Order of Book Series
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Richard Jury Books in Order

Richard Jury by Martha Grimes contains 26 books, published between 1981 and 2025. The first book is The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981) and the newest is The Red Queen (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
26
Published
1981–2025
Confirmed
26 of 26 titles
Pages on record
8,125 in 22 of 26 books
Reading time
135–203 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 8,125 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 22 of 26 titles with a page count on record.

See all 26 books in order Printable Richard Jury checklist

Richard Jury is a police detective in Martha Grimes's English mysteries, with Melrose Plant recurring beside him. The series opens with The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981) and runs to 26 books, reaching The Red Queen in 2025. Traditional detection and police procedure are the standing subjects, and publication continues.

How many Richard Jury books are there?

Richard Jury has 26 books, released between 1981 and 2025.

Richard Jury Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 26 Richard Jury 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 Man With a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes, book 1 of the Richard Jury series (1981)
  2. Cover of The Anodyne Necklace by Martha Grimes, book 3 of the Richard Jury series (1983)
  3. Cover of The Dirty Duck by Martha Grimes, book 4 of the Richard Jury series (1984)
  4. Cover of Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes, book 5 of the Richard Jury series (1984)
  5. Cover of Help the Poor Struggler by Martha Grimes, book 6 of the Richard Jury series (1985)
  6. Cover of The Deer Leap by Martha Grimes, book 7 of the Richard Jury series (1985)
  7. Cover of I Am the Only Running Footman by Martha Grimes, book 8 of the Richard Jury series (1986)
  8. Cover of The Five Bells and Bladebone by Martha Grimes, book 9 of the Richard Jury series (1987)
  9. Cover of The Old Silent by Martha Grimes, book 10 of the Richard Jury series (1989)
  10. Cover of The Horse You Came In On by Martha Grimes, book 12 of the Richard Jury series (1993)
  11. Cover of Rainbow's End by Martha Grimes, book 13 of the Richard Jury series (1995)
  12. Cover of The Case Has Altered by Martha Grimes, book 14 of the Richard Jury series (1997)
  13. Cover of The Stargazey by Martha Grimes, book 15 of the Richard Jury series (1998)
  14. Cover of The Lamorna Wink by Martha Grimes, book 16 of the Richard Jury series (1999)
  15. Cover of The Blue Last by Martha Grimes, book 17 of the Richard Jury series (2001)
  16. Cover of The Grave Maurice by Martha Grimes, book 18 of the Richard Jury series (2002)
  17. Cover of The Winds of Change by Martha Grimes, book 19 of the Richard Jury series (2004)
  18. Cover of Dust by Martha Grimes, book 21 of the Richard Jury series (2007)
  19. Cover of The Black Cat by Martha Grimes, book 22 of the Richard Jury series (2010)
  20. Cover of Vertigo 42 by Martha Grimes, book 23 of the Richard Jury series (2014)
  21. Cover of The Knowledge by Martha Grimes, book 24 of the Richard Jury series (2018)
  22. Cover of The Old Success by Martha Grimes, book 25 of the Richard Jury series (2019)
  1. 1
    The Man With a Load of Mischief1981 · confirmed 3/4
    1981–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    The Old Fox Deceiv'd1982 · 299 pages · confirmed 4/4
    1982299
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    The Anodyne Necklace1983 · 310 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1983310
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    The Dirty Duck1984 · 320 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1984320
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    Jerusalem Inn1984 · 320 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1984320
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    Help the Poor Struggler1985 · 320 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1985320
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    The Deer Leap1985 · 320 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1985320
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    I Am the Only Running Footman1986 · 320 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1986320
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    The Five Bells and Bladebone1987 · 352 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1987352
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    The Old Silent1989 · 396 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1989396
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    The Old Contemptibles1991 · confirmed 3/4
    1991–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    The Horse You Came In On1993 · 371 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1993371
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    Rainbow's End1995 · 437 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1995437
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    The Case Has Altered1997 · 427 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1997427
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 15
    The Stargazey1998 · 419 pages · confirmed 4/4
    1998419
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 16
    The Lamorna Wink1999 · 420 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1999420
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 17
    The Blue Last2001 · 452 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2001452
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  18. 18
    The Grave Maurice2002 · 377 pages · confirmed 4/4
    2002377
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  19. 19
    The Winds of Change2004 · 366 pages · confirmed 4/4
    2004366
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  20. 20
    The Old Wine Shades2006 · 391 pages · confirmed 4/4
    2006391
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  21. 21
    Dust2007 · 342 pages · confirmed 4/4
    2007342
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  22. 22
    The Black Cat2010 · confirmed 4/4
    2010–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  23. 23
    Vertigo 422014 · 327 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2014327
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  24. 24
    The Knowledge2018 · 596 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2018596
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  25. 25
    The Old Success2019 · 243 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2019243
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  26. 26
    The Red Queen2025 · confirmed 4/4
    2025–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Richard Jury Books in Chronological Order

By publication date, the Richard Jury books run from The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981) to The Red Queen (2025), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Richard Jury in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.

Do you have to read Richard Jury books in order?

You should read the Richard Jury books in publication order, the order of the numbered table above. The catalogue does not record whether each Richard Jury book also stands alone.

Where to start with Richard Jury

Start with The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Richard Jury book?

The Red Queen (2025) is the newest Richard Jury book released so far.

Is there a new Richard Jury book coming?

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

Richard Jury at a glance

Still running
Richard Jury is still running, with a title published as recently as 2025.
Release pace
Richard Jury books have appeared about one every 2 years on average.
Length
8,125 pages across the 22 of 26 books with a recorded length, a median of 359 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Richard Jury books, 10 of 26, were published in the 1980s.
Corroboration
8 of the 26 titles appear in all four independent book listings, and every one of them in at least three.

What the Richard Jury books are about

24 of the 26 Richard Jury 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 24. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.

More books by Martha Grimes

The author page linked below lists every book in publication order.