July 31, 2026Reading Order Guide

A Reading Order Guide To The Investigating The Wicked Saga, Three Ways To Start

How to read the Investigating the Wicked saga, three reading orders for three kinds of reader. Publication order, chronological order with the prequel, and the lowest-friction sample first.

Investigating The Wicked Reading Order

Investigating The Wicked Book Order

Kevin Gabeci Book Order

Kavel Investigator Series Order

Dark Fantasy Series

Reading Order Guide

Series fiction has a problem most authors do not name on the back cover. The reader who finds the second book first, or the spinoff before the original, or the prequel after the climax, often has a worse experience than the reader who walked the right path. The Investigating the Wicked saga has a free prequel novella, five published books, and three legitimate orders to read what currently exists. This post is the simple version of which order to choose, and why each one is correct for a different kind of reader. Three orders. Publication order, the safest bet for most readers. Chronological order, the right choice if you like the prequel-first ritual. Lowest-friction sample first, the right choice if you want to test the tone for free before committing a credit card. I will walk through each one, then briefly recap each book so you know what you are signing up for before you start.

What Investigating The Wicked Is, In One Paragraph

If you are new to the saga, the short version is this. Kavel is a veteran Investigator of the Wicked, one of the last members of an order that rose three hundred years ago to hold the line against monsters, dark magic, and curses across the dying world of Strohr. The order at its peak numbered in the hundreds. At the start of the saga, a dozen remain, maybe fewer. For years each loss read like accident or misfortune. It is not. A hidden conspiracy called the Conclave of the Dying Light has been picking off the Investigators for generations, slowly, patiently, with a plan. The series follows Kavel working cases across Strohr while the larger conspiracy assembles itself in the background, and then in the foreground, and then within reach of his blade. For more on the world and the order, the Investigating the Wicked series hub is the longer read.

Order One: Publication Order

The default. The order most readers choose without thinking about it, and the order that works for almost everyone.

The First Hunt (free prequel novella, optional)
Investigating the Wicked: Book 1
Investigating the Wicked: Book 2
Investigating the Wicked: Book 3
Investigating the Wicked: Book 4
Investigating the Wicked: Book 5

Why this works. Book 1 was written and published first, which means it is structured to land for a reader with no prior knowledge of Kavel, the order, or the Conclave. The book introduces the world through cases, drops the conspiracy in pieces across the arcs, and earns the Wallace Kingdom finale by the patient setup the rest of the book provides. Book 2 was written assuming Book 1 had been read. The reader knows who Kavel and Theron are. The reader knows the Conclave has been named. The reader is ready for the Investigators to go on offense, and Book 2 puts them on offense from the first arc. Books 3 through 5 continue in strict sequence, each one opening directly out of the previous book's ending, so once you are past Book 1 the order takes care of itself. Where the prequel fits. The First Hunt is set a year before the events of Book 1 and follows a sixteen-year-old Kavel on his first field case with his father Marrek. Reading it before Book 1 gives you Marrek alive. Reading it after Book 1 gives you Marrek's death first, and then Marrek alive in the prequel, which is a different and arguably harder reading experience. Both work. Most readers prefer the prequel-first ritual but the saga does not require it. This order is the right choice for the reader who wants to follow the writer's deliberate pacing, who likes the way new world details land in the order Book 1 introduces them, and who does not want to overthink the question.

Order Two: Chronological Order

For readers who like to read in the order events happen in the world, regardless of publication date.

The First Hunt (a year before Book 1)
Investigating the Wicked: Book 1
Investigating the Wicked: Book 2
Investigating the Wicked: Book 3
Investigating the Wicked: Book 4
Investigating the Wicked: Book 5

Why this works. The prequel novella is genuinely chronological, set one full year before the opening of Book 1 in a flowering valley called Lastar where something old has started feeding on villagers. The seal that once held it was broken recently and deliberately, by someone who should not have been able to. Reading the novella first lets you watch a sixteen-year-old Kavel learn the trade with his father, and then walk into Book 1 with a fuller sense of what Kavel has lost when Marrek dies between the two books. The trade. You give up the surprise of the prequel revealing context the main saga withholds. You gain emotional weight on Marrek's death, because the reader has now actually spent time with him on the page. For most readers this is a fair trade. For some, the surprise was worth more than the weight. Personal preference governs. This order is the right choice for the reader who has already read Book 1 and is now wondering whether the prequel is worth picking up, and for the reader who likes the chronological-purist ritual on a new series.

Order Three: Lowest-Friction Sample First

For the reader who has not bought anything yet and wants to test the tone before committing.

