Joel Goldman Books In Order

Joel Goldman (website) is an American thriller author with 3 main series written to date, each of them a success in its own right: the Lou Mason series, the Jack Davis series and the Alex Stone series.

Before writing his first book, Joel Goldman was a successful trial attorney who once made a joke to a colleague who complained to him about another annoying fellow attorney. What if they wrote a book where they’d kill off the guy in the first chapter and spend the rest of the chapters trying to find the killer.

And as some joked are destined to do, this particular one opened a new path in his life, one which was further chosen by necessity due to a serious illness he first experienced the symptoms of in 2004 called tics (similar to the Tourette’s Syndrome). This illness effectively stopped his career as a lawyer almost 2 years later in its tracks. To that day he has been a trial lawyer for 28 years.

Without his day job, his next choice was to turn his writing hobby into a full-time career, with over time became a successful one due to more than 10 internationally acclaimed thrillers written to date.

The latest book by the author is All In, the first in a new series which I hope to see developed very soon. The book is co-authored with author Lisa Klink.

The first book Joel Goldman wrote was Motion to Kill, which also became the first in the Lou Mason thriller series. He wrote the book in 992 and it got published 10 years later, in 2002. This followed additional 4 books in the series, two of which were nominated for the Edgar and Shamus awards.

His books draw from his previous profession as a trial attorney, with main characters which are somehow involved in the law business.

Here are all the Joel Goldman books in order of publication, with the reading order in brackets.

Lou Mason Thriller Series In Order

Lou Mason is a Kansas City trial attorney

1. Motion to Kill (Lou Mason #1), 2002

2. The Last Witness (Lou Mason #2), 2003

3. Cold Truth (Lou Mason #4), 2004

4. Deadlocked (Lou Mason #5), 2005

5. Final Judgment (Lou Mason #5), 2012

Jack Davis Thrillers Series In Order

Jack Davis is an FBI agent (later former FBI agent) in Kansas City which has the Tick disorder, just as the author

1. Shake Down (Jack Davis #1), 2008

2. The Dead Man (Jack Davis #2), 2009

3. No Way Out (Jack Davis #3), 2010

Alex Stone Thriller Series In Order

Alex Stone is a public defender

1. Knife Fight (Alex Stone #0.5), 2009

2. Stone Cold (Alex Stone #1), 2012

3. Chasing The Dead (Alex Stone #2), 2013

Other Books By Joel Goldman

Freaks Must Die, 2012 (novella, part of the Dead Man horror series written by various authors including Lee Goldberg, James Daniels, and Barry Napier)