Dismal, Florida#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Black and White |
2019 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| See You |
2014 |
Buy |
Still Waters Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Dead Reckoning |
2017 |
Buy |
| Dead Center |
2018 |
Buy |
| Dead and Gone |
2019 |
Buy |
The Forgotten Coast Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Low Tide |
2015 |
Buy |
| Riptide |
2015 |
Buy |
| What Washes Up |
2015 |
Buy |
| Landfall |
2015 |
Buy |
| Dead Wake |
2015 |
Buy |
| Awash |
2016 |
Buy |
| Apparent Wind |
2017 |
Buy |
| Lake Morality |
2018 |
Buy |
| Squall Line |
2018 |
Buy |
| Overboard |
2018 |
Buy |
| Ebb Tide |
2019 |
Buy |
| Back of the Bayou |
2019 |
Buy |
Dawn Lee McKenna writes crime fiction rooted in a very specific corner of Florida. Her longest series, The Forgotten Coast, is set in Apalachicola — a small Gulf Coast town known more for oysters than homicides. The twelve books follow Lieutenant Maggie Redmond as she handles cases that disturb the town’s quiet surface, starting with Low Tide in 2015.
McKenna also wrote the Still Waters trilogy and the standalone Black and White (under her Dismal, Florida label), plus an earlier novel called See You. Her work stays grounded in the Southern coastal setting, and readers come to her books as much for the sense of place as for the mysteries. The Forgotten Coast series wrapped in 2019, giving the full run a defined beginning and end across seventeen books total.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Dawn Lee McKenna written?
Dawn Lee McKenna has written seventeen books across four series.
What was Dawn Lee McKenna's first book?
Dawn Lee McKenna’s first book is See You, published in 2014.
What makes Dawn Lee McKenna's Florida setting distinctive?
McKenna sets her books in Apalachicola, a real small town on Florida’s Gulf Coast known for its oyster industry and slow pace of life. The town’s isolation, tight-knit community, and proximity to the water shape every story — crimes ripple through a place where everyone knows each other, and the Florida panhandle’s landscape of bayous, barrier islands, and fishing docks becomes a character in its own right.