Mafia book series in reading order

by Michael Avallone

Donald Eugene Pendleton (December 12, 1927 to October 23, 1995) was an American author of fiction and non-fiction who created Mack Bolan, a character with hundreds of millions of copies sold since a 1969 debut. From 1980, other authors wrote the Bolan books under the Pendleton name, at first with Pendleton's editorial guidance. Pendleton also wrote six Joe Copp, Private Eye novels and six Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novels. Early titles include The Insatiables (1967), War Against the Mafia (1969) and Miami Massacre (1970).

Mario Puzo

15 books• 1 series

Organised crime is Mario Puzo's subject. The Godfather (1969) sits in the middle of a catalogue of 15 books that starts with The Dark Arena (1955) and takes in The Fortunate Pilgrim (1965), Fools Die (1978), The Sicilian (1984) and The Fourth K (1990). Mafia families, Italian American immigrants and gambling run through the subjects, and nothing later than 2018 is catalogued.

Teri Woods is an American novelist from Philadelphia who works in urban fiction. True to the Game (1998) is the first book: after six years of rejections, Woods had copies printed and sold them to booksellers directly, then founded Teri Woods Publishing. The 15 catalogued titles take in the Dutch Trilogy, from Dutch (2003) to Dutch II: Angel's Revenge (2005), plus the Deadly Reigns books and two further True to the Game sequels. Subjects cover drug dealers, organised crime and African American life in Philadelphia.

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.

Jackie Collins

40 books• 6 series

Jackie Collins wrote about Hollywood, the film business and the women who fought their way through it. 40 catalogued books run from The World Is Full of Married Men (1960) through The Stud (1969), The Love Killers (1974), The World Is Full Of Divorced Women (1975) and Lovers and Gamblers (1977), ending at The Santangelos. Lucky Santangelo is the character Collins is best known for, joined by the Madison Castelli and Fontaine Khaled books. The catalogue is likely complete.

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.

Laurence Shames has 26 books catalogued from The Big Time (1986) to Sunset Bluff (2024), mixing non-fiction with the Key West Mysteries. Subjects on the non-fiction side include Harvard Business School and its Class of 1949, businesspeople and biography. Key West and the Mafia appear among the fiction subjects. Titles of the 1990s include Florida Straits (1992), Scavenger Reef (1994), Sunburn (1995) and Mangrove Squeeze (1998).

Max Allan Collins

199 books• 34 series

Max Allan Collins, born March 3, 1948, is an American mystery writer who also works in comics, graphic novels and screenplays. Collins created the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics, the second of which became a film, and the series characters Quarry, a hitman, Nolan, a thief, and private investigator Nate Heller. Collins wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for years, and the Mystery Writers of America named Collins a Grand Master in 2017. Catalogue entries run from Bait Money (1973) to Quarry's Reunion (2026), with Eliot Ness, Mallory and Disaster among the other series.

George V. Higgins

32 books• 5 series

George V. Higgins (1939–1999) was an American author, lawyer, newspaper columnist and college professor. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1970) opens the catalogue and established the Boston noir line of gangster tales that later writers and films took up. More than thirty books came after it, among them The Digger's Game (1973), Cogan's Trade (1974), also published as Killing Them Softly, and the Jerry Kennedy legal novels, Kennedy for the Defense (1981) among them. Thirty-two titles are catalogued through 2004, with Boston, lawyers, politicians and the Mafia as standing subjects.

Warren Burton Murphy was an American author, born September 13, 1933, who died on September 4, 2015. Murphy co-created The Destroyer series, which became the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. The catalogue opens with Created The Destroyer (1971), followed in 1972 by Chinese Puzzle, Death Check and Mafia Fix, and counts 155 books in total. Remo and Chiun are listed as fictitious characters, and subjects include men's adventure, action and adventure, pulp and crime. Other series are Trace, Razoni & Jackson, New Destroyer, Forever King and Grandmaster.

Michael Avallone

106 books• 10 series

Michael Angelo Avallone (October 27, 1924 - February 26, 1999) was an American writer of mystery and secret agent fiction who also novelized television programs and films. Avallone produced more than 223 works under Avallone's own name and seventeen pseudonyms, though Avallone claimed over 1,000. The catalogue lists 106 books, opening with The Spitting Image and The Tall Dolores in 1953. Series include Ed Noon, Butcher, Satan Sleuth, Craghold, The Girl From UNCLE, Hawaii Five-0 and The Partridge Family. Subjects range across mystery, the Mafia, vintage horror, werewolves and satanists.

