Ex-police officers book series in reading order

by David Housewright

by Ken Bruen

by Reed Farrel Coleman

by John Connolly

by Jonathan Santlofer

by Kate Collins

by Wolf Haas

Lee Child

78 books• 15 series

Lee Child is the pen name of James Dover Grant, a British thriller writer born on 29 October 1954. The Jack Reacher novels follow a former American military policeman who drifts across the United States. Killing Floor (1997), the first novel, won the Anthony Award and the 1998 Barry Award for Best First Novel, and Die Trying (1998) and Tripwire (1999) came next. The catalogue runs to Chain Reaction (2026), with Zero Margin listed for 2027. Andrew Child shares credit on a line of Jack Reacher short stories and novellas, and a Frances Neagley line also appears. Subjects include military police, ex-police officers, private investigators and murder.

David Housewright writes mysteries set in Minnesota, led by Mac McKenzie and Holland Taylor. The catalogue records 38 books, beginning with Penance (1995) and Practice to Deceive (1997), and reaching Fear the Reaper (2026). Subjects list private investigators, ex-police officers, Saint Paul and kidnapping, with hard-boiled and police procedural tags. Standalone novels sit beside the two series.

Ken Bruen has 47 books in the catalogue, from Funeral: Tales of Irish Morbidities (1992) to Galway's Edge (2025). Bruen, an Irish author of hardboiled and noir crime fiction, was born on 3 January 1951 and died on 29 March 2025. Series include Jack Taylor, Inspector Brant and Max and Angela. Early titles include Rilke on Black (1997), The Hackman Blues (1997), A White Arrest (1998) and The Guards (2001). Subjects include private investigators, ex-police officers, Ireland, London and the characters Detective Sergeant Brant and Chief Inspector Roberts.

Jane A. Adams is a British writer of psychological thrillers and crime novels, born in Leicester in 1960 and the author of more than thirty of them. The Greenway (1995) was nominated for a John Creasey Award and took an Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. 49 catalogued titles reach Murder At The Folly (2025), across the Naomi Blake, Rina Martin, Henry Johnstone, Detective Mike Croft, Detective Rozlyn Priest, Ray Flowers and Merrow & Clarke series. Adams holds a sociology degree, teaches at De Montfort University and is a Royal Literary Fund fellow.

Reed Farrel Coleman

57 books• 12 series

Reed Farrel Coleman, born March 29, 1956, is an American crime fiction writer and poet. Series include Moe Prager, Gus Murphy, Gulliver Dowd, Dylan Klein, Nick Ryan and Jack Kenny, and the Joe Serpe books appeared as Tony Spinosa. The catalogue also links Coleman to Jesse Stone. The 57 books run from Life Goes Sleeping (1991) to Blind to Midnight (2024), with Walking the Perfect Square (2002) and Redemption Street (2004) among them. Subjects include private investigators, ex-police officers and police chiefs.

John Lutz

66 books• 6 series

John Lutz (1939-2021) was an American writer in mystery, crime and suspense, with a career past fifty years, at least fifty books and roughly 250 short stories to it. Three private investigators carry the series work, Alo Nudger, Fred Carver and Frank Quinn, with St. Louis, Florida and New York among the settings. SWF Seeks Same, filmed in 1992 as Single White Female, is his best known title, and Lutz led both the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America as president. The catalogue holds 66 books, from The Truth of the Matter (1971) to Single White Female Seeks Same (2022).

Jonathon King is the author of the Max Freeman series. Subject headings list Max Freeman as a fictitious character, along with ex-police officers, private investigators, journalists and Florida. The Blue Edge of Midnight (2002) is the first catalogued book, followed by A Visible Darkness (2003), Shadow Men (2004), A Killing Night (2005) and Acts of Nature (2007). King also has a set of standalone novels. The catalogue holds 11 books, ending with The Sindia Promise (2018).

