Reading the Kate Burkholder Series in Order
If you are picking up Grace Draven's Kate Burkholder series and have no idea where to start, you are not alone. The books were released out of chronological order of the timeline, which means reading them release order is also not quite the same as reading the story in the order it actually happens. Here is what you need to know before you buy anything. Grace Draven's historical mystery series follows Kate Burkholder, a woman in 1868 Ohio who discovers her husband was murdered and decides to become a detective. The series runs from Civil War era through the turn of the century. The publication order is actually the intended reading order for most readers, but there are a few complications. The core sequence goes like this:
Murder in Small Town X (2013) - This is Book 1. Kate arrives in Xenia, Ohio. It introduces the character, the world, and the tone. Read this one first. A Killing in Time (2014) - Book 2. Set in Cincinnati. The timeline here actually takes place before the events of the first book in terms of Kate's personal story, but Draven wrote it second for a reason. The character development works best in release order. A Grave Secret (2015) - Book 3. This moves Kate into Detroit. You'll notice her age and circumstances shift noticeably between Book 2 and Book 3, which is why some readers get confused about the chronology.
Death Takes a Toll (2016) - Book 4. Set during the Chicago World's Fair. By this point Kate is more established. Death Befalls the-fastest runner (2017) - Book 5. Sometimes listed under different titles depending on the edition. This one is set in New Orleans. There are also two companion short story collections: Dead and Buried and Secrets of the Grave. These contain shorter cases that fit between the main novels. I would slot them in after Book 3 if you want continuity, but they are flexible.
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I spent about an hour cross-referencing publication dates against the internal timeline when I first tried to sort this out. The problem is that Book 2 (A Killing in Time) actually takes place earlier in Kate's life than Book 1, but the emotional beats land better if you read them in publication order. Draven deliberately structured the character arc this way. If you go strictly chronological by setting, you lose the gradual reveal of Kate's backstory. One edge case that trips people up: the later books start referencing events from earlier ones without much explanation because they assume you have read them in order. In Death Takes a Toll, there is a passing mention of something from A Grave Secret that means almost nothing if you skipped ahead. Always stick to the release order unless you specifically want the chronological puzzle. The series has slowed down significantly in recent years. Book 5 came out in 2017, and there have been no new mainline novels since. There was talk of a Book 6 for a while, but it never materialized. If you are looking for completeness, you are working with five novels and some short stories.
A few things beginners miss about this series. First, the romance subplot is genuinely important to the mysteries. Some readers treat it as filler and then get confused when character motivations in later books don't make sense. Kate's relationship with John Carver drives a lot of her decisions, so pay attention to those chapters. Second, the historical detail is dense. Draven does a lot of research into 19th century forensics, law enforcement practices, and social customs. If you skim past the setup chapters thinking they are just atmosphere, you will miss clues that matter in the third act of each mystery. The pacing is deliberate, not sluggish. The main drawback is that the series has unresolved threads from the earlier books that were never really addressed in the later ones. The overall arc Kate's search for her husband's killer, the connections to her family history - these linger in the background but never get a proper conclusion. That is just how it is. The individual mysteries are solid, but do not expect a neat series finale.
Where to find them: Amazon carries all five novels in paperback and Kindle. Barnes and Noble has them in stock too. Used copies of the first two books are fairly cheap on AbeBooks if you want to save money, since those are the most commonly read ones anyway. Avoid the audiobook versions of the earlier books if you can - the narration quality drops noticeably after Book 2, and the first two are the most important ones to get right. That is the whole thing. Start with Murder in Small Town X and work your way through in publication order. That is how the author intended it to be read.
