Books
Twin Cities books in order: the complete series
Mother-and-daughter writing duo PJ and Traci Lambrecht, better known as PJ Tracy, are the authors of the brilliant Twin Cities thrillers.
The series features Grace MacBride, founder of the game software company Monkeewrench. Together with her team of eccentric computer mavericks, Grace devotes her time and resources to helping homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth uncover long-buried secrets, catch killers and solve the unsolvable.
Read on for a taste of the books in the series!
PJ Tracy books in order:
Want to Play? by P J Tracy
1. Want to Play? (2003)
In this brilliant debut, the slaying of an old couple in small town America looks like one-off act of brutal retribution. But at the same time, in Minneapolis, teams of detectives scramble to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear.
When the two separate investigations converge on an isolated catholic boarding school, decades old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. Yet still the killer’s real identity remains dangerously out of reach…
Live Bait by P J Tracy
2. Live Bait (2004)
When elderly Morey Gilbert is found, lying dead in the grass by his wife, Lily, it’s a tragedy, but it shouldn’t have been a shock – old people die. But when she finds a bullet hole in his skull, the blood washed away by heavy rain, sadness turns to fear. It looks like an execution. Soon a whole city is fearful as new victims are found, killed with the same cold precision. All elderly. All apparently blameless.
Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth, race to uncover a connection and their best hope of doing so may be Grace McBride – the beautiful, damaged survivor of an earlier killing spree. And the answers, it seems, are buried in a terrible past.
Dead Run by P J Tracy
3. Dead Run (2005)
It should have been a simple journey – a drive from Minneapolis to Green Bay, Wisconsin. But a couple of unplanned detours lead Grace MacBride, Annie Belinsky and police Deputy Sharon Mueller deep in the northern woods, far from civilization and a mobile phone signal. Then the car breaks down.
The nervous search for a landline and a mechanic leads the women to Four Corners, a sleepy crossroads town. And place they soon wish they’d never stumbled on – because something terrible happened in Four Corners…
Snow Blind by P J Tracy
4. Snow Blind (2006)
Minneapolis, winter’s first white flakes; a park full of snowmen. But the layers of packed snow hide a goulish surprise. First, the bodies of two cops are found inside the snowmen and then a day later, in the countryside to the north, Sheriff Iris Rikker makes a similarly shocking discovery. Soon Detectives Gino and Magozzi are sent north through the worst blizzard Minnesota’s seen for years to find what else links the investigations.
But some secrets you don’t want to uncover. And as the cases unravel, it seems snowmen aren’t the only ones with something to hide.
Play to Kill by P J Tracy
5. Play to Kill (2010)
Minneapolis homicide cops Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth fish a murdered drag queen out of the Mississippi. Another day, another corpse. Except the victim’s death throes quickly appear in a video posted online. And there are other videos, other murders.
Unable to trace who is posting the videos, the cops turn to Grace MacBride and her crew of eccentric computer mavericks. But as the bodies and videos stack up, the team desperately try and answer a terrifying question: is this the work of a lone individual? Or of several killers who have taken social networking to the darkest extreme…
Two Evils by P J Tracy
6. Two Evils (2012)
A missing teenage girl lies dead in a parking lot. Two young immigrants are killed in their apartment. Three men are found dead in the street nearby. As the police struggle to establish what’s happened, they realize that the deaths may not be as random as they first appear. As the killings continue, homicide detectives Magozzi and Rolseath ask Grace McBride for help, drawing her into an investigation that will threaten her life.
And as the evidence mounts, it reveals terrifying intent. Ultimately, it forces the two detectives to make a dreadful choice: down which path does the lesser of two evils lie.
Cold Kill by P J Tracy
7. Cold Kill (2016)
The Christmas season in Minneapolis is shattered when two friends, Chuck Spencer and Wally Luntz, scheduled to meet in person for the first time, are murdered on the same night, two hours and several miles apart, dramatically concluding the winter vacation for homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth.
This series of inexplicable events sends the detectives sixty years into the past to search for answers – and straight to Grace MacBride’s Monkeewrench. What they find is an unimaginable horror – a dormant Armageddon that might be activated at any moment unless Grace, along with Leo and Gino, can find a way to stop it.
