Freeman Wills Crofts Books in Order
32 books are credited to Freeman Wills Crofts, published between 1920 and 1957; 1 of them appeared after Freeman Wills Crofts's death in 1956. The first book is The Cask (1920) and the newest is Anything to Declare? (1957). Publication order is the reading order below. 26 of the 32 books listed here are in the Inspector French series, which has its own page: Inspector French books in order.
- Books
- 32
- Published
- 1920–1957
- Pages on record
- 6,990 in 25 of 32 books
- Reading time
- 117–175 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 6,990 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 25 of 32 titles with a page count on record.
Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish railway engineer who became a detective novelist, and the training shows: railway settings and intricately planned crimes are the Crofts trademark. Inspector French is the recurring detective, introduced in Inspector French's Greatest Case (1924) and carried through the police procedurals that follow. Crofts began with The Cask (1920), and the 32 catalogued books run to Anything to Declare? (1957). Golden-age contemporaries including Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler held the work in high regard.
How many Freeman Wills Crofts books are there?
Freeman Wills Crofts has 32 books, released between 1920 and 1957. 1 of them were published after Freeman Wills Crofts's death in 1956. 26 of them belong to the Inspector French series.
Freeman Wills Crofts Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 32 Freeman Wills Crofts books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 119202881/4
- 21921–1/4
- 319223201/4
- 419232881/4
- 519243041/4
- 61926–1/4
- 71927–1/4
- 81928–1/4
- 919292371/4
- 101930–1/4
- 1119323101/4
- 1219322951/4
- 1319343381/4
- 1419353151/4
- 151936–1/4
- 1619363281/4
- 1719372981/4
- 1819383071/4
- 191939–1/4
- 2019402001/4
- 2119412001/4
- 2219412831/4
- 2319422941/4
- 2419433121/4
- 2519453291/4
- 2619463141/4
- 2719472801/4
- 2819492891/4
- 2919512001/4
- 3019552321/4
- 31Mystery of the Sleeping Car ExpressFreeman Wills Crofts Short Story #21956 · 204 pages · confirmed 1/419562041/4
- 3219572251/4
Freeman Wills Crofts series and characters in order
The character linked below has its own reading-order page.
- Inspector French books in order 30 books
Freeman Wills Crofts books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. A group whose heading is a link has its own reading-order page; the other groups have no page of their own on this site.
Inspector French books in order
26 books by Freeman Wills Crofts- 1. Inspector French’s Greatest Case
- 2. Inspector French and the Cheyne Mystery
- 3. Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy
- 4. Inspector French and the Sea Mystery
- 5. The Box Office Murders
- 6. Inspector French and Sir John Magill’s Last Journey
- 8. Sudden Death
- 9. Death on the Way
- 12. Mystery on Southampton Water
- 13. Crime at Guildford
- 14. The Loss of the Jane Vosper
- 15. Man Overboard
- and 14 more in the table above
Freeman Wills Crofts Standalone Novels
4 books4 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Freeman Wills Crofts Short Story
2 books2 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Do you have to read Freeman Wills Crofts books in order?
You only need to read Freeman Wills Crofts books in order within the Inspector French series, which holds 26 of the 32 Freeman Wills Crofts books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.
Where to start with Freeman Wills Crofts
Start with Inspector French’s Greatest Case (1924), the first Inspector French book. The earliest catalogued title overall is The Cask (1920).
What is the newest Freeman Wills Crofts book?
Anything to Declare? (1957) is the newest Freeman Wills Crofts book released so far.
Is there a new Freeman Wills Crofts book coming?
No next Freeman Wills Crofts book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Freeman Wills Crofts at a glance
- Died
- Freeman Wills Crofts died in 1956, according to Wikidata.
- After death
- Books credited to Freeman Wills Crofts are still being published after Freeman Wills Crofts's death in 1956; the newest appeared in 1957.
- Release pace
- Freeman Wills Crofts books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 6,990 pages across the 25 of 32 books with a recorded length, a median of 294 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Freeman Wills Crofts books, 10 of 32, were published in the 1930s.
What the Freeman Wills Crofts books are about
27 of the 32 Freeman Wills Crofts books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: police is tagged on 19 of 27. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Police 19 of 27 books
- Joseph French (Fictitious character) 18 of 27 books
- Mystery & detective 14 of 27 books
- Mystery & detective, police procedural 11 of 27 books
- Crime 7 of 27 books
- England 5 of 27 books
- Mystery & detective, traditional 5 of 27 books
- Fiction in English 2 of 27 books
- Great Britain 2 of 27 books
- Inglise 2 of 27 books