Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Blake Pierce Mystery Bundle: Cause to Kill / Once Gone / Before He Kills / Trace of Death

Rate this book
A six book mystery bundle by #1 bestselling author Blake Pierce, author of ONCE GONE, a #1 bestseller on Amazon with over 1,000 five star reviews!

Here is a bundle of the first books in six Blake Pierce series—The Mackenzie White, The Avery Black, The Riley Paige, The Keri Locke series, The Making of Riley Paige, and The Chloe Fine Psychological Suspense series—all here in one convenient place. This bundle offers a great introduction to Blake Pierce’s series with over 300,000 words of reading.

In BEFORE HE KILLS, a woman is found murdered in the cornfields of Nebraska, strung up on a pole, the victim of a deranged killer. It doesn’t take long for the police to realize a serial killer is on the loose—and that his spree has just begun. Detective Mackenzie White, young, tough, smarter than the aging, chauvinistic men on her local force, finds herself called in grudgingly to help solve it. As much as the other officers hate to admit it, they need her young, brilliant mind, which has already helped crack cold cases that had left them stumped. Yet even for Mackenzie this new case proves an impossible riddle, something the likes of which she—and the local force—have ever seen.

In CAUSE TO KILL, Homicide Detective Avery Black has been through hell. Once a top criminal defense attorney, she fell from grace when she managed to get a brilliant Harvard professor off—only to watch him kill again. She lost her husband and her daughter, and her life fell apart around her. Trying to redeem herself, Avery has turned to the other side of the law. Working her way up the ranks, she has reached Homicide Detective, to the scorn of her fellow officers, who still remember what she did, and who will always hate her. Yet even they cannot deny Avery’s brilliant mind, and when a disturbing serial killer strikes fear into the heart of Boston, killing girls from elite colleges, it is Avery that they turn to.

In ONCE GONE, women are turning up dead in the rural outskirts of Virginia, killed in grotesque ways, and when the FBI is called in, they are stumped. A serial killer is out there, his frequency increasing, and they know there is only one agent good enough to crack this Special Agent Riley Paige. Riley is on paid leave herself, recovering from her encounter with her last serial killer, and, fragile as she is, the FBI is reluctant to tap her brilliant mind. Yet Riley, needing to battle her own demons, comes on board, and her hunt leads her through the disturbing subculture of doll collectors, into the homes of broken families, and into the darkest canals of the killer’s mind. As Riley peels back the layers, she realizes she is up against a killer more twisted than she could have imagined.

In A TRACE OF DEATH, Keri Locke, Missing Persons Detective in the Homicide division of the LAPD, remains haunted by the abduction of her own daughter, years before, never found. Still obsessed with finding her, Keri buries her grief the only way she knows by throwing herself into the cases of missing persons in Los Angeles. A routine phone call from a worried mother of a high-schooler, only two hours missing, should be ignored. Yet something about the mother’s voice strikes a chord, and Keri decides to investigate. What she finds shocks her.

In WATCHING, 22 year old psychology major—and aspiring FBI agent—Riley Paige finds herself in a battle for her life as her closest friends on campus are abducted and killed by a serial killer. She senses that she, too, is being targeted—and that if she is to survive, she must apply her brilliant mind to stop the killer herself.

In NEXT DOOR, FBI Evidence Response Team intern Chloe Fine, 27, finds herself forced to confront her own dark past when her troubled twin sister needs her help—and when a body turns up dead in her small, suburban town.

1284 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2016

4118 people are currently reading
2577 people want to read

About the author

Blake Pierce

724 books5,825 followers
Blake Pierce is author of the bestselling RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes seven books (and counting). Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising four books (and counting); of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising four books (and counting); and of the new KERI LOCKE mystery series.

An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Blake loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.blakepierceauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1,759 (55%)
4 stars
955 (30%)
3 stars
344 (10%)
2 stars
70 (2%)
1 star
41 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
358 reviews3 followers
August 30, 2020
Bundled.

From a prolific writer of thrillers we have a collection of debut stories for different detectives, some police, some FBI. A

