Inspector French Books in Order
There are 30 Inspector French books, published between 1924 and 1957. The first book is Inspector French’s Greatest Case (1924) and the newest is Anything to Declare? (1957). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 30
- Published
- 1924–1957
- Pages on record
- 6,506 in 23 of 30 books
- Reading time
- 108–163 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 6,506 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 23 of 30 titles with a page count on record.
Inspector French is Freeman Wills Crofts's police detective, Joseph French of Scotland Yard, and the centre of 30 catalogued mysteries published between 1924 and 1957. Inspector French's Greatest Case (1924) opens the run, followed by titles including The Starvel Hollow Tragedy (1927), Sir John Magill's Last Journey (1930), Mystery in the Channel (1931) and The Hog's Back Mystery (1933). Methodical police procedure, murder and broken alibis define the books, many of them reissued in the British Library Crime Classics line.
How many Inspector French books are there?
Inspector French has 30 books, released between 1924 and 1957.
Inspector French Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 30 Inspector French 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.
- 119243041/4
- 21926–1/4
- 31927–1/4
- 41928–1/4
- 519292371/4
- 61930–1/4
- 719312692/4
- 819323101/4
- 919322951/4
- 101933–2/4
- 1119343381/4
- 1219343492/4
- 1319353151/4
- 141936–1/4
- 1519363281/4
- 1619372981/4
- 1719383071/4
- 1819382782/4
- 191939–1/4
- 2019402001/4
- 2119412001/4
- 2219412831/4
- 2319422941/4
- 2419433121/4
- 2519453291/4
- 2619463141/4
- 2719492891/4
- 2819512001/4
- 2919552321/4
- 3019572251/4
Do you have to read Inspector French books in order?
You should read the Inspector French books in publication order, the order of the numbered table above. The catalogue does not record whether each Inspector French book also stands alone.
Where to start with Inspector French
Start with Inspector French’s Greatest Case (1924), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Inspector French book?
Anything to Declare? (1957) is the newest Inspector French book released so far.
Is there a new Inspector French book coming?
No next Inspector French book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Inspector French at a glance
- No recent titles
- The newest Inspector French title on record dates from 1957, 69 years ago. No later title is catalogued.
- Release pace
- Inspector French books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 6,506 pages across the 23 of 30 books with a recorded length, a median of 295 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Inspector French books, 14 of 30, were published in the 1930s.
- Attribution
- Of the 30 titles, 26 are credited to Freeman Wills Crofts and 4 to Freeman Crofts.
What the Inspector French books are about
26 of the 30 Inspector French 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 23 of 26. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Police 23 of 26 books
- Joseph French (Fictitious character) 22 of 26 books
- Mystery & detective 12 of 26 books
- Mystery & detective, police procedural 10 of 26 books
- Crime 7 of 26 books
- England 7 of 26 books
- Mystery & detective, traditional 4 of 26 books
- Murder 3 of 26 books
- Great Britain 2 of 26 books
- Thrillers, crime 2 of 26 books