Art thefts book series in reading order

by Estelle Ryan

by Bill James

Iain Pears

14 books• 1 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.

Carla Neggers writes romance and romantic suspense, with 83 books in the catalogue published from 1982 to 2019. Dream Images (1982) is the earliest, followed by Midsummer Dreams (1982), Tangled Promises (1982) and Dancing Season (1983). Rival's Break (2019) is the newest title, and the catalogue is likely complete. Neggers series include Sharpe & Donovan, Swift River Valley, Cold Ridge/U.S. Marshals, Black Falls, Boston Police/FBI and Texas Rangers/Carriage House. Subjects include contemporary romance, missing persons, murder investigations and the FBI.

Aaron Elkins, born in Brooklyn on 24 July 1935, is an American mystery writer. The novels featuring forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the skeleton detective, are the best known part of the catalogue, which also runs the Lee Ofsted series, the Chris Norgren Mysteries, the Alix London series and standalone novels. The catalogue lists 35 books, from Fellowship of Fear (1982) to A Long Time Coming (2018). Subjects include college teachers, women golfers and Seattle.

Bill James was the main pen name of Allan James Tucker, a Welsh novelist born 15 August 1929 and died 17 June 2023. Tucker reported for the Daily Mirror and other newspapers after RAF service, lived in South Wales, and also published as David Craig and Judith Jones. Most of the Bill James output is the Harpur and Iles series, which sets Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur against Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles in an unnamed coastal city in south-western England, with a shifting cast on both sides of the law. His catalogue holds 73 titles from 1966 to 2022.

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Kay Hooper, born in 1957, is a New York Times bestselling American author credited with more than 60 books. The catalogue counts 86 Hooper books between Lady Thief (1981) and Curse of Salem (2021), several early titles appearing under the name Kay Robbins. Subjects include romance, suspense, the Loveswept imprint, psychics, serial murders and the fictional investigator Noah Bishop. Series include the Bishop Files, Hagan, Shamrock Trinity and Once Upon A Time..., and no new title has been listed since 2021.

Ally Carter

29 books• 8 series

Spies, thieves and boarding schools furnish Ally Carter's fiction for young readers. The Gallagher Girls series, set at a school that trains teenage spies, runs from 2006 through Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover and Only the Good Spy Young. Heist Society turns to con artists, Embassy Row to diplomatic intrigue, and Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor to a mystery for younger readers. Thirty titles make up the catalogue, which began with the adult novel Cheating at Solitaire (2005).

Genevieve Lenard, an autistic insurance investigator who reads people through body language, carries Estelle Ryan's mystery series. Art forgery, theft and murder supply the cases. The Gauguin Connection (2012) opens the run, followed by The Braque Connection (2013), The Dante Connection (2013), The Courbet Connection (2014), The Flinck Connection (2014) and The Leger Connection (2015). 36 titles are catalogued, including the Duchess Report books, and the newest is The Van Mieris Connection.

Harold Robbins

36 books• 6 series

Harold Robbins wrote commercial fiction about businessmen, Hollywood and the appetites of the very rich. Never Love a Stranger (1948) opens the catalogue, followed by The Dream Merchants, A Stone for Danny Fisher, 79 Park Avenue, Stiletto and The Carpetbaggers (1961). Thirty-six titles make up the list, including the Betsy and Predators sequences and the later Madison Dupre art-theft novels, ending at The Curse in 2011.

Eoin Colfer

59 books• 18 series

Eoin Colfer, born 14 May 1965, is an Irish children's writer and a former primary school teacher, best known for the eleven Artemis Fowl fantasy novels. By 2013 the Artemis Fowl books had sold more than 21 million copies in 44 languages, and in a 2010 public poll readers chose Artemis Fowl as their favourite Puffin Books title. The novel Artemis Fowl (2001) was followed by The Arctic Incident (2002) and The Eternity Code (2003). Other series include the Fowl Twins, W.A.R.P., Benny Shaw and Plugged, with Benny and Omar (1998) among the early titles and Deerheart (2026) the newest. The listing also credits The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1996) to Colfer.

Blue Balliett

10 books• 1 series

Art theft and the children who solve it made Blue Balliett's name. Chasing Vermeer (2004), illustrated by Brett Helquist, turns on the stolen painting of a 17th-century Dutch artist, won the 2005 Edgar Award for best juvenile mystery and a 2004 Agatha Award, and led to The Wright 3 (2006) and The Calder Game (2008). Balliett's 10 catalogued books span 1990 to 2018, opening with Nantucket ghost stories and closing with Out of the Wild Night (2018). Chicago, its Robie House and mobile sculpture anchor the mysteries, at a median of 282 pages.

Sandra Orchard has 29 catalogued books, published from Deep Cover (2011) to The Honeyed Truth (2026). Subject tags cover romantic suspense, Christian romance, undercover operations, women detectives, art thefts and the FBI. Undercover Cops, Port Aster Secrets and Serena Jones Mystery are the Orchard series in the listing. Critical Condition and Shades of Truth followed in 2012, and Fatal Inheritance and Deadly Devotion in 2013. Sandra Orchard is still publishing.

Ron Roy, born 1940, is an American children's writer working mostly in mystery. Three series carry the name: A to Z Mysteries from 1997, Capital Mysteries from 2001 and Calendar Mysteries from 2009, with A to Z Animal Mysteries and an A to Z Super Edition line alongside. Roy taught fourth grade in Connecticut for ten years, sold a first book in 1978 and wrote full time after that. The catalogue holds 90 titles dated 1978 to 2024, short at a median 84 pages, and reaches Dolphin Detectives (2024).

Brian Wiprud is an American author born in 1961. The catalogue lists 15 books from Making the Dawn Welcome (1999) to Linsenbigler & The Lost City (2019), with Linsenbigler and Garth Carson among the listed series alongside standalone novels and non-fiction. Sleep with the Fishes (2000), Pipsqueak (2002), Stuffed (2005), Crooked (2006) and Tailed (2007) come early in the run. Recorded subjects include taxidermy, collectors, art thefts, witness protection and New York City.