The detectives are young, female, all with traumatic histories and massive chips on their shoulders. Collective message? Men, nearly all men, are not be trusted, plus nearly all of said men are jealous of young, upwardly mobile women who are streets smarter than they are. The books are set in different parts of the United States of America. The writing is pedestrian, nearly all the victims are female, the killers...ah, yes, you got it. Those men again. We start with Cause to Kill and Avery Black. Ex hot shot defence lawyer haunted by killer she got off who was guilty. Redeeming herself. As if. Own worst enemy, cold, self absorbed. Wouldn't want her as a partner. Solved case but no real change in her at end. Still thinks she is the great "I am."
On to Before he Kills and Mackenzie White. Novice cop in Nebraska. Thinks all men are against her. Why? Because she is smart , female and better than them. Investigating murders of strippers, whipped, tied to poles in vaguely crucified manner. Religious theme. Despite male opposition our Mackenzie solves case. Of course she does.
Then we have Once Gone and Riley Paige, FUN agent traumatized by her past (again? Do no non traumatized women join law enforcement?). Killer fixated by dolls and poses female victims (again) as if they were dolls. Solved.
We meet Keri Locke, Missing Persons detective. Traumatized (oh, dear, are you seeing a pattern here?) by unsolved kidnapping of own child years previously. However at least Keri does not harangue-make chip on shoulder. That came as a welcome relief. Case to solve? Kidnapped teenager of wealthy parents. This was the most interesting book because part of it is seen through victim's eyes and she is no pushover. I liked her, worried about her fate. This was easily the most thrilling and I was rooting for the detective because others wanted to dismiss case as spoiled runaway.
On to Watching and Riley Paige, future F B I agent met at college. Students (female) murdered. Riley also traumatized by murder of mother when child. Riley is marginally interesting alt things though prone to stupidity (when do people realise they should not lone wolf things when chasing murderer? However, good news is she survived and meets possible husband.
Finally, oh, thank goodness, finally we come to Chloe Fine, Trainee F B I agent. traumatized? Check. Mother killed when child? Check. Back she goes with fiancee, a jerk of the first water (you just know he won't stay the course) to her childhood town. Meets women who knew her dead mother. Reconnected with twin (badly traumatized - is that any other kind of woman?) sister. Boyfriend of sister is killed and she looks in the frame. No problemo, our Chloe sorts it all out. P
Overall impression? I was bored with so many women pretending to be ever do tough versions of Dirty Harry in a skirt and no, they did not 'Make my day'. The accompanying blurb speaks of 'beloved new characters'. Well, I for one am not going to be following their later adventures. I am glad I managed to wade through the pedestrian writing for a few specks of good and if you ask why I kept on with them...well, I am a lifelong dedicated reader of books and I like to finish what I start out of respect for the writer. Just in case there are any misconceptions, I too am female.
28 reviews
October 18, 2020
I really enjoyed the first series I read, so I bought this one. I found that the plots were formulaic and fairly predictable. There is one thing that really bothered me in all of the books... the author needs to learn how to diagram a sentence. Whenever a sentence included a something like “Mary went to the store with...” the author would write “Chloe and I.” The correct grammar is Chloe and ME. One uses the objective case after a preposition (with). You would not say with I. I was surprised to find this repeatedly, as he had an easy, otherwise well-written style.
18 reviews
May 30, 2019
I had already read one of the books before I found this awesome bundle deal which gave me a taste of the different series and main characters. The only one that I didn't really care for was the Kerri Locke series. She was just so rogue and broke procedure time after time it got unbelievable and annoying. Really loved the other three main characters of their respective series and definitely look forward to reading more of them.
Profile Image for Hayley.
78 reviews5 followers
April 21, 2017
Brilliant

Absolutely brilliant bundle by Blake Pierce. Fantastic storylines and characters. Haven't been able to put the set down since I started! I would happily highly recommend!
89 reviews3 followers
December 2, 2018
Collected stories; bundled

Anytime I can find an author's first of a series, collected under a single search string, that's a good read. Blake Pierce is a good story teller and Sallie (USA) lends a good voice (Text to Speech)
Profile Image for DJ.
784 reviews
July 24, 2020
Don't read alone or in the dark

Have you ever been so swept away by a book that you find yourself yelling at the characters , almost like you are there in the cornor of the scene and they can really here you? That is just how I felt when I read this bundle of Blake Pierce mysteries. With each novel, I was drawn into the world of his characters and their lives! So much so that when my dogs started barking late at night, I jumped and ran to make sure my home alarms were set. Yes, do not read these if you are alone late at night ! You may not sleep and find yourself jumping at things that go bump in the night. Now I think I have to go read some happily ever after romance to get my mind off the twisted way some criminal minds work! Excellent strong female characters who don't give up even in the most hopeless situations.Very realistic situations and amazing perception into the human mind! Well Done, Blake Pierce. I look forward to reading other books in each of the series!
Profile Image for Peggy Chan.
Author 97 books17 followers
August 28, 2021
Gripping stories of suspense & action

Each book in this collection features a different woman agent/homicide detective & the author is very good in bringing alive these women sleuths & how their sharp minds function as they unravel the baffling homicide cases. He builds up the suspense that keeps me hooked until the end when the perpetrator/serial killer is apprehended. All books are good reads which have me looking forward to reading more of this author's books.
Profile Image for Judy W.
1,258 reviews2 followers
October 26, 2024
Heads Up. This author appears to be a an alias for either a collective of other authors, AI storytelling or ghost written. See the article about the rabbit hole that a librarian and book website founder went down trying to track this person down. The website article is on SmartBitches.com. These are digital only available titles. Why? Why do they feel the need to gaslight readers this way? Nobody writes over 200 books in 5 years.
5 reviews
June 6, 2017
Plot interesting

I would recommend if you are able to get over errors. Best description is that you're reading their rough draft/first draft of all pieces put together. So, I'd say read it if that's okay with you. So far I've noticed it's always a female with a daughter and irritated ex husband due to them having a crime solving job.
729 reviews7 followers
October 27, 2017
OMG! FANTASTIC!