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.

Shantel Tessier writes dark romance, and the subjects attached to the catalogue also list new adult, suspense, mafia, sports and dual point of view. The 37 books on file run from Undescribable and Unbearable (both 2013) to Chaotic (2026). Tessier's series are Undescribable, Lords, Dark Kingdom, Dare, Selfish and Dash, and the catalogue marks the author as still publishing.

Spicy romance is Katee Robert's field, and Entertainment Weekly has called the writing "unspeakably hot". Robert is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller with more than two million copies sold, lives in the Pacific Northwest, and also publishes as Kat Taylor. The catalogue holds 105 books from Hunter of the Dead (2012) to The Beast (2026). Series include Dark Olympus, Wicked Villains, O'Malleys, Arrogant Heirs, Thalanian Dynasty and Bloodline Vampires, with subjects spanning contemporary, erotic and fantasy romance.

Jeff Abbott

23 books• 4 series

Jeff Abbott's crime fiction runs from small-town Texas to the international thriller. Jordan Poteet, a librarian in Mirabeau, leads the first series from Do Unto Others (1994); Whit Mosley and then Sam Capra follow. Assassins, the Mafia and intelligence officers enter with the later books. Twenty-three titles reach January and July in 2026, at 390 pages on median.

Tod Goldberg, born in Berkeley in 1971, is an American author and journalist. His 14 catalogued books open with Fake Liar Cheat (2000) and reach Only Way Out (2025), taking in Living Dead Girl (2002) and Gangsterland (2014). The Burn Notice series is also his, with the character Michael Western and a Miami setting among the listed subjects, and the Gangsterland books turn on the Mafia. Criminals, intelligence officers, missing persons and short stories round out the subject list.

Mixed martial arts, motorcycle clubs and the mafia give Sarah Castille's erotic romance its settings. Twenty-one catalogued books open with Against the Ropes (2013) and reach Steal My Breath Away (2025), across the Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club, Legal Heat, Ruin & Revenge, Club Excelsior, Havencrest U and Naughty Shorts. Revenge plots and contemporary suspense run alongside the romance.

Dave Zeltserman was born in Boston on 23 May 1959 and writes noir, mystery, thriller and horror. Small Crimes (2008) became a Netflix film in 2017 with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the lead, and Pariah followed in 2009. The novelette Julius Katz took both the Shamus and the Derringer award in 2010, and Julius Katz Detective is one of the series headings. Morris Brick, a serial killer series, carries the pseudonym Jacob Stone. The catalogue holds 36 books from Fast Lane (2004) to Trust Nothing (2025), with Bill Shannon, Interloper and Badass Gets Out of Jail as further headings. Subject tags name police procedurals, ex-convicts, the Mafia and Massachusetts.

Eugene Izzi, also listed as Nick Gaitano, wrote hard-boiled crime fiction. The catalogue records 19 books from The Take (1987) to Safe Harbor (1999). Subject tags on the work include Chicago, the Mafia, organized crime, police and murder. The Jake Phillips series is part of the list, and other titles include Bad Guys (1988), King of the Hustlers (1989), Prowlers (1991) and Tony's Justice (1993). The catalogue treats the Eugene Izzi list as likely complete.

Broderick (1980) was William Heffernan's first novel; the contract for it came in 1978, when Heffernan left an investigative reporting job at the New York Daily News. Heffernan was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on August 22, 1940. The catalogue lists 19 books through The Scientology Murders (2017), including the Paul Devlin and Corsican series. Recorded subjects include police, serial murder, the Mafia, New York City and Vermont. Heffernan has received an Edgar Award, the Heywood Broun Award twice and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and once served as President of the International Association of Crime Writers.

Chuck Driskell writes the Gage Hartline, Pale Horse Saga and Ronny Alley series. The catalogue lists 14 books from Doppelgänger (2012) to Time on Target (2025). Subject tags include organized crime, the Mafia and special forces. Other titles are The Diaries, Demon's Bluff, Soldier of Misfortune, Seven Years Dead and Final Mission: Zion. Driskell remains active.

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.

John F. Dobbyn is a mystery writer in the United States and an emeritus professor at the Villanova University School of Law, teaching in criminal, corporate and insurance law. Lawyers, the Mafia, art forgery and murder investigation head the recorded subjects, with Boston as the setting. Eight titles run from Trumpeter Swan (2004) to Deadly Depths (2023), and the catalogue groups the Knight and Devlin series under his name. Three books total 968 pages, a median of 320.