Alex Abella Books In Order – Complete List of Novels

The Alex Abella books include the New York Times bestselling author’s popular Charlie Morell series about a Cuban-American private investigator turned lawyer in Los Angeles, California.

In addition to his series, Alex Abella has also written several standalone fiction and non-fiction books, with the latest title, MIssion Churchill, published in 2024. Here are the Alex Abella books in publication and chronological order for his crime series and his standalone works.

Latest Alex Abella Books

Charlie Morell Books in Publication Order

1. The Killing of the Saints (#1), 1991
2. Dead of Night (#2), 1998
3. Final Acts (#3), 2000

Standalone Books in Publication Order

• The Great American, 1997
• Shanghai, 2009 (novella)
• More Than A Woman, 2013
• Mission Churchill, 2024

Non-Fiction Books

• The Total Banana, 1979
• Shadow Enemies: Hitler’s Secret Terrorist Plot Against the United States, 2003 (with Scott Gordon)
• Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire, 2008

Alex Abella Books Overview

The Killing of the Saints (1991) (Charlie Morell #1)

Charlie Morell, a court-appointed private investigator, is compelled to take on the case of two Cuban followers of the Voodoo-like “santería” cult accused of a vicious massacre in a downtown jewelry store.

But the ordinary thriller tradition is upended by the crucial role ethnic identity plays in this detective Kindle book. Charlie is himself Cuban, hiding in the City of Angels away from his own guilty secrets. His investigation of the case forces him to confront his past, exposing the real reasons Charlie abandoned his family, his wife, child and a
flourishing law practice in south Florida. Drawn to and helped by the lusty Lucinda, who has her own cloudy past, Charlie works hard, in spite of his instincts, to get his clients exonerated, precipitating a series of shocking surprises and a bloody climactic battle.

Dead of Night (1998) (Charlie Morell #2)

Morell becomes entrapped in the maw of the occult when he promises an old friend of his recently deceased mother that he will search for her missing godson. Morell soon discovers that the godson, Ricardo Diaz, is a priest of palo mayombe who heads a black-magic cult that conducts gruesome ceremonies of torture and human sacrifice.

Galvanized by the unspeakable depravities of Diaz and his followers, and by the horrific murder of a close friend, a good-hearted priest of santeria, Morell sets out after his quarry. But Diaz proves to be more elusive and diabolical than anyone imagines, and Morell’s pursuit takes him from the mansions and cemeteries of Miami to the scorched hinterlands of Baja California and the seamy barrios of Los Angeles.

Final Acts (2000) (Charlie Morell #3)

When the decapitated bodies of young women appear along the California coast, Morell, hero of The Killing of the Saints and Dead of Night, returns to investigate what appear to be cult-related murders. After working for years as one of Los Angeles’s supreme and most controversial criminal defenders, Morell suddenly finds himself sitting in the defendant’s chair, and only Mexican-American lawyer Rita Carr %151; a feisty addition to the ranks of female sleuths %151; can help prove his innocence.

Battling her own demons, past and present, Rita must jeopardize all she holds dear before she can get Morell off the hook and bring the real killer to justice.

The Great American (1997)

When William Morgan arrives in Havana, he finds that his best friend has been killed during an attack on the Presidential Palace. Morgan links up with the anti-Batista underground and falls in love with Laura, a revolutionary and the daughter of a prominent family.

When their group fails at an attempt to assassinate the dictator, Morgan is spirited away to the mountains by a CIA agent. Believing that Laura is dead, Morgan refashions himself as a committed revolutionary, rising to the highest rank, Comandante, in the Second Front of the Escambray. He becomes a friend and saves the life of Che Guevara and joins forces with Castro’s army. The day that Batista flees Cuba, Morgan learns that Laura is still alive. Although he is married and his wife pregnant, in the heady days of Castro’s revolutionary triumph, Morgan resumes his love affair with Laura.

Shanghai (2009)

Jason Blue, a San Francisco based detective–Korean War vet, ex-cop–is charged with bringing the heir to a pharmaceutical fortune back home to California. Blue arrives in Havana in the waning days of the Batista dictatorship, and by the time he finds the heir, Castro´s revolutionaries have taken over.

The kid is in a drug-induced haze, being held for ransom in a burlesque theater in the city´s Chinatown. Since the young man won’t leave without his black stripper mistress, Blue has to spring both the kid and the girl while dodging hired killers, drug dealers, and trigger-happy revolutionaries.

More Than A Woman (2013)

Once the pampered heiress to a wine fortune, Miranda Ferri has become an events caterer. She serves food and smiles to the people she used to look down, the newly rich of her hometown, Santa Margarita. Still, Miranda is trying to make the best of it. A single mom for a long time, she has just remarried (more for companionship than for love) and is trying to forget her privileged youth. She’s a hard worker, determined to look on the right side of things – always look forward, don’t look back.

