England book series in reading order

by Patricia Wentworth

by Alan Hunter

by Sara Woods

by Gladys Mitchell

by Jonathan Gash

by Kate Ellis

by Martha Grimes

by John Dickson Carr

by Roger Silverwood

by Peter Lovesey

by Miss Read

by Bill James

by David Williams

by Gwendoline Butler

by Lilian Harry

by Colin Dexter

by W.J. Burley

by Gwendoline Butler

by Reginald Hill

by Ann Cleeves

by John Harvey

by J.M. Gregson

by J.M. Gregson

by Patricia Hall

by Amy Myers / Harriet Hudson

by Anne Perry

by Charles Todd

by Paul Doherty

by Sue Townsend

by Jeanne M. Dams

by Deborah Crombie

by Dorothy Simpson

by Leonard Tourney

by Nancy Atherton

by Ngaio Marsh

by Frances Brody

by Simon Brett

by David Dickinson

by Carola Dunn

by Ann Cleeves

by Susan Hill

by Jack Sheffield

by G.M. Malliet

by Candace Robb

Patricia Wentworth was the pen name of Dora Amy Turnbull (formerly Dillon, born Elles), a British crime writer who lived from 15 October 1877 to 28 January 1961. Miss Maud Silver, a woman private investigator in England, is the recurring character of the Miss Silver series. The Wentworth list begins with A Marriage Under the Terror (1910), and the 1930s are the busiest decade. Benbow Smith, Ernest Lamb and Frank Garrett are the other series characters.

Kate Ellis writes police procedurals in which archaeology recurs alongside murder investigation. Wesley Peterson heads the main series, opening with The Merchant's House (1998), and Joe Plantagenet and Inspector Albert Lincoln lead two more. Forty-four catalogued books reach The Chapel of Bones (2026), at a median length of 346 pages. England, police work and archaeologists recur as subjects.

Dame Catherine Cookson (born Catherine Ann McMullen, 20 June 1906 to 11 June 1998) was a British novelist. A hard childhood in South Shields, North East England, shaped the novels and supplied their setting. By 2003 Cookson's books had sold an estimated 100 million copies, and 104 titles appeared under the Cookson name and two pen names. The catalogue records 112 books, from Kate Hannigan (1950) to The Rag Maid (2017). Series include Mary Ann Shaughnessy, the Bailey Chronicles, the Mallen Trilogy and the Hamilton Trilogy. Working-class life, family sagas and historical romance appear among the subject tags.

Michael Innes was the pen name of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, a Scottish novelist and academic born in 1906 and died in 1994, equally known for the literary criticism and contemporary novels he published under his own name. As Innes he wrote traditional English detective fiction, chiefly the Sir John Appleby series, which begins with Death at the President's Lodging (1936) and runs through Hamlet, Revenge!, Lament for a Maker and Appleby's End. Charles Honeybath heads a second series. Eighty-nine catalogued titles date from 1936 to 2021.

Anna Jacobs writes historical sagas and romance set in England and Australia. Persons of Rank (1992) opens a catalogue of 114 books that reaches Hope Comes to Eastby End (2026), with Salem Street (1994), Ridge Hill (1996) and Our Lizzie (1999) among the early run. Family sagas name most of the series: the Gibson Family, the Kershaw Sisters, the Preston Family, the Michaels Family, the Blake Sisters and Swan River Saga, the Traders, Peppercorn Street, Rivenshaw, the Ellindale Saga, Larch Tree Lane and the Wiltshire Girls. Widows, inheritance and family life recur as subjects.

Marion Chesney

184 books• 22 series

Marion Chesney, later Marion Gibbons (1936-2019), was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery whose published career began in 1979. Historical romances appeared under the Chesney name, the Travelling Matchmaker and Daughters of Mannerling books among them, while the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mysteries appeared as M. C. Beaton; both of those mystery runs were adapted for television. Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Charlotte Ward, Jennie Tremaine and Sarah Chester are further pen names on the record. This listing gathers 185 books dated from 1979 onward, including later titles on which R.W. Green is credited.