The First Hunt (free, no email signup, on the author site)
If the tone lands, move into Book 1 on Kindle Unlimited.

Why this works. The First Hunt is free. It lives on books.kevingabeci.com with no email wall, no signup, no commitment. It is around fifteen thousand words across five chapters, roughly two hours of total reading time. If the prose register, the cold mood, the case structure, and the way magic interacts with ordinary investigation work for you, the rest of the saga will probably also work. If the prequel does not land, you have spent two hours rather than the cost of a paperback to find out. This is the order I recommend to anyone who has read the Books Like The Witcher post or the Dark Fantasy Where The Hunter Is Hunted post and is curious but not yet committed. The free novella is the lowest-friction way to figure out whether the saga is for you. If the prequel lands, the natural next step is Book 1, which is on Kindle Unlimited for any subscriber and which costs less than a coffee for any reader who is not on KU.

Brief Recaps Of What You Are Signing Up For

The premise summaries below avoid major spoilers. If you want to read in pure cold, skip this section and go straight to the prequel or to Book 1.

The First Hunt (Free Prequel Novella)

Around fifteen thousand words. Five chapters. Set a year before Book 1. Kavel is sixteen. His father Marrek takes him on his first real field case, a flowering valley called Lastar that is too green for the season. Something older than the Investigators has started feeding on villagers. The seal that once held it was broken recently, deliberately, by someone who should not have been able to. The novella is the first thread of the Conclave, pulled before the order knew a Conclave existed. Kavel's silver light is not yet reliable. Marrek is patient. The case is small in scope and large in consequence, which is the tonal register the rest of the saga will operate in. Available free at books.kevingabeci.com.

Investigating The Wicked: Book 1

About ninety-seven thousand words. Ten arcs. Fifty chapters. The opening arc is Graamoor, a small village where everyone has lost their voice and a dark spirit is the obvious explanation for the wrong reason. The middle arcs walk through a trade city called Archeopp where an illegal creature trafficking operation has gone wrong, a fortress city called Vaarmir where a demon is summoned to murder Kavel and forty-seven people die in the destruction, a quieter recovery arc on the long road south, and a locked-room mystery at a crossroads inn called the Antler & Hearth that doubles as a moral interrogation about justice and revenge. The back half pulls Kavel and Theron together for the first time, walks them through the founding place of the order, and ends in the Wallace Kingdom with the Conclave of the Dying Light revealed as the enemy. Book 1 is on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Investigating The Wicked: Book 2

About one hundred and thirty thousand words. Ten arcs. Sixty-two chapters. The book opens with the surviving Investigators scattered and vulnerable in the wake of Book 1's reveal. Arc one is a sea creature in a fishing town. The middle arcs assemble four Investigators together for the first time in years, fight an Ethereal beast at the cost of one of them, dismantle the Conclave's Archeopp cell and the woman who replaced its Merchant Prince, and rebuild public trust through a garrison alliance in a town called Dunmere. The back half handles a Conclave propaganda war run by an operative named Maren Sowle, a missing-children case in a town called Edenvale that turns into a creature-nesting nightmare, and a finale in a place called Kaelbrith that costs the saga one of its anchor characters and sends three remaining Investigators riding north. Book 2 is on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Investigating The Wicked: Book 3

About one hundred and fifty-seven thousand words. Ten arcs. Sixty-eight chapters. The longest book in the saga. Kavel leads now, and the Investigators go west on offense against the Conclave's inner circle, one noble house at a time. The book carries the Conclave's retaliation for the Wallace Kingdom losses, a frozen river port where the bankers run the gallows, the first on-page appearance of a rogue Investigator named Avaris who has been seeded since Book 1, a return to Vaarmir with the original betrayal still unresolved, and a march north against the Conclave's most dangerous member, the Summoner. The deeper the team goes, the more the man leading them becomes someone they have to watch as closely as they follow. It ends at the fortress called the Teeth, at a door, with an answer nobody wanted. Book 3 is on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Investigating The Wicked: Book 4

About eighty-eight thousand words. Ten arcs. Sixty chapters. A leaner, faster road book. The war is won and the question is not. The trail left behind at the Teeth leads south, off every map the order has ever drawn, toward the place every wicked thing comes from. Book 4 is the ride south and the answer at the end of it, a valley no map has a name for, and a truth that turns the doctrine Kavel was raised on against the man carrying it. It is the most inward book in the saga, and the reveal it lands on reframes everything the first three books hunted. Book 4 is the newest arrival, on Kindle. Details on the Book 4 page.