Read an extract from the book here.
Nothing Stays Buried by P J Tracy
8. Nothing Stays Buried (2017)
When Marla Gustafson vanishes on her way to her father’s farm, her car left empty on the side of an isolated country road, even Grace MacBride and her eccentric team of analysts are baffled.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, homicide detectives Gino and Magozzi have a serial killer on their hands – two women murdered in cruelly similar fashion, with playing cards left on the bodies. But one card is an ace, the other is a four – it seems the killer is already two murders ahead.
With both teams stumped, it slowly becomes clear the evidence is inexplicably entangled. And they have little time to unravel the threads: a twisted killer is intent on playing out the deck…
The Guilty Dead by P J Tracy
9. The Guilty Dead (2018)
Gregory Norwood, wealthy businessman and close friend of Minnesota’s leading candidate for Governor, is found dead on the first anniversary of his son’s drug overdose. It seems clear to Detectives Gino and Magozzi that grief drove him to suicide. Until they realise the left-handed man seems to have used his right hand to pull the trigger. And they find the second body.
As the seemingly open-and-shut case becomes a murder enquiry, the detectives begin to delve into the dark secrets of one of the city’s most powerful families. It seems the murders are not the first in the Norwoods’ tragic story – and they won’t be the last…
Read an extract from The Guilty Dead here.
Ice Cold Heart by P J Tracy
10. Ice Cold Heart (2019)
On a bitterly cold winter night, Kelly Ramage leaves her suburban home, telling her husband she’s going to meet a friend. She never comes back.
When her body is discovered, murdered in what seems to be a sex game gone horribly wrong, Gino and Magozzi take the case, expecting to find a flirtatious trail leading straight to the killer.
However, Kelly’s sinister lover has done a disturbingly good job of hiding his identity. This isn’t his first victim – and that she won’t be the last…
There you have it – P J Tracy’s Twin Cities books in order! How many have you read? Let us know in the comments below…
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I have I read all the books and just love them. Nothing since 2020. Anything on the horizon?
What now? I have read them all, I won’t ask “ what happens next “ it may spoil others enjoyment. But please you must carry on.
I love all these books we know the characters so well I just hope there are more books with the same teams.
I’m not sure what to read now I’ve read all these .
HELP we need more.
Just finished Snow Blind. Love the books and working through them in order.
Hi i have loved all the monkeewrench books just finish two evils n it was so good about to start cold killers
just finished book one, and i am hooked. i am passing it to my friend and i know she will be too. looking forward to the next episode
Currently reading two evils.. fab books so far. Gino n magozzi have a great friendship n the monkeywrench team.
Good books. Nice easy read. Excellent story lines. The monkey wrench gang, Gino and Leo all become very real as you familiarise yourself with them and gain an affection for them all.
I love these books. I was unable to read for 3 years due to lack of concentration but got it back so I started at the beginning again and couldn’t wait to finish one book so I could start another. I have now read all the Magozzi, Rolseth and all the Monkeewrench crew books. Hoping for more of them all
I have them all read except The guilty dead which I am reading now .I love the Monkeewrench series and hope theres more to come. Great writing and great characters.
I am just about to start Ice Cold Heart – so glad there’s a new one to read. I’ve read all the other books and just love them. Please write more! Soon!
I am about to start the last one. I have loved reading these books. Once you start you can’t put them down. Please don’t stop writing. 😁
I love and have read all of your books. You make the characters so real I feel I am visiting old friends when I read. I love the way that Magozzi and Gracies relationship has developed. Thank you for keeping me enthralled x
I love these books and the characters and have read them all twice. Now I wish there could be a prequel that would expand on the earlier lives of the Monkeewrench people.
Brilliant series, only Ice Cold Heart to go
I love these books on the last one now. Never want yo put down once I start reading them.
I have read all of them they are wonderful,Thank you
I love these characters I have all books except the last which I am ordering tomorrow
Half way through Two Evils. It really is true that each book is better than the last. I’m rooting for Magozzi to have with Grace what Gino has with Angela.
I love these books. They get better and better. The characters are brilliant and keep the surprises coming. More please