Mystery & detective, historical book series in reading order

by Max Allan Collins

by H.R.F. Keating

by Peter Tremayne

by M.J. Trow

by C.S. Harris

by Rhys Bowen

by Charles Todd

by Rosemary Rowe / Aitken

by Philip Kerr

by Pat McIntosh

by Linda Stratmann

by Charles Todd

by Rhys Bowen

by Laurie R. King

by Will Thomas

by Candace Robb

by Susanna Gregory

by Alyssa Maxwell

by Amy Stewart

by Catriona McPherson

by Maurizio de Giovanni

by S.J. Parris

by Deryn Lake

by Troy Soos

by Albert A. Bell Jr.

by Carola Dunn

by Tasha Alexander

by Colin Cotterill

by Jane Thynne

by David Wishart

by Michael Pearce

by David Dickinson

by L C Tyler

by Alanna Knight

by Susan Spann

by Elizabeth Peters

by Susan Elia MacNeal

by Andrea Penrose

by C.J. Sansom

by Sujata Massey

by Loren D. Estleman

by Paul Doherty

by Sulari Gentill

by James Runcie

by Rennie Airth

by David Baldacci

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.

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.

Rhys Bowen is the name Janet Quin-Harkin publishes adult mystery novels under; Quin-Harkin was born in Bath, Somerset, in September 1941. The catalogue gathers 171 books, opening with Peter Penny's Dance (1976) and reaching Vanished in the Crowd (2026), with A Whiff of Scandal dated 2027. Molly Murphy, Her Royal Spyness and Constable Evans are the mystery series listed, alongside teen series carrying the Janet Quin-Harkin byline such as Heartbreak Cafe, Sugar and Spice and The Boyfriend Club. Catalogue subjects run to detective and mystery stories, women private investigators, historical mystery, aristocracy and children's fiction.

Edward Marston writes historical crime fiction, and the catalogue of 117 books runs to The Corpse on the Bristol Train (2026). Inspector Robert Colbeck, Elizabethan Theater, Domesday, Home Front Detective, Dillman & Masefield / Ocean Liner Mysteries, Christopher Redmayne, Captain Rawson and Bow Street Rivals are among the series. Nicholas Bracewell and Lord Westfield's Men appear in the subjects, together with theater, police work, railroad travel and World War I. Alan Saxon and Merlin Richards are further series, and Marston is still publishing.

Alys Clare is the pen name Elizabeth Harris uses for English historical whodunnits, most of them set in medieval times. The Hawkenlye Mysteries pair the Abbess Helewise with Josse d'Acquin and begin with Fortune Like the Moon in 1999. Three further runs follow: the Aelf Fen Mysteries, the Gabriel Taverner Mystery novels and the World's End Bureau Victorian Mystery books. Harris grew up in the countryside near the Hawkenlye setting, went to school in Tonbridge and read English at the University of Keele. The catalogue stands at 39 titles, the newest being The Thief and the Labyrinth in 2026.

Jacqueline Winspear

23 books• 5 series

Jacqueline Winspear, a mystery writer born on 30 April 1955, is the author of Maisie Dobbs, a series examining the aftermath of World War I. Books in the series have won Winspear several mystery writing awards. The catalogue lists 24 Winspear books, starting with Maisie Dobbs (2003) and including Birds of a Feather (2004) and Pardonable Lies (2005). The Comfort of Ghosts (2024) is the newest published title, and Charlie Bright is scheduled for 2027. Subjects include women private investigators, both world wars and missing in action.

Susanna Gregory is the pen name of Elizabeth Cruwys, a Cambridge academic and former coroner's officer who writes historical detective fiction. Matthew Bartholomew, a physician investigating murders in fourteenth-century Cambridge, carries her longest sequence, which opens with A Plague on Both Your Houses (1996). Thomas Chaloner heads a second series. Under a further name, Simon Beaufort, she wrote the Sir Geoffrey Mappestone and Alec Lonsdale books. The catalogue holds 52 books published between 1996 and 2022, and nothing has followed The Pudding Lane Plot (2022).

Charles Todd writes historical mysteries set around the First World War. Inspector Ian Rutledge, a police detective, and Bess Crawford, a nurse, head the two main series in a catalogue of 50 titles that begins with A Test of Wills (1994). A Day of Judgment is the most recent book, and A Deadly Cost is dated 2027. Short stories and standalone novels round out the list.

James R. Benn, born in 1949, is an American author of historical crime fiction. The Billy Boyle World War II Mysteries form Benn's main sequence, putting the investigator Billy Boyle on murder cases inside the 1939-1945 war. Benn's catalogue holds 26 books dated 2000 to 2026, from the debut Desperate Ground to The Ninth Circle, with standalone novels alongside the series.

M.J. Trow is the pen name of Meirion James Trow, a Welsh crime writer born 16 October 1949. The 105 catalogued books open with The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade (1985), and Lestrade, Peter Maxwell, Kit Marlowe and Margaret Murray each feature in a mystery series. Other series are Grand & Batchelor, Britannia, Calidus and Geoffrey Chaucer Mystery. Historical mystery, murder investigation and teachers are among the subjects, and Maxwell's Enigma (2026) is the newest title.

H.R.F. Keating was an English crime novelist, born 31 October 1926 and died 27 March 2011. Inspector Ganesh Ghote of the Bombay CID is the detective Keating is known for, in titles such as Inspector Ghote's Good Crusade (1966) and Inspector Ghote Hunts the Peacock (1968). Harriet Martens and Harriet Unwin head two further series. Police procedure, India and traditional detection run through the subjects. The listing holds 62 books, from Death and the Visiting Firemen (1959) to A Small Case for Inspector Ghote? (2009).

