Allie Beckstrom books in order

In a version of Portland where magic runs through underground pipes like utilities, Allie Beckstrom is one of the few who can trace a spell back to whoever cast it — which makes her very useful to law enforcement and very dangerous to the city's criminal underworld. Every use of her gift costs Allie pieces of her health and memory, raising the stakes with every case she takes.

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 Magic to the Bone 2008 Devon Monk Buy
2 Magic in the Blood 2009 Devon Monk Buy
3 Magic in the Shadows 2009 Devon Monk Buy
4 Magic on the Storm 2010 Devon Monk Buy
5 Magic at the Gate 2010 Devon Monk Buy
6 Magic at the Gate (Allie Beckstrom, #5) 2010 Devon Monk N/A
7 Magic on the Hunt (Allie Beckstrom, #6) 2011 Devon Monk N/A
8 Magic on the Hunt 2011 Devon Monk Buy
9 Magic on the Line 2011 Devon Monk Buy
10 Magic Without Mercy 2012 Devon Monk Buy
11 Magic For A Price 2012 Devon Monk Buy

The Allie Beckstrom series opens in a Portland where magic is infrastructure — networked underground like the water system and theoretically accessible to anyone. Devon Monk built the setting around a single rigorous rule: casting always costs something. That cost drives the series. Allie Beckstrom is a Hound, a tracker who uses her ability to follow magic back to its source, and the first novel, Magic to the Bone (2008), establishes her professional world and its dangers before the larger arc of the series begins to emerge.

The nine novels that follow develop the mythology of the Authority — the secretive organization that polices magic use — alongside Allie’s personal history with a father whose own relationship to magic power has shaped her life. The series runs dark and moves fast, with Monk’s Portland feeling genuinely built-out as a city where the everyday and the supernatural overlap at every level. The magic cost system keeps the stakes real even when the threats escalate to world-ending scale.

The Allie Beckstrom world also includes the Shame and Terric spin-off and the Broken Magic trilogy, which follow secondary characters from the main series into their own storylines.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Allie Beckstrom series?

There are eleven books in the Allie Beckstrom series, published between 2008 and 2012.

What is the first book in the Allie Beckstrom series?

The first book in the Allie Beckstrom series is Magic to the Bone, published in 2008.

What is the magic system in Allie Beckstrom?

Portland’s underground pipes carry magic the way other cities carry water, and anyone can draw on it. The catch is that every spell exacts a price from the caster — physical pain, lost memories, or accelerated deterioration. Allie works as a Hound, a specialist who can follow a spell back through the pipes to identify who cast it. Her gift makes her valuable to the Magic Enforcement division of the Portland PD, but the same ability also draws attention from the shadow organization called the Authority that quietly governs the city’s magic users.

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