Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strong Spirits | 2003 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 2 | Fine Spirits | 2003 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 3 | High Spirits | 2008 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 4 | Hungry Spirits | 2010 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 5 | Genteel Spirits | 2011 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 6 | Ancient Spirits | 2012 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 7 | Dark Spirits | 2014 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 8 | Spirits Revived | 2014 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 9 | Spirits Onstage | 2015 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 10 | Unsettled Spirits | 2015 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 11 | Bruised Spirits | 2016 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 12 | Spirits United | 2017 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 13 | Spirits Unearthed | 2018 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 14 | Shaken Spirits | 2019 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 15 | Scarlet Spirits | 2019 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 16 | Exercised Spirits | 2020 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 17 | Wedded Spirits | 2022 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 18 | Domesticated Spirits | 2023 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 19 | Library Spirits | 2024 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
| 20 | Spirits Adopted | 2025 | Alice Duncan | Buy |
The Daisy Gumm Majesty Mystery series is Alice Duncan’s longest and most sustained project, running from Strong Spirits (2003) to Spirits Adopted (2025). Daisy Majesty is a young widow living with her family in Pasadena, California, during the 1920s. She works as a fake spiritualist – conducting seances, doing card readings, and performing other forms of theatrical divination for wealthy clients – and uses the income to support her family during the economically uncertain years following World War I.
The 1920s Pasadena setting is one of the series’ great strengths. Duncan renders the period with consistent attention to historical detail: the social hierarchies, the class tensions, the role of women, and the specific geography and culture of Southern California in this era. Daisy is a likeable and resourceful protagonist, aware of the irony of her profession but committed to it as a means of survival.
The series has expanded well beyond its initial concept, with twenty books covering Daisy’s investigations across a range of Pasadena settings and social circles. Strong Spirits is the essential starting point, and the series rewards reading in order as Daisy’s personal relationships develop across the books.