This is the best collection of firsts that I've ever read. Not only did I find each nd every one riveting but I couldn't keep from reading every book in the first two series in this book. I definitely recommend this book and all the others to anyone who enjoys this type of book.
1,955 reviews9 followers
January 17, 2018
The truth is out there

What an awesome boxset never a dull moment. Love strong woman characters, they never gave up looking for the truth even when everyone didn't believe them and they found the answers when others gave up. Took me a couple of days to read but it was so worth it. Give it a read the stories just suck you in. A good solid set.
Profile Image for Peggy.
81 reviews
July 23, 2018
Female Detective with a Mind of Her Own

Five stars because it's an easy read, great cast of characters, plot easy to follow and ended well. I've read tons of murder mystery, kidnapping, police, detective type books and series, and for me, it's not necessary that they be radically different, but they need to be believable! I look forward to reading the rest of the series!
38 reviews
July 15, 2019
Starter pack for Blake Pierce novels

A good collection of first books of several series. Good characterization, good plots with the odd twist. Need to get a better proof reader for the last couple of books. (Wrong names and repeated lines but not enough to spoil the read) would be a good holiday collection
2 reviews
September 7, 2019
Easy read, good holiday book.

Thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of this book. The characters are interesting but you only get a sense of the surface of their personality. This book would have achieved a higher rating from me if the main characters had more depth and the plot was more meaty. A good holiday read
, not too difficult to pick up and put down
283 reviews
July 2, 2020
Really enjoyed these stories despite them all having a theme related to women solving crimes, it actually made a change. Each book was easy to read but had plenty of content to keep the pages turning and me looking forward to reading the next chapter. I would happily read more of these series at a later date so would obviously recommend them to fellow readers.
2 reviews
May 29, 2022
Great reads!

Good stories & characters! A better proof reader would help catch missing words, duplicated words, references to the wrong character, etc. Still, I enjoyed every book & lead character in this collection. Great idea to combine a sampling of the different lead characters the author uses!
Profile Image for Klare.
793 reviews3 followers
April 1, 2024
Before He Kills ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cause to Kill - An okay read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Once Gone - Good start to the series, liked the characters. Happy to read more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Trace Of Death - Another ok start to the series. Would read another if I had it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Watching - Liked the characters, would read another in the series. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Next Door - Liked the characters and would read another in the series. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
32 reviews
July 23, 2017
Page turner

I had never heard of this author, before downloading this pack of four books for free. All the characters were believable with their individuals flaws and heart aches, as we're the individual plots. I would recommend Blake Pierce to anyone who likes a good thriller.
101 reviews1 follower
September 24, 2018
Mystery train

WOW. If it weren't for the word minimum that would be it. Fast paced edgy thrillers with flawed but determined and loveable characters. This compendium just begs you to keep reading
Profile Image for jacquelyn shimmel.
12 reviews
March 16, 2019
Excellent seried

This mystery bundle gives the reader a taste of each female lead in the series. Based on what I read, I would highly recommend reading all of his books. He is a master of suspense!
20 reviews
August 10, 2019
Enjoyable reading

The title says it all. Blake surpasses Patricia Cornwall books. I recommend his books to anyone who likes mystery books. Thanks Blake for so many hours of entertainment.
Profile Image for Barbara Andrews.
322 reviews4 followers
August 18, 2019
Best mystery ever

I finished these books and want to read more. Found these 1st books of 6 different series to be riveting. They each where very unique to the series for which they were apart of.
334 reviews3 followers
September 10, 2019
Individually these stories are all great reads, and having them all together is a real bonus! There are great sets of characters and plenty of heart-pounding excitement as agents at the start of their respective careers unravel clues and chase down the bad guys.
Profile Image for Sharon Wood.
34 reviews3 followers
January 30, 2020
On the average of all six in the bundle a couple books I would give four (4) stars.
The last book was the one that had me on the edge of my seat, did Chloe really think her sister Danielle was guilty of murder?
69 reviews
February 2, 2020
Mystery, intriguing

The passages in these books were stimulating, exhilarating, captivating & definitely an epic page turner!! I look forward to reading many more books by Blake Pierce
261 reviews1 follower
February 28, 2020
Mysteries

Chloe, Keri and others. Unfortunately I had already read or listen too 2 or 3 of the books in this bundle. The making of the detectives and what brought them to be or become the great detective or profiler was interesting.
Profile Image for Brandon Iskandar.
14 reviews2 followers
April 15, 2020
Listened to "A cause to Kill". Despite the annoyance of a one-woman voice over for all the characters, what a story. So thrilling, bone chillingly, realistically terrifying. And I loved the ending, it wasn't no scooby-doo you meddling kids ending, it was satisfying and unpredictable!
1 review
October 14, 2020
I love anything Blake Pierce writes. He has accomplished on the first page of his mysteries to hold your immediate attention. Once I begin one of his stories, that’s it, because until I finish I do not put it down. I recommend any novel Blake Pierce writes, you will be an instant fan.
17 reviews1 follower
February 9, 2022
Loved this group of books!

Loved each and every one of these books and will continue to read more in each of the series. Loved the protagonist in each book am glad I decided to read this bundle.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.