Mystery & detective, police procedural book series in reading order

by Ed McBain

by Roderic Jeffries / Roderic Graeme

by Alan Hunter

by H.R.F. Keating

by Bill James

by Ngaio Marsh

by Faye Kellerman

by Elizabeth Linington / Dell Shannon

by Jon Cleary

by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

by Gwendoline Butler

by K.C. Constantine

by Kate Ellis

by J.M. Gregson

by Eric Wright

by Peter Lovesey

by Bartholomew Gill

by Mark Billingham

by John Harvey

by Susan Hill

by Reginald Hill

by Roger Silverwood

by J.M. Gregson

by Alanna Knight

by Lillian O’Donnell

by Jussi Adler-Olsen

by Martha Grimes

by Per Wahloo

by Karin Fossum

by Michael Dibdin

by Hakan Nesser

by Susan Dunlap

by James McClure

by Charles Todd

by Jane Haddam

by Chris Carter

by Barbara Nadel

by Dorothy Simpson

by Nicolas Freeling

by Camilla Lackberg

by Jon A. Jackson

by Chris Simms

by James Patterson

by Ann Cleeves

by Quintin Jardine

Ed McBain

127 books• 7 series

Ed McBain is the pen name under which Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino (October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005), published the 87th Precinct police procedurals. Cop Hater, The Mugger and The Pusher, all dated 1956, are early entries in the listing, and Steve Carella and the imaginary city of Isola appear among the subjects. Matthew Hope is a second series character. Under the Evan Hunter name, the author wrote The Blackboard Jungle, a semi-autobiographical novel filmed in 1955, and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

Georges Simenon

187 books• 5 series

Inspector Maigret, a policeman in Paris, is the centre of Georges Simenon's crime fiction. The catalogue holds 187 books, beginning in 1931 with Pietr the Latvian. Short novels are the form, at a median 169 pages, and the 1950s were the densest decade. Standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction sit beside the Maigret run, most of it translated from the French.

Michael Connelly

60 books• 10 series

Michael Connelly is an American crime novelist, born July 21, 1956. The catalogue lists 60 Connelly books, running from The Black Echo (1992) to Ironwood (2026). LAPD detective Harry Bosch and defence attorney Mickey Haller are the recurring leads, and the listed series include Bosch Universe, Lincoln Lawyer and Safe Man. The Black Echo won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a 2002 film of Blood Work. Subject headings cover police procedurals, legal fiction, serial murder and Los Angeles.

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Two names cover one crime-writing catalogue: Roderic Jeffries and Roderic Graeme. The Inspector Alvarez novels are police procedurals featuring Enrique Alvarez and set in Spain. The Blackshirt books came first, starting with Concerning Blackshirt (1952) and running through the 1950s. The C.I.D. Room, Brandy and Don Kerry series fill out the list. The listing holds 149 titles dated 1952 to 2014, ending with In Search of Murder (2014), and the run reads as finished.

Ngaio Marsh

38 books• 3 series

Inspector Roderick Alleyn of the English police carries almost all of Ngaio Marsh's detective fiction. 38 catalogued books run from A Man Lay Dead (1934) to Money in the Morgue, taking in Enter a Murderer (1935), The Nursing Home Murder (1935), Death in Ecstasy (1936), Vintage Murder (1937) and Artists in Crime (1938). Marsh also published short stories and non-fiction. The catalogue is likely complete.

Peter Turnbull writes police procedurals. 48 catalogued books run from Deep and Crisp and Even (1981) to Cold Wrath (2018), across three series: Hennessey & Yellich, Harry Vicary and Maurice Mundy. George Hennessey and Somerled Yellich are the recurring detectives, and England and Scotland are both settings across the run. Turnbull, born in Rotherham in 1950, studied at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, at Huddersfield and at Cardiff, and worked as a social worker for Strathclyde Regional Council in Glasgow from 1978 to 1995.

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.

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.

Ian Rankin

74 books• 13 series

Sir Ian Rankin is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, born in Fife on 28 April 1960, and the creator of the Inspector Rebus novels. Rankin was the first member of the family to go to university and held several jobs before turning to writing. The Rebus novels belong to the tartan noir genre, have won domestic and international awards and have sold more than 35 million copies. Knots and Crosses (1987), the first Rebus book, placed eighth in a 2016 poll of the best Scottish novels. The catalogue holds 74 Rankin books, from The Flood (1986) to The Heights (2026), including the Malcolm Fox series and Edinburgh-set police procedurals.