Eliot Pattison

18 books• 2 series

Eliot Pattison is an American lawyer who writes mystery fiction. The Inspector Shan novels are set in present-day Tibet and follow Shan Tao Yun, a former investigator with the Beijing Justice Department; a second series, Bone Rattler, works in another time and place. Eighteen books are catalogued between The Skull Mantra (1999) and Freedom's Ghost (2023). Pattison has also published non-fiction on international trade. The subject list adds China, historical settings and Native Americans.

Chuck Logan is catalogued with 10 thrillers published between 1996 and 2017. Phil Broker, an ex-police officer, is the recurring figure, and Minnesota is the home ground. Hunter's Moon (1996) opens the run and Broker (2017) closes it, taking in The Big Law (1998), Absolute Zero (2002), Vapor Trail (2003) and Homefront (2005). Undercover operations, commando operations, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War of 2003 to 2011 carry the subject tags.

Andy Straka, born September 29, 1958, is an American crime novelist and a Shamus Award winner. Straka grew up in upstate New York, graduated from Williams College, and spent nearly fifteen years in publishing and medical sales before starting to write in the late 1990s. A Witness Above (2001), the first private-eye novel, drew Shamus, Anthony and Agatha nominations for Best First Novel. A Killing Sky earned an Anthony nomination, and A Cold Quarry won a Shamus Award in 2004. The catalogue lists 13 books through Split End (2026), including the Frank Pavlicek Mysteries, with falconry among the subject tags.

Kelley Armstrong, born 14 December 1968, is a Canadian writer working mainly in fantasy since 2001. Thirty-one fantasy novels carry the Armstrong name, thirteen of them in Women of the Otherworld, five in Cainsville, six in the Rockton books, and three each in Darkest Powers, Darkness Rising and Age of Legends. Armstrong also wrote the Nadia Stafford crime trilogy, three standalone teen thrillers, and the middle-grade Blackwell Pages trilogy with Melissa Marr. The catalogue runs to 177 titles, from Bitten (2001) to Last Resort at Haven's Rock, scheduled for 2027, with subjects including werewolves, witches, vampires and the supernatural.

Terry Shames writes small-town police procedural mystery, set in Texas. The Samuel Craddock Mystery series opens with A Killing at Cotton Hill (2013) and continues through Guilt Strikes at Granger's Store (2023); a second series, Jessie Madison, runs alongside it. Murder investigations, family secrets, police chiefs and town life recur across the 14 catalogued books, which date from 2013 to 2025 at a median 265 pages.

Duane Swierczynski (Duane Louis Swierczynski, born February 22, 1972) is an American crime writer whose work spans non-fiction, novels and comic books. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Frauds, Scams, and Cons (2002) is the first catalogued title, and Secret Dead Men (2005) and The Wheelman (2005) are early titles. Series in the listing include Cable, Birds of Prey, Bloodshot, Black Hood, Level 26 and Charlie Hardie. Comics, superheroes, Judge Dredd, ex-police officers and Philadelphia appear among the subjects.

Nick Oldham writes police procedurals. Henry Christie is the recurring detective across a catalogue of 39 books published between 1996 and 2026, from A Time For Justice (1996) to Death at the Castle Gates (2026). Steve Flynn and Jessica Raker lead two further series, and standalone novels sit beside them. Murder investigation, crime, ex-police officers and English settings are the subject headings, and One Dead Witness (1998), The Last Big Job (1999), Backlash (2001) and Psycho Alley (2006) fall in the earlier stretch. The median book runs 224 pages.

Alice Loweecey is a mystery writer with 10 catalogued books from Force of Habit (2011) to Better Than Nun (2019). The catalogue names two Loweecey series, Giulia Driscoll and Falcone & Driscoll Investigation. Subject headings include private investigators, ex-nuns, nuns, ex-police officers and intimidation. For the Alice Loweecey books in order, Back in the Habit (2012), Veiled Threat (2013) and Changing Habits (2014) follow the first title.

