In 1st to die, she is diagnosed with Negli's aplastic anaemia, a blood disease related to leukaemia. She was married for three years to her college sweetheart, whom she later describes as the brother she never had. She lives alone in an apartment in the Potrero Hill neighbourhood of San Francisco with her beloved Border Collie, Martha. When the series begins, Lindsay Boxer is a 34-year-old divorced San Francisco Police Inspector.

The series is based on fictional characters and police cases in San Francisco.

Lindsay Boxer is the main character of the novel series Women's Murder Club written by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.