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.

Peter Tremayne

67 books• 3 series

Peter Tremayne is a pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a British historian, literary biographer and novelist born on 10 March 1943. Ellis has published more than 98 books under that name and as Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan, along with 100 short stories, and the work has appeared in 25 languages. As Tremayne, Ellis writes the Sister Fidelma historical mysteries, an international bestseller. The catalogue lists 67 titles from 1974 to 2026, opening with The Cornish Language and its Literature, issued under the Ellis name. Dracula Unborn and Hound of Frankenstein (both 1977) follow, and Blood on the Wind (2026) is the newest. Nuns, the Celtic Church, Ireland and horror appear in the subject tags.

Andrew Taylor

56 books• 10 series

Andrew Taylor, born on 14 October 1951, is a British crime and historical novelist whose awards include the Diamond Dagger, Britain's highest crime-writing honour. The Lydmouth series, the Roth Trilogy, The American Boy, a number-one bestseller, and The Ashes of London are among the best-known Taylor books. The catalogue lists 56 books, from Caroline Minuscule (1982) to A Schooling in Murder (2025). Series include William Dougal, Lydmouth, Roth, Marwood and Lovett, Blaines and a Bergerac series written as Andrew Saville. Subjects include historical mystery, England and the imaginary town of Lydmouth.

Chris Nickson began in celebrity biography, with books on Brad Pitt (1995), Mariah Carey (1995), Soundgarden (1995), Denzel Washington (1996) and Keanu Reeves (1996), then turned to historical crime fiction. The DI Tom Harper, Richard Nottingham, Simon Westow, John the Carpenter and WPC Lottie Armstrong series carry that later work. Sixty-three books are catalogued between 1995 and 2026, with murder investigation, English history and police procedure recurring as subjects.

Sebastian St. Cyr, a nobleman who investigates murders in London, is the lead of C.S. Harris's historical mysteries. What Angels Fear (2005) opens the series, which reaches 22 catalogued books and arrives at When the Wolves Are Silent in 2026. Harris publishes at roughly one title a year, and a shelf of standalone novels sits beside the St. Cyr run.

Alyssa Maxwell writes historical cozy mysteries in two series. The Gilded Newport Mysteries follow a woman journalist through murders in the Rhode Island mansions, opening with Murder at the Breakers (2014) and continuing through Murder at Beechwood, Murder at Rough Point and Murder at Chateau Sur Mer. A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery runs alongside. Twenty-three books reach Murder at Rosecliff in 2026.

Feudal Japan is where Laura Joh Rowland's best known books take place. The Sano Ichiro novels put a samurai investigator to work in Edo during the late seventeenth century, starting with Shinju (1994). Rowland, born in 1953, also wrote a series casting Charlotte Bronte as a detective and another set in Victorian England around the Jack the Ripper killings. Twenty-seven catalogued books reach to River of Fallen Angels (2023), and nothing has followed.

Linda Stratmann, born in Leicester in 1948, is a British writer of historical true crime, biography and crime fiction. The true crime side surveys English murder by county -- Essex Murders (2004), Gloucestershire Murders, Kent Murders, Middlesex Murders and The Big Book of Greater London Murders -- while the fiction runs to three series: Frances Doughty, Mina Scarletti and the Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. 41 titles span 2004 to 2026, reaching Sherlock Holmes and the Aeronauts in 2026.

Historical detection in London is Charles Finch's main line of work. The Charles Lenox Mysteries put a private investigator of that name onto murder cases, opening with A Beautiful Blue Death (2007) and continuing to Midnight in the House of Commons. Finch's catalogue holds 20 books, with standalone novels and non-fiction beside the Lenox series, and publication runs into 2026.

Detective fiction across several series is Laurie R. King's output. The Mary Russell books pair Mary Russell with Sherlock Holmes, beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994), while Kate Martinelli, a policewoman, has her own run from A Grave Talent (1993). Harris Stuyvesant, Raquel Laing and Folly Island add more, alongside standalone novels and non-fiction. King's catalogue holds 50 titles through Those Who Are Gone in 2026.

Ancient Rome is Lindsey Davis's setting, worked as hard-boiled detective fiction. The Silver Pigs (1989) introduces the informer Marcus Didius Falco, and the series keeps a metal in most titles: Shadows in Bronze, Venus in Copper, The Iron Hand of Mars and Poseidon's Gold. Flavia Albia takes over the later books, reaching Murder in Purple and Gold in 2026. Forty-four titles make up the catalogue, at a median of 349 pages.

Steven Saylor

25 books• 7 series

Gordianus the Finder investigates murders in Rome across Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series. Roman Blood (1991) opens the run, followed by Arms of Nemesis (1992), Catilina's Riddle (1993), The Venus Throw (1995), A Murder on the Appian Way (1996) and Rubicon (1999). Saylor also wrote the Ancient World novels, the last of them Dominus in 2021. Twenty-five titles are catalogued, at 320 pages on median.

Candace Robb is an American novelist of historical mysteries set in medieval England. The catalogue holds 24 books published between 1993 and 2026 across the Owen Archer, Margaret Kerr and Kate Clifford series, plus standalones. Owen Archer opens the run with The Apothecary Rose (1993), and the investigations continue through The Lady Chapel (1994), The King's Bishop (1996) and A Gift of Sanctuary (1998). Robb has also written as Emma Campion.