Diana Tregarde
#5483.91 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 1989–1991 Reading commitment Medium Mercedes Lackey Last reviewed 2026-09-11
Overview
Diana Tregarde follows Mercedes Lackey's psychic witch and romance novelist across three core novels (1989-1991) as she investigates supernatural threats, from ancient Aztec sorcery to vampires to a small-town cheerleader with a deadly secret, using her own occult training alongside her day job writing romance fiction. Burning Water (1989) pits Diana against a resurgent Aztec blood cult in modern Dallas, Children of the Night (1990) sends her up against a vampire stalking New York's music scene, and Jinx High (1991) brings her home to confront a teenage sorceress whose casual cruelty escalates into real danger. The trilogy is an early entry in what would become the urban fantasy boom of the 1990s and 2000s, pairing genuinely dangerous magical antagonists with a protagonist whose day job as a working romance writer keeps the tone lighter than the horror-adjacent plots might suggest. Lackey left the series unfinished after three novels, with a long-promised fourth never completed.
Urban fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Diana Tregarde Mercedes Lackey
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Burning Water | 1989 | 1 | core | 3.90 (6,166 ratings) |
 | Children of the Night | 1990 | 2 | core | 3.97 (5,666 ratings) |
 | Jinx High | 1991 | 3 | core | 3.86 (4,465 ratings) |
Three core novels follow psychic romance-novelist/witch Diana Tregarde investigating supernatural threats. Assorted short stories, novellas and omnibus/collected editions of this series exist but are kept out of Core as supplementary material, not part of the numbered novel sequence, following the same precedent already applied to Emily Windsnap's companion material.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Diana Tregarde? Diana Tregarde's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Diana Tregarde? Publication order, starting with Burning Water. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Diana Tregarde finished? Complete (1989–1991).
- How much reading does Diana Tregarde take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is Diana Tregarde ranked? #548 in this site's official ranking, based on 16,297 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #548?
Ranked #548 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.91 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (16,297 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.11 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #547, Navola (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 16k ratings · Ranks #548 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length urban fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Burning Water (1989)
- Children of the Night (1990)
- Jinx High (1991)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this series.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.91 across 16,297 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Diana Tregarde (Mercedes Lackey) accepted 2026-09-11
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Mercedes Lackey bibliography Tier 2
- Reading-order/series bibliography cross-check: Diana Tregarde Tier 3
Last reviewed: 2026-09-11
Rule: Core Canon = the three novels (Burning Water, Children of the Night, Jinx High). Assorted short stories, novellas and omnibus/collected editions of this series exist but are kept out of Core as supplementary material, not part of the numbered novel sequence, following the same precedent already applied to Emily Windsnap’s companion material.