Then Roger Robertson arrives in Santa Margarita, a mysterious billionaire determined to shake up the town. He purchases Miranda’s family estate, long gone to ruin, and moves to restore it to its former glory. He snaps up new wineries and closes them, burns whole hillsides of grapevines, and promises to return Santa Margarita to the way it was twenty years before.

Mission Churchill (2024)

In 1933 Cuba, a deadly game of cat and mouse unfolds. An IRA sharpshooter, driven by vengeance and a relentless mission, has Winston Churchill in his crosshairs. But just as the assassin is about to strike, Churchill’s tenacious bodyguard, Walter Thompson, intervenes, forcing the killer into the shadows.

Years later, amid the fiery rain of the German Blitz on London, Thompson locks eyes with a ghost from Havana—the very same assassin. But now, the stakes are higher. As Thompson dives deeper into the city’s underworld, he uncovers a chilling conspiracy within the British government, threatening to topple Churchill and hand victory to Hitler.

Racing against time amidst the backdrop of a city in chaos, Thompson must decipher the twisted web of treachery to save his nation and the man he’s sworn to protect. But at what cost?

Alex Abella Biography

Alex Abella is a book author, TV reporter, and screenwriter, who was born in Cuba in 1950 and emigrated to the US with his parents at the age of 10, after the botched Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. He lived in New York where he got a Pulitzer scholarship which allowed him to attend Columbia University.

Once he graduated from college, he moved to San Francisco in California where he got a job as a reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle covering local news. Next, he started working for KTVU-TV, Channel 2 News as a producer, writer,  covering the network news also as a reporter.

In the late 1980s, Alex Abella moved to Los Angeles to become a writer, while at the same time he was working as a Spanish interpreter at the Los Angeles Superior Court and an assistant to a Private Investigator. He lives in the Los Angeles suburbs with his wife and two kids.

His first legal thriller book, The Killing of the Saints, draws from his experiences working within the legal environment. It was published in 1991 featuring the Santeria religious beliefs that can be used as a defense for murder in Hispanic Los Angeles.  The book became a New York Times Notable Book in 1991, the same year it was published.

Ramon Valdez, a Santeria religion priest, is on trial for killing a few people in a jewelry store. He is pretty well-known and quite popular with established Cuban immigrants.

When he is accused of the murders, he asks Charlieto be his investigator appointed by the Court for this case. During the investigation, Charlie comes across several people involved in magic, Santeria, and witchcraft, and he has to face his own demons from the past.

Between the first book, The Killing of the Saints, and the second book, Dead of Night, Charlie becomes also a lawyer who has written a book about Santeria.

The second book, Dead of Night, brings back the relentless Cuban-American lawyer and investigator in its plot, who again has to deal with Santeria and the occult. After the passing of his mother, he promises one of her friends to search for her grandson who disappeared. The grandson is involved in satanic rituals and black magic. During the case, Charlie is on the tails of a cult leader who is also a killer.

The third and currently last book in the popular series, Final Acts, brings back, once again, Charlie to investigate a major conspiracy and murder. The story picks up after Dead of Night, where he was imprisoned for his beliefs in Santeria and the brutal murder of two cult members. This time, we get introduced to Latina lawyer Rita Carr who becomes Charlie’s lawyer.

When Charlie tells her that he is the victim of a conspiracy, Rita has difficulty believing his tale until things happen that she has no choice but realize that all is, in fact. true.

The plot of the book is in most part related by Rita, which alternated with Charlie’s own storyline. Many readers feel that this book is the strongest let down in the entire series, however, many also found a few likable characters in Rita, whom they hope to see once again in a new book if he chooses to write another one. Considering that the third book in the series was published in 2000, we shall see if this series becomes, after all, a trilogy.

Reading the Alex Abella books in order for his Charlie Morell series is recommended, as we get several glimpses into the character and history of Charlie. Also, he does evolve and develop from story to story, becoming a PI, defense attorney, and book author.

The Great American, the author’s first non-series book (and the second book written) was published in 1997. It describes the real-life escapades of William Morgan, a U.S. Marine who was in Cuba fighting with Fidel Castro. Soldiers of Reason is another non-fiction book, focusing on RAND Corporation for several decades, starting from the onset of WWII throughout the last half century.

Alex Abella Awards and Nominations

The Killing of the Saints, the author’s debut novel became a New York Times Notable Book in 1991, the year it was published.

The author was nominated for an Emmy Award for “Best Breaking News Story” at KTVU-TV (Fox 2  news reports from around the Bay Area)