Italy book series in reading order

by Maurizio de Giovanni

by Michael Dibdin

by Tracy L. Higley

Magdalen Nabb (1947-2007) was a British author who wrote two very different sets of books. The Marshal Guarnaccia mysteries are police novels set in Italy, from Death of an Englishman and Death of a Dutchman (1981) through Death in Springtime (1983), The Marshal and the Murderer (1987) and on to Vita Nuova (2008). Josie Smith is a series for children, starting in 1989. Twenty-seven titles are catalogued, most of them short at around 192 pages.

Maurizio de Giovanni

38 books• 3 series

Thirty-eight books make up Maurizio de Giovanni's catalogue, published between 2007 and 2024. Three series carry it: the Commissario Ricciardi novels, the Giuseppe Lojacono books and Le indagini di Sara. The catalogue opens with I Will Have Vengeance in 2007 and reaches Volver in 2024, with murder, police investigation and Italian settings as its standing subjects. De Giovanni is an Italian mystery novelist, born in Naples in 1958, and the catalogue is ongoing.

Aurelio Zen, an Italian police detective, is Michael Dibdin's principal creation, appearing in 11 of his crime novels. Dibdin (1947-2007) was a British writer whose catalogue starts with The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (1978) and ends with End Games in 2007, 18 books in total. Italian settings and police procedure define the Zen books; the standalone novels run alongside them.

Tim Parks

38 books• 4 series

Tim Parks, born 19 December 1954, is a British novelist who has lived in Italy since 1981. Parks also writes non-fiction, translates from Italian into English and teaches literature as a professor. The catalogue holds 38 books from Italian Neighbors (1985) to The Hero's Way (2021), with Italy, travel, Verona and books and reading among the subjects. Series include Italy and Italians, Writers and Literature and Deadly Mr Duckworth, and An Italian Education and Europa are among the titles.

Gianrico Carofiglio

11 books• 2 series

Gianrico Carofiglio, born in 1961, worked as an anti-Mafia judge in Bari before writing legal thrillers set in Italy. Guido Guerrieri, a lawyer, carries the main series from Involuntary Witness (2002) through A Walk in the Dark (2003), Reasonable Doubts (2006), Temporary Perfections (2010) and A Fine Line (2014); Pietro Fenoglio leads a second. Involuntary Witness reached English in 2005 in Patrick Creagh's translation and became an Italian television series. The Past is a Foreign Country took the 2005 Premio Bancarella. Eleven books reach L'orizzonte della notte (2024), at a median of 249 pages.

Donna Leon

42 books• 4 series

Venice is where Donna Leon sets her police procedurals, and Guido Brunetti is the character the books return to, in cases of murder and criminal investigation. Leon's 42 catalogued titles open with Death at La Fenice (1992) and reach Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life in 2025, with a Brunetti companion volume and non-fiction beside the novels. Leon remains actively publishing.

Italy and private investigators recur in the subject tags for Christobel Kent, and Sandro Cellini, a fictitious character named in those tags, gives a series its name. The catalogue holds 17 books from A Party In San Niccolo (2003) to In Deep Water (2022). Titles include A Florentine Revenge (2006), The Drowning River / A Time of Mourning (2009) and The Killing Room (2014). Psychological thrillers, murder, young women and missing persons are also tagged. No new book has appeared since 2022.

Elena Ferrante writes in Italian about women's lives, mothers and daughters, female friendship and family, and the books are catalogued here in English translation. The Neapolitan novels are the central sequence, from My Brilliant Friend (2011) through The Story of a New Name (2012) and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2013) to The Story of the Lost Child (2014). The Days of Abandonment (2002), Troubling Love and The Lost Daughter (2006) stand on their own. Thirteen titles are catalogued, the last a graphic novel dated 2023.

Santa Montefiore

34 books• 4 series

Santa Montefiore is a British author, born Santa Palmer-Tomkinson on 2 February 1970. Montefiore's 34 catalogued books run from Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree (2001) to The Last Encore (2026). The Deverill Chronicles is the largest series, followed by Royal Rabbits of London, Timeslider and Flappy. Historical and contemporary romance dominate the output, with family secrets, fathers and daughters, Italy and London recurring across the novels.

Jack Ludlow writes historical fiction, and the catalogue's subjects place it in Rome, Italy, France and Spain, taking in the Crusades, mercenary troops and the Spanish civil war of 1936 to 1939. Ludlow has 15 catalogued books published between 2007 and 2016, all credited to Ludlow, from The Pillars of Rome (2007) to Hawkwood (2016). Republic, Conquest Trilogy, Road to War, Crusades Trilogy and Last Roman Trilogy are the five series filed under the name.

Anne Rice

50 books• 14 series

Born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien in New Orleans on October 4, 1941, Anne Rice was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature and Bible fiction who died on December 11, 2021. The Vampire Chronicles are Rice's best-known work, and the first volume became the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire, adapted by Rice. Interview with the Vampire (1976) opens a catalogue of 50 books that closes with The Reign of Osiris in 2022. Other series include Lives of the Mayfair Witches, Sleeping Beauty, Ramses the Damned, Wolf Gift Chronicles and Life of Christ. Exit to Eden (1985) and Belinda (1986) carry the name Anne Rampling.

Andrea Camilleri

38 books• 5 series

Sicily is where Andrea Camilleri set his crime fiction, and Salvo Montalbano is the police inspector who works the murders in it. The novels were written in Italian and are catalogued here in English translation, from The Shape of Water (1994) and The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996) through Voice of the Violin (1997) to Excursion to Tindari (2000). Thirty-eight titles are listed, beginning at Hunting Season (1992) and ending at Riccardino in 2021.

