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Isabella Maldonado books in order

Isabella Maldonado is a former American law enforcement officer and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of mystery, suspense and thriller.

A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, she was the first Latina to achieve the rank of captain in the Fairfax County Police Department located just outside of Washington, D.C; retiring as the Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics.

By the time she made the decision to switch from crime fighting to crime writing, Isabella had amassed over two decades on the force, having handled several assignments, including hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, and precinct commander.

Best known for writing the award-winning Detective Veranda Cruz series, and the FBI Agent Daniela Vega series, her books have been translated into 22 languages, selling multiple copies.

As of this writing, plans are underway to adapt her Nina Guerrera Series into a Netflix feature film starring Jennifer Lopez.

More about Isabella Maldonado

Genres: Crime Suspense, Mystery, Thriller

Born: 1965

United States

Website: https://isabellamaldonado.com/

Daniela Vega

  1. A Killer's Game (2023)

Nina Guerrera

  1. The Cipher (2020)
  2. A Different Dawn (2021)
  3. The Falcon (2022)

Veranda Cruz Mystery

  1. Blood's Echo (2017)
  2. Phoenix Burning (2018)
  3. Death Blow (2019)
Daniela Vega

Detailed book overview

Daniela Vega

A Killer's Game

An FBI agent with a background in cryptography. A brilliant game maker bent on revenge. A deadly battle of wits and wills.

FBI agent and former military codebreaker Daniela “Dani” Vega witnesses a murder on a Manhattan sidewalk. The victim is chief of staff for a powerful New York senator. The assassin turned informant is Gustavo Toro. His code: hit the target and don’t ask questions. When Dani suspects a complex conspiracy, the only way to take down the mastermind is from the inside, forcing her to partner with Toro. Together they must infiltrate the inner circle at a remote facility.

Except it’s a trap. For all of them.

Locked in a subterranean labyrinth and held captive by an unseen host, Dani, Toro, and others must fight for their lives. Now Dani must stay undercover, unravel a bizarre conspiracy, and survive lethal puzzles. But will Toro be friend or foe? Because in this killer’s game, everything is real: the paranoia, the desperation, and the body count. And only one person can make it out alive.

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2023
ISBN: 978-1662507830
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Nina Guerrera

The Cipher

To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now…

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.

His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar―an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”―but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1542022477
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
A Different Dawn

For nearly thirty years a serial killer has been hiding in plain sight. So has the key to an FBI agent’s dark past.

A family is murdered as they sleep. FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera and her new team are tasked with determining whether there is any link between this attack and another triple homicide from four years earlier and more than two thousand miles away. 

In the process, they’ll discover a serial killer so cunning that his grisly trail of death spanning nearly three decades has gone undetected. Each crime scene reminds Nina of the ghostly Latin folktale of La Llorona, which terrified her when she was an abandoned and vulnerable child. Now it’s back to haunt her.

Nina has known evil, but these macabre reenactments are as disturbing as they are baffling. Now she must uncover the meaning behind the rituals as the evidence leads her in an unexpected direction―far closer to home than anyone could have imagined. As the team narrows in on a suspect, the present collides with Nina’s past in a twist of fate that forces her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-1542022781
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
The Falcon

A serial killer wants to play. FBI Agent Nina Guerrera has no time for games.

Six female undergrads at an elite university vanish. The media descends. The families demand action. And as Special Agent Nina Guerrera follows clue by chilling clue, she realizes she’s tracking the most cunning predator of her career.

The case takes a turn for the worse, and the bizarre, when several victims are found perfectly preserved. No signs of violence, no hint of how they died. Just more evidence that the killer is cruel, calculating, and a master of mind control.

With her mission compromised, Nina must face her greatest failure―and greatest fear―to stop a deadly hunter before he claims another prize.

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2022
ISBN: 978-1542035620
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Veranda Cruz Mystery

Blood's Echo

Phoenix detective Veranda Cruz is dead set on taking down the Villalobos crime family, but the ruthlessness of her quarry demands a ruthless edge of her own.

No one in the department suspects the real motivation behind the obsession that pits her against Bartolo Villalobos, heir apparent to a powerful criminal empire...until an operation goes horribly wrong.

Targeted by an increasingly unstable foe, Veranda must protect her family and navigate adversaries within the force while she sets a trap for Bartolo. As the action heats up, Veranda and her new Homicide team—along with an arson investigator who kindles a flame of his own—are all drawn into a deadly gambit.

Taking down Bartolo is the ultimate goal, but is Veranda ready to trade her life for justice?

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1736720004
Publisher: Bright Diamond
Phoenix Burning

Phoenix detective Veranda Cruz has vowed to bring the Villalobos crime family to justice, but when a wave of violence in the city escalates, she is forced to confront her darkest fear.

Adolfo Villalobos is a crime boss who's determined to stake his claim. To prove that he's ready to run his family's sprawling criminal empire, he devises a plan to silence his siblings and destroy Veranda, leaving a trail of destruction through downtown Phoenix that makes national headlines.

Veranda believes the task force she's been assigned to lead will end Adolfo's reign of terror, until his revenge takes a cruel-and highly personal-twist.

The cunning scheme devastates Veranda, who struggles with secrets from her past that may end her career. And her life.

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1736720028
Publisher: Bright Diamond
Death Blow

Phoenix detective Veranda Cruz’s relentless pursuit of the Villalobos crime family pits her against its most ruthless member yet.

Beautiful, shrewd, and lethal, Daria Villalobos is on a mission. Determined to be the first woman to take the reins of her father's notorious organization, she hatches a plot to eliminate Veranda, framing a rival to take the fall.

Veranda Cruz is on a mission of her own. Intent on destroying the powerful Villalobos criminal empire, Veranda battles her department and her personal demons as she takes on Daria.

To survive the most cunning adversary she’s ever faced, will she make a pact with a killer?

Author: Isabella Maldonado
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1736720035
Publisher: Bright Diamond