny and Melody, “I’m so glad to see you again,” she said, hugging each of them. 

Melody hugged Lisa, then the baby.  The baby reached for Gunny, wanting him to hold her again.  He took the baby and made a few funny sounds before handing her back to her smiling mother. 

“He’s kind of like a Grizzly Teddy Bear,” Melody said to Lisa with a laugh.  “I trust Anna and you should too.  And if you ask her to call me, day or night, she will.  Ok?”

“Melody, I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Have a wonderful life.  Raise that baby.  If you get yourself in a position to help someone else, do it. “

Melody leaned over and hugged her again.  The baby giggled and waved at Gunny as he backed toward the door, laughing and making faces back at the baby.  

As she got within a couple yards of the front steps, she stopped.  She could see the blinds move a little.  She held her arms out to her sides and slowly turned all the way around.  Her snug fitting jeans and tucked in black t-shirt making her disarmament obvious. 

“I’m not armed, Lisa,” she said loudly enough for the woman inside to hear.  “I’d like to come in and talk with you.”

“Go away!” came the shout from inside. 

“I can’t do that Lisa.  I want to help you… and to do that, I need to talk with you.  Better me than the police”

“Why’zat?” the woman shouted. 

“They are looking to find crimes, Lisa.  I’m looking to prevent them.  Why don’t you let me in.  I’m not here to hurt you.”

The front door cracked open.  Seeing the dark sliver of the inside, Melody slowly walked up the steps and through the front door, holding her hands a little above her waist, keeping them in sight of the woman waiting behind the door.  It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.  As she waited, the situation slowly came into focus. 

“Hi Lisa.  My name is Melody.  I want to help you.  Will you let me do that?” she said, finally able to see the other woman. 

“How exactly can you help me?”

“I don’t know yet.  That’s why I wanted to talk with you.  How would you like me to help you?” Melody asked. 

As she looked around, she could see the woman standing in the kitchen doorway with a hunting rifle.  Deeper in the kitchen was a toddler in a highchair scribbling in an activity book for a child that was much older.  To Melody’s right, in the living room, a beaten and bloodied man was tied to a kitchen chair. 

“I just want everyone to go away,” Lisa said, anguish in her voice. 

“I wish I could, Lisa, but I can’t do that.  Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Lisa was leaning against the doorway, her fatigue evident.  She kept taking her hand off the rifle to wipe her eyes. 

“He was beatin’ me and beatin’ my baby, so I left him.  The bastard came back ta get my baby, and I told him ta go ta hell,” Lisa said.  “I didn’t mean for all this.  I just don’t want him beatin’ my baby.”

“I understand.  But Lisa… it looks like Wallace is hurt pretty bad.  Can we let a medic look at him?”

“I don’t think I can do that, Melody,” Lisa said, sniffling. 

“Lisa, I really want to help you.  And I will.  But if Wallace dies, your little baby won’t have any parents.  He’ll be dead, and you’ll be in jail.  I can try to protect you and see if there is a way to work this out… but if he’s dead, my hands will be tied.  You understand?”

Lisa stared at her for a minute. 

“Why are you here, Melody?”

“I told you… to help you.”

“Who hired you… you said you weren’t a cop.”

“Nobody is paying me, Lisa,” Melody said calmly.  “Wallace’s parents called a friend of mine yesterday when he didn’t come home.  They were worried.  I came to get him… but now that I know about your baby, keeping her safe is the most important thing for me.  More important than Wallace or you, do you understand me, Lisa?”

“Why… why is my baby important?”

“I help people… people that are in trouble.  Especially kids.  Please let me help you and your baby.  Let me get a medic to help Wallace.”

She reluctantly nodded.  Melody slowly backed to the door.  She turned and opened it.  She motioned for Patrick to come to the door.  He already knew from listening to Melody’s comm unit, so he’d stripped off his body armor and weapons. 

With just a small medic kit he walked over to the steps and came up to the door. 

“Hi Lisa.  My name is Patrick and I’m here to help Wallace, ok?  Can I come it to look at him?”

“You have a gun?” Lisa asked. 

“No, but I have a pocketknife in case I have to cut his clothes, see?” he said, holding it in his hand. 

She nodded and Patrick walked inside.  He moved toward Wallace as his eyes adjusted, then gently cut the bonds holding the man to the chair.  He pulled him from the chair and laid him on the dirty floor of the trailer.  He cut away his shirt to look at the gunshot wound in Wallace’s chest. 

“One, his pulse is weak and thready.  He’s lost a lot of blood.  I can slow it down, but he’s gonna need emergency transport and IV fluids,” Patrick said into his radio. 