Ann Cleeves

52 books• 10 series

Ann Cleeves is a British crime writer, born in 1954, with 52 catalogued books spanning 1986 to 2026. The run opens with A Bird in the Hand (1986) and reaches The Dying Light in 2026. Cleeves wrote the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn series, and all three have been adapted for television. Raven Black, the first Jimmy Perez novel, won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger in 2006. Other series listings include Palmer-Jones, Inspector Ramsay, Matthew Venn / Two Rivers and Willow Reeves & Jimmy Perez. Subjects include police procedurals, women detectives, England and Scotland.

Martha Grimes is an American detective novelist born on May 2, 1931. The best-known Grimes series features Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard inspector, and Melrose Plant, an aristocrat who became an amateur sleuth. The catalogue opens with The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981), followed by The Old Fox Deceiv'd and The Anodyne Necklace, and totals 40 books through The Red Queen (2025). Emma Graham, Andi Oliver and Foul Matter are among the other series.

Miss Read is the pen name of Dora Jessie Saint (1913-2012), an English novelist who worked as a schoolmistress and took the name from her mother's maiden name. Two series set in the English countryside carry the reputation: the Fairacre novels, opening with Village School (1955), and the Thrush Green novels, opening with Thrush Green (1959). Village life, country schools and English Christmas stories run through the subjects. The listing holds 53 titles dated 1955 to 2013, at a median of 231 pages.

Alan Hunter (1922-2005) was an English crime novelist and the creator of Inspector George Gently, who features in 46 of his books. The 51 catalogued titles open with Gently Does It (1955) and carry the detective's name through the run, from Gently By the Shore (1956) to Gently with Passion (2016). Hunter farmed and then dealt in antiquarian books before publishing his first novel. Police procedure, murder investigation and English settings define the series.

John Dickson Carr wrote traditional detective fiction, most of it set in England. It Walks by Night (1930) opens the catalogue with the investigator Henri Bencolin, Hag's Nook (1932) starts the Dr. Gideon Fell series, and the Sir Henry Merrivale novels appeared as Carter Dickson. Eighty-seven catalogued titles, reissues included, run to 2022, at a median of 251 pages.

Reginald Hill wrote English police procedurals, and Dalziel and Pascoe is the partnership he is known for, introduced in A Clubbable Woman (1970). Joe Sixsmith, a private investigator, heads a second series, and Hill also published as Patrick Ruell and Dick Morland, with titles including The Castle of the Demon and Matlock's System. Sixty titles make up the catalogue, which ends with the collection A Candle for Christmas & Other Stories.

Sara Woods was the pen name of Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd (1922-1985), a British mystery writer who also published as Anne Burton, Mary Challis and Margaret Leek. Antony Maitland recurs across the catalogue, with lawyers and legal settings among the subjects. 55 books appeared between 1961 and 1987, from Bloody Instructions (1961) to Naked Villainy (1987). Jeremy Locke, Richard Trenton and Stephen Marryat head further series. Output peaked in the 1980s, at a median 192 pages.

Ruth Rendell

88 books• 7 series

Ruth Rendell (17 February 1930 to 2 May 2015) was an English writer of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries who held the title Baroness Rendell of Babergh. Chief Inspector Wexford is the creation most associated with Rendell. Separate standalone crime novels looked into what drives criminals and their victims, and the pseudonym Barbara Vine carried that interest into a third body of work. Rendell's novels have sold an estimated 20 million copies. The catalogue records 88 books, starting with From Doon With Death (1964), then To Fear a Painted Devil (1965) and Vanity Dies Hard (1966).

Eighty catalogued books carry Gladys Mitchell's name, from A Speedy Death (1929) to Sleuth's Alchemy (2005). Mitchell was an English author, and Mrs Bradley, whose full name is Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, is the woman sleuth of 66 detective novels set largely in England and London. Timothy Herring and Pamela Stewart are the other named series. Mitchell also published as Stephen Hockaby and as Malcolm Torrie.

Paul Doherty writes historical mysteries set largely in England, with 127 books catalogued from The Death of a King (1985) to The Meadows of Murder (2026). Recurring detectives include Hugh Corbett, Brother Athelstan, Kathryn Swinbrooke and Amerotke. Other series cover the Canterbury Tales Mysteries, Ancient Rome, Egyptian Mysteries, Nicholas Segalla, Mathilde of Westminster, Margaret Beaufort and Vlad Drakulya. Satan in St Mary's (1986) and Spy in Chancery (1988) are among the early titles.

