Garry Ryan Books in Order - Complete List

Garry Ryan is a Canadian author best known for his Detective Lane mystery series which includes 11 books, and his Blackbirds historical fiction series, which includes 3 books. Here are the Garry Ryan books in order for his two series: a detective series and a historical fiction series.

Detective Lane Books in Publication Order

Queen’s Park, 2004
The Lucky Elephant Restaurant, 2006
A Hummingbird Dance, 2008
Smoked, 2010
Malabarista, 2011
Foxed, 2013
Glycerine, 2014
Indiana Pulcinella, 2016
Matanzas, 2017
Sea of Cortez, 2017
Catrinas, 2020

Blackbirds Books in Publication Order

Blackbirds, 2012
Two Blackbirds, 2013
Three Blackbirds, 2023

Standalone Novels

Corporation’s First Annual Sausage Festival, 2018

Detective Lane Books Overview

Queen’s Park

Detective Lane has a knack for discovering the whereabouts of missing persons. But the city’s latest case has disappeared without a trace. After a brutal attack on his young nephew, ex-mayor Bob Swatsky has gone missing with 13 million dollars of taxpayer’s money.

Is he on the run with the cash, or is it something more sinister? A zany cast of characters, including a love doll and a chain-smoking grandma with an oxygen tank, lead Detective Lane on a thrilling romp through the streets of Calgary. The chase is on, and alone, Lane must uncover the truth before someone ends up visiting Queen’s Park cemetery… permanently.

The Lucky Elephant Restaurant

When the young daughter of popular radio talk show host Bobbie Reddie disappears along with Bobbie’s ex-husband, Detectives Lane and Harper are on the case. Haunted by flashbacks from a previous missing child case, Lane once again takes to the streets of Calgary looking for answers.

Meanwhile, university student Jay Krocker befriends the mysterious Lucky Elephant Restaurant owner Lam Tran, known to many as Uncle Tran. As Jay and Uncle Tran become mixed up in the missing child case, their intentions baffle the detectives—are they there to help or hinder?

As the pressure mounts for Lane and Harper to swiftly close the case, Lane’s private life becomes threatened. The two detectives are running out of time and must untangle the many lies surrounding this bizarre investigation before another child disappears.

A Hummingbird Dance

Detectives Lane and Harper are back for the third Detective Lane Mystery in this gripping twister of a novel that baffles with its ever-increasing body count and suspect list.

When Ryan Dudley ventures out on horseback and his horse returns without him, Lane and Harper are summoned to unravel the mystery. Dudley’s disappearance marks the first anniversary of a young boy’s murder in the same neighbourhood, and mounting evidence ties the two incidents together. When Dudley’s roommate also goes missing and mysterious shootings shake the area, Harper and Lane are swept into a feud between neighbours, racial groups, and land owners. Now they must risk their own lives while desperately searching for a murderer on the loose for much too long.

Smoked

Detective Lane returns for a fourth time in Smoked, Garry Ryan’s darkest mystery to date.

When Jennifer Towers is found dead in a graffiti-tagged dumpster, Detectives Lane and Harper must decipher the art to find its artist – and possibly the victim’s killer. What begins as an unconventional murder investigation leads to the disturbing discovery of two abused children, whose father becomes a prime suspect in the case. In true Detective Lane form, Lane must protect the damaged youths while keeping his own family in tact. With a surprising shift in tone, Smoked highlights the Detective Lane mystery series as one that reminds us of this generation’s obligation to the children in its care.

Malabarista

Garry Ryan follows up Smoked with his most revelatory Detective Lane adventure yet. Under investigation by the Calgary Police Department, Lane finds himself fighting for his career.

Then, when an Eastern European war criminal winds up dead in the city, and his partner Arthur is diagnosed with cancer, Lane must contend with dangerous criminals, broken allegiances, pressure from his superiors, a determined bomber, and the very real fear of losing the person he cares for most of all.