“Lisa,” Melody said, “it doesn’t look good for Wallace.  We need to get him in an ambulance and to a hospital.  Patrick is talking to our people outside.  Can we take him out there so that we can get him to a hospital?  I’ll stay with you as a hostage if you want.”

Lisa was looking around… at her baby, at her husband, at Melody, then back again. 

“I didn’t want ta kill anyone,” she said after a few minutes.  “Don’t let him die.”

Lisa collapsed to the floor, sobbing into her hands, the rifle clattering to the kitchen floor. 

“Gunny, get a stretcher up here to help Patrick get Wallace out.  No guns,” Melody said into her comms. 

Ric and Bobby came around the shed a moment later, their tactical gear stripped off.  Ric was carrying the stretcher and was first to the door.  He ignored Lisa and the gun and turned toward Patrick and the man he was on the floor with.  Bobby slid around near the unconscious man’s head, while Ric was at his feet.  They slid him over onto the stretcher and gently carried him outside. 

As Melody held Lisa, who was crying uncontrollably, an ambulance pulled up without its siren on.  A moment later, again with no siren, it quickly pulled away. 

“Lisa, why don’t you tell me what happened?” Melody said as she walked over to where the other woman was leaned against the wall. 

She slid the gun away from her and sat down next to her.  Lisa started pouring out everything that had happened to get her to where she was.  They spent a few minutes talking back and forth, Melody asking questions, Lisa answering. 

“Is Wallace gonna die?  Did I kill him?” Lisa said through her tears.

“Lisa, Patrick is the best.  He’s with Wallace and I’ll know everything that happens, ok?  Can we go outside now?” Melody said calmly. 

“Are you gonna arrest me now?” Lisa asked. 

“I told you, I’m not the police.  Do you want to carry your baby out, or me?”

“I’ll carry her,” Lisa said, sniffling again. 

The woman walked over and gently picked her baby girl up from the highchair.  She hugged her tight as she carried her outside, walking behind Melody.  Lisa looked around when she got outside, wondering where the police cars were.  When she didn’t see any, she gave Melody a confused look. 

“Lisa,” Melody said softly as she approached the woman again, “I need to get a look at you… to confirm what you said inside.  Can my husband hold your baby?” She pointed to the big man with the bushy red beard. 

“I… I guess,” Lisa replied, unease in her voice.

“Lisa, we’re not going to take your little girl away.  His name is Will, but everyone calls him Gunny.  He’ll keep your baby safe.  Trust me.”

Lisa handed her baby over to Gunny.  He started bouncing the little girl and had her laughing and squealing before Lisa and Melody could walk away.  Melody led Lisa around to the side of the shed, away from the guys on the team and asked her to lift her shirt.  Lisa complied, showing her to scrapes, scars and bruises she had all over. 

As they came back around the Sheriff’s car came rolling up to the fence around the mobile home’s yard.  The Sheriff stepped from his car, a tall man made even taller by the Stetson he set on top of his head as he cleared the car.  He rested his hand on his sidearm and made his way toward Gunny, who was bouncing the baby. 

“Very funny, Big Guy,” the girl said as she stretched.  Over the next few minutes, the rest of the students joined them outside the gym, ready for their run.  “Sergeant Grafton here thinks he might be faster than us,” Tisha informed the group.  She was giving him a little good-natured ribbing.  “How old are you, like forty-five?”

“Fifty-seven, actually.  And I didn’t say I would be faster… I just thought you guys would knock out five miles in thirty or thirty-five minutes,” Gunny told the kids. 

“Then let’s get started old man,” Jaden said as he turned to start running. 

Aside from Tisha, the teenagers all took off, leaving Gunny in their dust.  Gunny slung on the pack that had been at his feet, and quickly caught Tisha and followed the rest of the runners off school grounds, and into the neighborhood. 

After about twenty minutes of running, they were more than halfway through the route.  He and Tisha had caught all the kids except Jaden, who was still a hundred yards ahead.  They rounded the corner of a block, bringing him back into view.  Gunny watched as someone stepped in front of the youngster and barred his path, grabbing at him.  He picked up his pace and caught up with the youth a moment later. 

“Do we have a problem, here?” Gunny asked the man as he grabbed the other man’s hand. 

“I don’t have a problem, Bitch, but you will if you don’t move along,” he replied. 

“You really need to watch your language, as well as take your hand off this young man, or we will have a problem,” the large, former Marine said forcefully.

