Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Close to the Bone | 2018 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 2 | A Bone to Pick | 2018 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 3 | Whisper of Bones | 2019 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 4 | Bred in the Bone | 2019 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 5 | Below the Bones | 2020 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 6 | A Broken Bone | 2020 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 7 | Buried Bones | 2021 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 8 | The Lost Bones | 2021 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 9 | The Wrong Bones | 2022 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
| 10 | Bone Deep | 2022 | Melinda Leigh | Buy |
The Widow’s Island series is a ten-novella collaboration between Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot, set on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest where chaotic tides and geographic isolation create a natural backdrop for crime fiction. The series follows two childhood friends: Deputy Tessa Black, written by Leigh, and FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde, written by Elliot. When Cate returns to the island, the two women reconnect and start solving local murders while also investigating the decades-old disappearance of their friend Samantha.
What started as a planned four-novella set grew into ten installments because of reader demand. Each entry contains a self-contained mystery, but the underlying question of what happened to Samantha runs through the entire series and builds toward a resolution in the later books. Close to the Bone opens the series in 2018, and Bone Deep closes it in 2022. The alternating perspectives give the series a distinctive rhythm, and the island setting provides a claustrophobic atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and secrets are hard to keep.