Foxed

After
a long series of professional and personal upheavals, Detective Lane begins his latest adventure happy, at peace, and enjoying life with his partner Arthur, their children Christine and Matt, and his able new co-worker, RCMP officer
Keely Saliba.

But when the body of a young boy is unearthed ten years after he was reported missing, Lane’s investigation into the crime puts him in conflict with a powerful and charismatic Calgary real estate developer and restaurateur—a cunning sociopath whose desire to suppress any threat to his empire will endanger the safety of Lane’s own family.

Glycerine

Indiana Pulcinella

After saving the Calgary Stampede from a potential terror attack in Glycerine, Detectives Lane and Li find themselves on the hunt yet again, this time following a pair of gruesome killers whose perfectly composed crime scenes match those of an inmate put away by Calgary Police years earlier. As more people come into the line of fire, Lane must team up with some unlikely new allies in order to crack the case.

Meanwhile, with the birth of a new nephew, the happily chaotic Lane household must deal with the taciturn detective’s estranged, fundamentalist family and their efforts to interfere in raising the child.

Matanzas

His psyche still reeling from having to kill a criminal in the line of duty, Calgary’s Detective Lane flies to Cuba to celebrate the wedding of his beloved niece. While there, though, he finds himself drafted by the local police into investigating the murder of a Canadian tourist.

Upon his return to Calgary, links between this incident and the deaths of local elderly pensioners start to make themselves known, drawing Lane and his partner Nigel Li further into a web of conspiracy, politics and big money.

Garry Ryan’s award-winning, best-selling mystery series continues with all the intrigue, good humour and mochaccinos that fans have come to expect.

Sea of Cortez

After a series of assassinations rocks Calgary’s underworld, Detective Lane is conscripted along with his husband Arthur into working undercover to seek out links in the Mexico – Canada drug connection and stop the violence.

As tensions mount back in Canada and outright war on the streets seems imminent, the laconic detective and his allies must use some unorthodox tactics to avert disaster in the Gulf of California and dismantle the cartel.

Catrinas

Detective Lauren Jackson takes the lead in this novel. She uncovers a hired killer’s link to North American Untouchables. Jackson and Lane join forces with a group of compatriots in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur. All are targeted by a shadowy terrorist group and their lethal super-rich employers.

Complications arise with an unexpected arrival, followed by the governments of Mexico, the US, and Canada demanding answers from a revolutionary group called the Catrinas. Jackson and Lane are ordered home not knowing if they will be greeted as heroes or vilified as the greatest thieves in history.

Garry Ryan Biography – About the Author

Garry Ryan Books in Order – Complete List

Garry Ryan was born in Calgary, Alberta, where he grew up and still lives. He attended the University of Calgary from where he received a B.Ed and a Diploma in Educational Psychology. A Calgary native, he worked for over thirty years as a teacher at the local public schools, following which he retired from teaching in 2009.

He began his writing career in 2004 when he released his debut novel, Queen’s Park, the first book in the Detective Lane mystery series. It currently includes 11 books, with the latest, Catrinas, released in 2020. In 2012 he started a second series called Blackbirds, which departed from his former subject of crime mystery and moved into historical fiction.

Detective Lane is a so-called urban hunter, a person who tracks down killers in Calgary. The author wrote Detective Lane as gay, although himself is a heterosexual, after witnessing the the bullying and severe discrimination of two of his students after they came out of the closet.

The Blackbirds series features Sharon Lacey, a female aviator who was serving in the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II.

Garry Ryan Awards and Nominations

The Lucky Elephant Restaurant won a Lambda Literary Award in the Gay Mystery category at the 19th Lambda Literary Awards in 2007
Garry Ryan was awarded Calgary’s Freedom of Expression Award in 2009
Smoked was nominated at the 23rd Lambda Literary Awards in 2011
Malabarista was nominated at the 24th Lambda Literary Awards in 2012
Foxed was nominated at the 26th Lambda Literary Awards in 2014