The man reached for his pocket with his loose hand, Gunny still holding a grip on the wrist of the hand he’d grabbed Jaden with.  Gunny looked down and saw him pulling a gun from his pocket.  As he squeezed the man’s left wrist, hard, he reached for his right hand… the one going for the gun.  Before the gun was completely free of the pocket, Gunny had twisted the man’s hand backward and thumbed the safety back on.  The sound of his wrist breaking was clearly heard by all the students. 

“You REALLY shouldn’t play with guns if you aren’t going to learn how to use them,” Gunny said as he twisted the gun from the man’s hand… he was no longer able to keep grip on the pistol with his broken wrist.  He let go of Jaden with the other hand and started crying out in pain. 

Without letting go of the man’s left hand, he smashed his elbow into his face, breaking his nose, which everyone also all heard. 

“You are a dead motherfucker…” he said before Gunny cut him off.

“I thought I told you to watch your language, you little punk.  And this was your only warning.  Next time I have a problem with you, I won’t be gentle.  And you better get your nose and your wrist looked at…”  Then he reached around into his pocket and pulled out the man’s driver’s license.  He noted the name and address from it and handed it back to him.  “I know who you are, Darnell Williams, and I know where you live.  You don’t want me to have to visit you.  Understand?”

The students were all shocked by the actions of their substitute teacher.  In class, despite his size and menacing appearance, he had been all smiles and patience.  At six and a half feet tall, he towered over all but the tallest students, and with his broad shoulders and thick arms, he made even them look small in comparison.  While his emotions often hid behind his bushy, rust-colored beard… with a few streaks of gray… today they were plain to see.  Gunny was angry and they could see the flash in his eyes and his shaved head turning red, like a cartoon character. 

Then he leaned in close and quietly said into his ear, “I know that you’re really just a chickenshit bully.  If you weren’t, you’d be doing something real with your life.  You mess with ANY of these kids, I’ll find you.”  Then he pushed the punk away.  “Let’s finish the run,” he said to the teens. 

Ten minutes later they trotted up to the back gym door they had left forty minutes earlier.  Gunny slung off his pack and grabbed a bottle of water.  “Tell you what, that was a nice run,” he said.  “Maybe next time we won’t be interrupted.”

“Mr. Grafton,” Jaden said quietly, even though the other students could all hear him, “That guy is one of the biggest dealers in the hood.  He isn’t gonna let that dis’ slide, Sir.  You need to watch your back.”

I have to tell them the specific changes that have been made. So, for each change, I have to give them a “location number” (which I think might be a paragraph, but I’m not sure) as well as the nature of the change… location 5476, changed word ‘ot’ to ‘to’ or some similar.

Well… I didn’t record all of that, and it is VERY difficult to go back and figure it out, so I have had to scour my books (I have done Planning Vengeance, Dig Two Graves, You Don’t Know Jack, Who What When Why?, and Grafton. I’m in the midst of Unknown Caller, then will be doing Triple Cross and finally Lies and Omissions. That is all eight of my books. Feel free to get a few of them.

If you already have a copy, you can go into your Amazon account and look for content and devices. Then, under content, search out the book titles (I order them by author… it’s easier because they are grouped together). Under the ones that have been updated, there is an “Update Available” tag. Click it and the new update will be sent to your app or device.

A word of caution… if you have notes, they might not survive the update. I think that has to do with the changes in location that can happen as words move. This is especially true if you have a much older version of the book.

None of the changes are truly significant. I’m not changing plot points, characters, structure or action. These are changes to words or (in a few cases) formatting. Typos, wrong words (I have a couple of hanger instead of hangar that I’ve found) and similar things. They are annoyances… especially to me. The most significant changes were VERY early in Triple Cross. Right after I published it I realized I had some of the timeline mixed up. I had changed some things BEFORE publishing and didn’t catch all of the related changes. I fixed it within a few days. But… if you are the other person that downloaded it then, you might have the old version.

Do I need to say that this doesn’t work with the print versions of the books? That is one of the reasons I don’t do the print versions right away… Readers spot mistakes and tell me, and I correct them.

The common thing I see on the webs is that if I wanted there to be no mistakes, I would hire an editor… and yet, reading BIG NAME authors, I often spot multiple mistakes, especially in first editions. They have a phalanx of editors and others that go through their books with a fine-toothed comb, and there are STILL errors. It happens.

I’m just trying to fix mine.

If you ever find an error, please let me know. If it is an old edition, there is a good chance I’ve found it, but if not, I will fix it for future editions. Because of the way Amazon does it, there have to be a bunch of changes to trigger an update, though.