Nelson DeMille

34 books• 8 series

Nelson Richard DeMille, born on 23 August 1943, was an American novelist of action-adventure and suspense fiction who died on 17 September 2024. Plum Island, The Charm School and The General's Daughter are among the DeMille novels, and DeMille also published as Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Ellen Kay and Brad Matthews. The catalogue lists 34 books, from The Sniper (1974) to The Tin Men (2025). Series include Joe Ryker, John Sutter and Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor, and John Corey and Paul Brenner are among the recurring characters. Subjects include terrorism, espionage and the Middle East.

Thomas Perry was an American writer of mystery and thriller novels, born August 7, 1947, who died on September 15, 2025. The Butcher's Boy (1982) was Perry's debut and received the 1983 Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. The catalogue lists 41 books, from that debut to The Get Out (2026). Series are Jane Whitefield, Butcher's Boy and Jack Till, and titles include Metzger's Dog (1983), Vanishing Act (1995) and Shadow Woman (1997). Subject headings cover assassins, the Mafia, government investigators and Indians of North America.

John Connolly

51 books• 11 series

John Connolly is an Irish writer, born in 1968, best known for the novels featuring private detective Charlie Parker. The catalogue opens with Every Dead Thing (1999), followed by Dark Hollow (2000) and The Killing Kind (2001), and lists 52 books to 2026. Other series include Samuel Johnson vs. the Devil, Chronicles of the Invaders and Nocturnes, and The Book of Lost Things appeared in 2006. Subjects include private investigators, Maine, serial murders and fantasy. The Castle is scheduled for 2027.

T. Jefferson Parker

136 books• 7 series

Laguna Heat (1985) is the first catalogued novel by T. Jefferson Parker, an American writer born in 1953 whose police procedurals take place in Southern California. Little Saigon (1988), Pacific Beat (1991), Summer of Fear (1993), The Triggerman's Dance (1996) and Silent Joe (2001) follow in the listing, and Gone at First Light is scheduled for 2027. Charlie Hood, Roland Ford and Merci Rayborn are Parker's series characters. California, police work and American noir fiction appear among the subjects.

Abby Knight, a florist, investigates murders in Kate Collins's Flower Shop Mysteries, a series whose titles include Mum's the Word (2004), Slay It with Flowers (2005) and A Rose from the Dead (2007). Collins's catalogue opens earlier, with Promised to a Stranger (1998) and Courting Claire (1999), holds 37 books in all, and reaches A Vase in the Window in 2025. The Goddess of Greene St. Mysteries form a second series.

Legal thrillers set around criminal defence work make up Sheldon Siegel's catalogue. Special Circumstances (2000) opens the Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez series, followed by Incriminating Evidence, Criminal Intent, Final Verdict and The Confession. The David Gold novels run alongside, and 21 books reach Unfinished Business in 2026.

The lawyer Ben Kincaid is the recurring character in William Bernhardt's legal mysteries. Primary Justice (1991) is the earliest of 77 catalogued titles, followed by Blind Justice (1992), Deadly Justice (1993) and Perfect Justice (1994), and the listing reaches The Superman Wars (2026). Daniel Pike, Splitsville, Susan Pulaski and the Red Sneaker Writers books are further series. Tulsa, Oklahoma, murder trials and serial murder fill the subject tags.

Vaseem Khan

17 books• 3 series

India is the setting for Vaseem Khan's crime fiction. The Baby Ganesh Agency books put an ex-police officer and an elephant to private investigation, starting at The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra (2015), and the Malabar House novels begin at Midnight at Malabar House (2020). Jewel theft, murder and police procedure supply the cases. Eighteen catalogued titles reach The Edge of Darkness, and The Last Shot is scheduled for 2027.

Cliff Janeway, a Denver ex-policeman turned antiquarian bookseller, is the detective John Dunning is remembered for, introduced in Booked to Die (1992). Dunning (1942-2023) was an American writer working in both detective fiction and non-fiction, and his reference books on old-time radio, including Tune in Yesterday (1976), stand beside the novels. The catalogue holds 16 titles from The Holland Suggestions (1975) to Dreamer (2013), at a median of 432 pages. No Dunning book has appeared since 2013.