Order of Book Series
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Iain Pears Books in Order

Iain Pears has written 14 books, published between 1988 and 2025. The first book is The Discovery of Painting: The Growth of Interest in the Arts in England, 1680-1768 (1988) and the newest is Parallel Lives (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
14
Published
1988–2025
Pages on record
4,199 in 11 of 14 books
Reading time
70–105 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 4,199 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 11 of 14 titles with a page count on record.

See all 14 books in order Printable Iain Pears checklist
Photo of Iain Pears, author of the Jonathan Argyll series

Art and its theft supply the material for Iain Pears's fiction. The Jonathan Argyll mysteries pair an art historian with the Italian policewoman Flavia Di Stefano, running from The Raphael Affair (1990) through The Immaculate Deception (2000). Pears, born in 1955, is an English art historian and journalist as well as a novelist, and the catalogue holds historical fiction too, including An Instance of the Fingerpost (1997) and The Dream of Scipio (2002). Fourteen books span 1988 to Parallel Lives in 2025.

How many Iain Pears books are there?

Iain Pears has 14 books, released between 1988 and 2025. 7 of them belong to the Jonathan Argyll series.

Iain Pears Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 14 Iain Pears 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.

  1. Cover of The Discovery of Painting: The Growth of Interest in the Arts in England, 1680-1768 by Iain Pears (1988)
  2. Cover of The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears, book 1 of the Jonathan Argyll series (1990)
  3. Cover of The Titian Committee by Iain Pears, book 2 of the Jonathan Argyll series (1991)
  4. Cover of The Bernini Bust by Iain Pears, book 3 of the Jonathan Argyll series (1992)
  5. Cover of The Last Judgement by Iain Pears, book 4 of the Jonathan Argyll series (1993)
  6. Cover of Giotto's Hand by Iain Pears, book 5 of the Jonathan Argyll series (1995)
  7. Cover of Death and Restoration by Iain Pears, book 6 of the Jonathan Argyll series (1996)
  8. Cover of An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears (1997)
  9. Cover of The Immaculate Deception by Iain Pears, book 7 of the Jonathan Argyll series (2000)
  10. Cover of The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears (2002)
  11. Cover of The Portrait by Iain Pears (2004)
  12. Cover of Stone's Fall by Iain Pears (2009)
  1. 1
    The Discovery of Painting: The Growth of Interest in the Arts in England, 1680-17681988 · 301 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1988301
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    The Raphael AffairJonathan Argyll #11990 · 257 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1990257
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    The Titian CommitteeJonathan Argyll #21991 · 262 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1991262
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    The Bernini BustJonathan Argyll #31992 · confirmed 2/4
    1992–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    The Last JudgementJonathan Argyll #41993 · 324 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1993324
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    Giotto's HandJonathan Argyll #51995 · confirmed 2/4
    1995–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    Death and RestorationJonathan Argyll #61996 · confirmed 2/4
    1996–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    An Instance of the Fingerpost1997 · 735 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1997735
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    The Immaculate DeceptionJonathan Argyll #72000 · 224 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2000224
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    The Dream of Scipio2002 · 416 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2002416
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    The Portrait2004 · 224 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2004224
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    Stone's Fall2009 · 608 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2009608
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    Arcadia2015 · 608 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2015608
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    Parallel Lives2025 · 240 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2025240
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Iain Pears books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Jonathan Argyll in order

7 books
  1. 1. The Raphael Affair
  2. 2. The Titian Committee
  3. 3. The Bernini Bust
  4. 4. The Last Judgement
  5. 5. Giotto's Hand
  6. 6. Death and Restoration
  7. 7. The Immaculate Deception

Standalone books

7 books

7 Iain Pears titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Do you have to read Iain Pears books in order?

You only need to read Iain Pears books in order within the Jonathan Argyll series, which holds 7 of the 14 Iain Pears books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.

Where to start with Iain Pears

Start with The Discovery of Painting: The Growth of Interest in the Arts in England, 1680-1768 (1988), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Iain Pears book?

Parallel Lives (2025) is the newest Iain Pears book released so far.

Is there a new Iain Pears book coming?

No next Iain Pears book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Award nominations for Iain Pears

Wikidata records 1 nomination for Iain Pears. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.

  • Arthur C. Clarke Award2016Shortlistedfor Arcadia

Iain Pears at a glance

Still publishing
Iain Pears published a book as recently as 2025.
Release pace
Iain Pears books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
Length
4,199 pages across the 11 of 14 books with a recorded length, a median of 301 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Iain Pears books, 7 of 14, were published in the 1990s.

What the Iain Pears books are about

13 of the 14 Iain Pears books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: jonathan argyll (fictitious character) is tagged on 6 of 13. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.

  • Jonathan Argyll (Fictitious character) 6 of 13 books
  • Art thefts 5 of 13 books
  • Flavia Di Stefano (Fictitious character) 5 of 13 books
  • Art historians 3 of 13 books
  • History 3 of 13 books
  • Police 3 of 13 books
  • Policewomen 3 of 13 books
  • Argyll, jonathan (fictitious character) 2 of 13 books
  • Art thefts in fiction 2 of 13 books
  • Mystery & detective 2 of 13 books
  • Historical fiction 2 of 13 books
  • Italy 2 of 13 books