David Hewson

52 books• 6 series

David Hewson is a British author of mystery novels, born in 1953. Nic Costa, a young detective and art lover, heads a series about police officers in Rome; Pieter Vos heads a second, and further series take in Venice and the Faroe Islands. Hewson's debut, Shanghai Thunder, appeared in 1986, and a second novel set in Spain during Holy Week won the W H Smith Fresh Talent prize for 1996. The catalogue holds 52 books through The Devil in Dorsoduro (2026), Spanish travel guides and desktop publishing manuals from around 1990 among them.

Jane Langton (1922–2018) wrote children's literature and mystery novels, and illustrated her own books. Two sequences carry most of the work: the Homer Kelly mysteries, built on a recurring detective of that name, and the Hall Family Chronicles, which run to magic and fairy tale. Thirty-four books are catalogued, from The Majesty of Grace (1961) to The Dragon Tree (2008), with Massachusetts and Cambridge among the settings, at a median length of 252 pages.

Marco Vichi is an Italian novelist and short story writer, born in Florence in 1957 and living in the Chianti hills. The Inspector Bordelli novels are the best known work: police procedurals set in 1960s Italy and translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli. Seven titles are catalogued, from Perché dollari? (2005) through Death in August (2011), Death and the Olive Grove (2012), Death in Sardinia (2012), Death in Florence (2013) and Death in the Tuscan Hills (2016) to Ghosts of the Past (2018). Vichi has also edited crime anthologies.

Anton Gill, born in 1948, is a British writer of historical fiction and nonfiction. The Journey Back from Hell, about the lives of concentration camp survivors after liberation, won Gill the H. H. Wingate Award for non-fiction. The catalogue lists 41 books from 1984 to 2017, including Mad About the Boy: The Life and Times of Boy George and Culture Club (1984), City of the Horizon (1991) and Desert Oath (2017). Series credited to Gill are Assassin's Creed and Huy the Scribe Egyptian Mystery.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi

23 books• 2 series

Valerio Massimo Manfredi, born in 1943, is an Italian historian, archaeologist, essayist and journalist who also writes historical fiction. Greece, Rome and Italy are among the subjects of Manfredi's 23 books, and Alexander appears in fiction. Child of a Dream, The Sands of Ammon and The Ends of the Earth all came out in 1998. Spartan, The Last Legion and Tyrant followed, and Manfredi also has an Odysseus series. Wolves of Rome (2019) is the latest.

Massimo Carlotto

11 books• 2 series

Massimo Carlotto is an Italian writer and playwright, born on 22 July 1956. The catalogue holds 11 Carlotto books from The Fugitive (1994) to Blues for Outlaw Hearts and Old Whores (2020), grouped into the L'Alligatore and Giorgio Pellegrini series. The Colombian Mule, The Goodbye Kiss, The Master of Knots and Poisonville are among the titles. Subjects include private investigators, organized crime, drug traffic, kidnapping, revenge and judicial error.

Michael Gregorio is a pen name shared by two writers, Michael G. Jacob, born in 1948, and Daniela De Gregorio, born in 1950. Nine books stand under it, published between 2006 and 2017, and two series are recorded: Hanno Stiffeniis and Sebastiano Cangio. Critique of Criminal Reason (2006) opens the catalogue and Lone Wolf (2017) is the newest entry, with Days of Atonement, A Visible Darkness, Unholy Awakening, Cry Wolf and Think Wolf between, alongside two 2012 books about Italy. Subjects record murder, investigation, police magistrates, park rangers and the Mafia.

Victoria Holt's catalogue runs to 185 books published between 1940 and 1995, covering historical fiction, historical romance and mystery. Daughter of Anna (1940) is the earliest title, and Daughters of England (1995) the latest. The listing gathers several credits under other names, including titles marked as Jean Plaidy. Series include Tudor Saga, Plantagenet Saga, Georgian Saga, Stuart Saga, Norman Trilogy, Queen Victoria and Lucrezia Borgia. Kings, queens, England and France are frequent subjects.

Jennifer Probst wrote a first book at age twelve, bound it in a folder and read it to classmates. Probst holds a master's degree in English literature and lives in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York. The catalogue lists 67 Probst books, from Executive Seduction (2004) to Belong to Me (2026), with The Long Way Back to You due in 2027. Contemporary romance and erotica are among the subjects, alongside billionaires, marriage, Italy and New York. Series include Marriage to a Billionaire, Searching For, Stay, Billionaire Builders, Sunshine Sisters and Meet Me in Italy.

Henry James

131 books• 1 series

Henry James was an American-British author, placed between literary realism and literary modernism. Americans abroad, social life and manners, and the friction between Europe and the United States are the standing subjects of the fiction, and James's correspondence and travel writing are catalogued alongside it. The catalogue lists 131 titles with publication dates from 1866 to 2016, opening with Selected Tales and The Novels of George Eliot, both 1866. The 1870s were the heaviest decade, holding A Passionate Pilgrim, At Isella and Watch and Ward, all published in 1871.

Romance crossed with suspense defines Elizabeth Adler's fiction. The British author's 33 catalogued books open with Leonie / Private Desires in 1985 and close with Better Than Revenge in 2021, and the Mac Reilly novels supply the one recurring investigator. Inheritance, family secrets, mothers and daughters, and French settings recur. Adler has also published as Ariana Scott, and her novels have appeared in 22 languages.

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.