Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Koko | 1988 | Peter Straub | Buy |
| 2 | Mystery | 1990 | Peter Straub | Buy |
| 3 | The Throat | 1993 | Peter Straub | Buy |
| 4 | The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories | 2010 | Peter Straub | Buy |
The Blue Rose Trilogy grew out of Peter Straub’s interest in how the past refuses to stay buried. Koko opens with a group of Vietnam veterans at the Washington Memorial Wall, reuniting to investigate the killings of former unit members. The murders are marked by the words “Blue Rose,” a phrase that traces back to a hypnotist in their wartime past. The novel moves between present-day investigations and wartime flashbacks, building a picture of men shaped and damaged by what they witnessed.
Mystery and The Throat expand the mythology while shifting geography and focus. Mystery takes place on a fictional Caribbean island and introduces Tom Pasmore, a young man recovering from a near-fatal accident who becomes obsessed with an unsolved killing. The Throat brings the storylines together in the fictional city of Millhaven, pulling Pasmore and earlier characters into contact as the Blue Rose crimes resurface decades later. Across all three books, Straub is less interested in whodunit mechanics than in memory, guilt, and the way certain events leave marks on everyone they touch.
The 2010 companion volume The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories collects shorter fiction set in the same world, including pieces that illuminate corners of the trilogy’s mythology. Readers who have finished the main books will find them worthwhile, though the trilogy stands complete on its own.