Investigating The Wicked: Book 5

About eighty-nine thousand words. Ten arcs. Sixty chapters. Five riders came back from the south alive, and what they found there knows exactly where they are. Book 5 opens as a gather, the last scattered Investigators collected one name at a time from traplines and islands and coast roads, and closes as a siege, the last of the order making their stand at the First Outpost, the birthplace, the hall where twelve thousand names are cut in stone. It is the saga's first true war book, and it asks Kavel for the one thing he has never once been able to give. Book 5 released alongside Book 4, on Kindle. Details on the Book 5 page.

Where Each Order Sends Different Readers

The three orders work because they are aimed at three different reading experiences, not because any of them is objectively correct. Publication order is the right choice if you want to follow the writer's pacing exactly as it was designed. The Conclave's reveal lands harder if you meet it the way Kavel does, in pieces across Book 1, with the prequel optional after the fact. Chronological order is the right choice if the prequel-first ritual matters to you and if the emotional weight on Marrek's death pays off the trade you are making against the structural surprise. Lowest-friction sample first is the right choice if you have not committed yet and want a free test of the tone before any purchase. If you are still undecided, I would tell you to start with the third option, take the two free hours with The First Hunt, and let the prequel decide for you. If the tone lands, the rest of the saga is built to reward the same reading patience the novella asks for. If it does not, you will have spent nothing to find out. For the deeper reading on individual elements of the saga, the Theron character profile covers the elder Investigator and the made-not-born origin that breaks the order's own rules. The Magic System post walks through the silver light, the shadow magic, and the forbidden Mind Walking technique. The Velden Campaign post covers the unpunished mercenary war crime that hangs over the entire saga as ambient cost. The full series hub for any reader who wants the world overview in one place is Investigating the Wicked, A Dark Fantasy Saga About the Last Monster Hunters of a Dying Order. Whichever order you choose, I hope the saga sticks. The Investigators are a dying line. The Conclave is patient. The cases are real. The next book is on the way. The full Kevin Gabeci catalog, including eleven published books across dark fantasy, thriller, and literary fiction, lives at books.kevingabeci.com.

I'm Kevin Gabeci. Software engineer by day, writer the rest of the time. Sixteen books on Amazon Kindle across dark fantasy, thriller, and literary fiction. Long-time writer on Medium. I spend a strange amount of time thinking about monster hunters, hidden conspiracies, and the slow ways ordinary people make the world worse. The full catalog lives at books.kevingabeci.com.

Frequently asked questions

What is the reading order for the Investigating the Wicked saga?

Three reading orders work depending on the reader. Publication order is The First Hunt (free prequel novella, optional), then Investigating the Wicked Books 1 through 5 in sequence. Chronological order is The First Hunt first, then Books 1 through 5. Lowest-friction-sample-first order is The First Hunt as a free test of the tone, and if it lands, Book 1 next. All five books are live on Kindle.

Where can I read the books?

Investigating the Wicked Book 1, Book 2, and Book 3 are on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited, with Book 4 and Book 5 the newest releases, also on Kindle. The free prequel novella The First Hunt lives on the author site, no email signup, around fifteen thousand words across five chapters.

Do I need to read The First Hunt first?

No. The First Hunt is a prequel novella, not a required entry. The main saga starting from Book 1 stands alone. The novella adds context for readers who want to see a sixteen-year-old Kavel on his first field case with his father Marrek, a year before the events of Book 1. Reading it after Book 1 also works and arguably hits harder, because the reader already knows what Marrek's death means by then.

How long are the books?

Book 1 runs about ninety-seven thousand words across ten arcs and fifty chapters. Book 2 runs about one hundred and thirty thousand words across ten arcs and sixty-two chapters. Book 3 is the longest at about one hundred and fifty-seven thousand words across ten arcs and sixty-eight chapters. Books 4 and 5 run leaner, each around ninety thousand words across ten arcs and sixty chapters. The First Hunt is around fifteen thousand words across five chapters, roughly two hours of reading time.

Do Books 4 and 5 change the reading order?

No. From Book 1 on, the saga runs in strict sequence, so publication order and chronological order agree for the main books. Book 4 continues directly out of Book 3's ending and Book 5 continues directly out of Book 4's. The only real ordering question in the saga is where to place the free prequel novella, before Book 1 or after it.

Is the saga complete or still being written?

Five books are complete and live on Amazon Kindle, and the saga is ongoing. Each book closes more of the mystery of what happened to the Investigators and of the enemy that has been hunting them for generations, while the larger story keeps opening doors.