Lou Mason Mystery Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Motion to Kill | 2002 | Buy |
| The Last Witness | 2003 | Buy |
| Cold Truth | 2004 | Buy |
| Deadlocked | 2005 | Buy |
| Final Judgment | 2012 | Buy |
The Lou Mason Mystery series features a Kansas City defense attorney who takes on cases that go well beyond routine legal work, pulling him into investigations where his clients’ lives and his own are at genuine risk. The five books span 2002 to 2012, with a seven-year gap between Deadlocked (2005) and the final entry Final Judgment (2012), suggesting the series was revived after a hiatus.
The Kansas City setting gives the books a specific regional identity that separates them from the New York and Washington legal thrillers that dominated the genre in the early 2000s. The city’s geography, politics, and social texture show up in the plots, and Mason’s practice is smaller and more precarious than the white-shoe firms that populate many legal thrillers, which keeps the stakes personal.
Readers who enjoy legal procedurals with a strong sense of place and a protagonist who bends the rules when the situation calls for it will find this series a satisfying run. Motion to Kill is the right starting point, introducing Mason and establishing the Kansas City world before the later books complicate both.