What to Read After Dalton Savage
Dalton Savage’s cases bring people and landscape into the same investigation. Savage Grounds begins with a missing hiker in Colorado, a suspect whose history draws attention, and a search that takes the sheriff’s team into dangerous mountain terrain.
For a next read, you can follow the character connection, the local mystery, or the atmosphere of an investigation shaped by place. Rachel Hatch, Bear & Mandy Logan, and Avril Dahl each offer one of those routes, with different leads and different reasons for becoming involved.
Rachel Hatch: meet Savage through Hatch’s investigation
If you began with Dalton’s own series, Drift offers another way to meet him.
Rachel Hatch returns to her hometown after her sister’s death and questions the explanation she has been given. A former Army criminal investigator, she works with Sheriff Dalton Savage to uncover what happened.
This is a genuine character connection. It also changes the center of the story: Hatch’s family loss and investigative training drive the opening, while Dalton works with her on the case. Choose it when you want a familiar sheriff within a different lead character’s story.
Drift is the first numbered Rachel Hatch novel. Continue with Downburst, then follow Hatch’s main sequence. Her shorter stories are listed separately in the guide, so they do not shift the novel numbering.
Start with Drift by L.T. Ryan and Brian Shea.
Explore the Rachel Hatch reading guide.
Bear & Mandy Logan: a mystery on the doorstep
Close to Home begins in upstate New York, where Bear Logan and his adopted daughter, Mandy, are trying to settle down. Human remains discovered on their property make that fresh start more complicated.
Bear works with local sheriff Josephine McKinnon as the investigation reaches into a history the town has not put behind it. His experience and Mandy’s resourcefulness are part of a story built around their father-and-daughter relationship.
For Savage readers, the appeal is another mystery rooted in a community, where a discovery changes how people have to look at the place around them. The perspective moves outside the sheriff’s team and into the lives of the pair whose new home has become part of the case.
Choose this route for local secrets with family relationships sharing the focus. Close to Home is Book 1, followed by Under the Surface.
Start with Close to Home by L.T. Ryan and K.M. Rought.
Explore the Bear & Mandy Logan reading guide.
Avril Dahl: take the investigation into a Swedish winter
Cold Reckoning offers another crime series written by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce, this time centered on FBI agent Avril Dahl.
Avril returns to Sweden after years spent pursuing the serial killer responsible for her mother’s death. Instead of getting distance from that pursuit, she encounters signs that the killer is watching her. Her childhood home and the winter landscape become part of a deeply personal investigation.
Choose Avril if the setting is an important part of your enjoyment of Savage’s books. The change brings Scandinavian crime atmosphere and the psychological pressure of a case that has shaped the investigator’s own life.
Begin with Cold Reckoning and continue to Cold Legacy. Follow Avril’s own numbered route through the series guide.
Start with Cold Reckoning by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce.
Explore the Avril Dahl reading guide.
Three different reasons to begin
Read Drift for Savage’s established connection to Hatch. Choose Close to Home for a family-centered view of dangerous local secrets. Pick Cold Reckoning for another Ryan and Pearce collaboration with a strong sense of place and a personal serial-killer investigation.
To check your current place in Savage’s novels or the opening collection, visit the Dalton Savage reading guide.