Sally Spencer writes English police procedurals, and the catalogue holds 66 books from Salt of the Earth (1994) to The Final Beat of the Drum (2023). Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend, DCI Monika Paniatowski and Inspector Sam Blackstone are the recurring detectives. Spencer's series also include the Marston Trilogy, Jennie Redhead Mystery and Detective Sam Brody Thriller, alongside standalone novels. The Salton Killings (1998) and Murder at Swann's Lake (1999) are among the earlier titles. No new Spencer title has appeared since 2023.

Gwendoline Butler, who lived from 1922 to 2013, was a British writer of mysteries and romances who also published as Jennie Melville. Butler is credited with inventing the woman's police procedural. Her two main sequences are the Inspector John Coffin novels and the Charmian Daniels books, the latter issued under the Melville name. The catalogue holds 76 titles from Receipt for Murder in 1956 onward, taking in Victorian mysteries, gothic tales and romantic novels as well as contemporary detection.

Jonathan Gash is the pen name of John Grant, born 1933, an English doctor and writer. His Lovejoy novels follow an antiques dealer through crime in England, and the series reached television in an adaptation by Ian La Frenais. A second series features Dr Clare Burtonall, a woman physician. Gash has also written as Graham Gaunt and Jonathan Grant. The catalogue holds 34 books from The Judas Pair (1977) to Preddy Boy (2013), at a median of 266 pages.

Katie Flynn and Judith Saxton are both pen names of Judy Turner, whose books sold more than eight million copies before her death in January 2019 at the age of 82. The catalogue holds 98 titles from 1972 onward, the earliest carrying the Saxton name: Cousin to the Queen (1972), My Master Mariner (1974) and Princess In Waiting (1976). Family sagas set in wartime England and Liverpool dominate, through series such as Liverpool Sisters, the Neyler Quartet and the Rose Queen Trilogy. New titles keep appearing, with The Secret Child scheduled for 2027.

Anne Perry

111 books• 14 series

Anne Perry (28 October 1938 – 10 April 2023), born Juliet Marion Hulme, was a British writer of historical detective fiction. Perry wrote the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels and the William Monk series. In 1994 it became public that Perry, at fifteen, had been convicted in 1954 in Christchurch, New Zealand, of murdering Honorah Parker, mother of Perry's friend Pauline Parker; after a five-year sentence, Perry took a new name and returned to the United Kingdom. The catalogue holds 111 Perry books, opening with The Cater Street Hangman (1979) and reaching Death Times Seven (2026). Other series include Daniel Pitt, Elena Standish, Timepiece and Tathea.

Dick Francis (Richard Stanley Francis, 1920 to 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey who turned to crime fiction set in English horse racing. After RAF service in wartime, Francis rode as a jump jockey, became champion jockey of the British National Hunt and rode for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The catalogue records 44 books, from the autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957) and the novel Dead Cert (1962) to Under Orders (2006). Sid Halley and Kit Fielding are recurring figures.

P.G. Wodehouse

145 books• 13 series

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (15 October 1881 to 14 February 1975) was an English humorist, one of the most widely read of the 20th century. Wodehouse created Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves, the talkative Psmith, Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle circle, the Oldest Member with golf stories, and Mr. Mulliner with tall tales. Born in Guildford, Wodehouse attended Dulwich College. The catalogue records 145 books from The Pothunters (1902) through 2019, including school stories, the Jeeves, Psmith, Ukridge and Uncle Fred series, short stories and non-fiction.

Stephen Booth, an English crime writer born in 1952, is the author of the Cooper and Fry series, set in Derbyshire and built around Ben Cooper and Diane Fry. The catalogue holds 26 Booth books, from Black Dog (2000) through Dancing with the Virgins (2001), Blood on the Tongue (2002) and The Dead Place (2005) to Drowned Lives (2019). No title has been added since 2019, and the run is marked as likely complete. Policewomen, murder and England appear among the subjects.