Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Styx & Stone | 2013 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
| 2 | No Stone Unturned | 2014 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
| 3 | Stone Cold Dead | 2015 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
| 4 | Heart of Stone | 2016 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
| 5 | Cast the First Stone | 2017 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
| 6 | A Stone’s Throw | 2018 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
| 7 | Turn to Stone | 2020 | James W. Ziskin | Buy |
The Ellie Stone Mysteries by James W. Ziskin follow a young female newspaper reporter in 1960s upstate New York. Ellie Stone works for a small-town daily paper and has a knack for getting involved in murder investigations. The series is set in the fictional town of New Holland, and Ziskin uses the 1960s setting to explore the social constraints Ellie faces as a young, unmarried, Jewish woman in a conservative era.
The series has won multiple awards, including the Anthony and Barry awards for Best Paperback Original and the Macavity Award for Best Historical Novel. Heart of Stone (2016) was nominated for an Edgar Award. Each title plays on the word “stone,” from Styx & Stone through Turn to Stone. The seventh book, Turn to Stone (2020), takes Ellie to Florence, Italy, where she investigates a death at a symposium on Renaissance art. Ziskin writes with close attention to period detail, from the social attitudes to the technology available to a reporter before the digital age.