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.

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).

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.

Graham Ison writes police procedurals set in London. Forty-seven books are catalogued between 1989 and 2021, from Confirm or Deny (1989) to Hardcastle's Secret Agent (2021). Four series divide them: the Brock and Poole Mysteries, the Hardcastle books, Tommy Fox, and Gaffney and Tipper. The Home Secretary Will See You Now (1989), A Damned Serious Business (1990), The Cold Light of Dawn (1990), The Laundry Man (1991) and The Taming of Tango Harris (1993) come from the early run. Murder, criminal investigation, English history and the First World War run through the subjects.

Bill James was the main pen name of Allan James Tucker, a Welsh novelist born 15 August 1929 and died 17 June 2023. Tucker reported for the Daily Mirror and other newspapers after RAF service, lived in South Wales, and also published as David Craig and Judith Jones. Most of the Bill James output is the Harpur and Iles series, which sets Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur against Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles in an unnamed coastal city in south-western England, with a shifting cast on both sides of the law. His catalogue holds 73 titles from 1966 to 2022.

Nicolas Freeling (1927–2003) was a British crime novelist best known for Van der Valk, a series of Dutch police procedurals set largely in Amsterdam. Love in Amsterdam (1962) opened the catalogue, and Thames Television made Van der Valk for ITV in the 1970s, revived it in 1991 and remade it in 2020. Henri Castang, a policeman working in Belgium and France, carries Freeling's second series. 41 books are catalogued, ending with The Janeites (2002).

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.

John Creasey (17 September 1908 to 9 June 1973) was an English novelist of detective and crime fiction who also wrote science fiction, romance and westerns, producing more than six hundred novels under twenty-eight pseudonyms. Creasey characters include The Toff (Richard Rollison), Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, Inspector Roger West, The Baron (John Mannering), Dr Emmanuel Cellini and Dr Stanislaus Alexander Palfrey. Gideon, introduced in Gideon's Day (1955), was the basis for the 1958 John Ford film Gideon's Day and the television series Gideon's Way (1964 to 1966). The catalogue lists 497 books from Seven Times Seven (1932), with early titles as M.E. Cooke and Margaret Cooke.

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.

J.M. Gregson wrote English police procedurals across two series. Lambert and Hook follows John Lambert and Bert Hook; the Inspector Peach books follow Percy Peach and Lucy Blake. The catalogue holds 50 titles dated 1989 to 2016, from Murder at the Nineteenth (1989) to Final Act (2016). Murder investigation in England is the standing subject, at a median of 218 pages, and the 2000s were the peak decade.

Police procedurals set in Los Angeles fill this catalogue, published under Elizabeth Linington and the pen name Dell Shannon, with at least one title as Anne Blaisdell. Lieutenant Luis Mendoza is the central detective; Vic Varallo, Ivor Maddox and the lawyer Jesse Falkenstein head three further series. The run holds 82 books, from Case Pending (1960) to Sorrow to the Grave (1992), at a median of 224 pages.

Nora Roberts

279 books• 37 series

Nora Roberts, born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950, is an American writer of romance under that name. As J. D. Robb, Roberts writes police procedurals with science-fiction elements, and has also published as Jill March and, in the UK, as Sarah Hardesty. This listing carries 280 Roberts books, opening with Irish Thoroughbred (1981); The Missing is scheduled for 2027. Series on the page include the In Death Universe, the MacGregors, Night Tales, the Calhoun Women, the Chesapeake Bay Saga, Irish Hearts and the O'Hurleys.

Faye Kellerman (Faye Marder Kellerman, born July 31, 1952) is an American author of mystery novels. The Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series is the centre of the work, and the catalogue opens with The Ritual Bath in 1986. Kellerman also wrote non-series novels, among them The Quality of Mercy (1989). The catalogue contains 37 books through The Hunt (2022). Police procedure, murder investigation and Jewish life appear in the subjects.

Peter Robinson

49 books• 6 series

Born in Britain on 17 March 1950 and later a Canadian, Peter Robinson wrote crime novels featuring Inspector Alan Banks and set in Yorkshire, and died on 4 October 2022. Robinson's catalogue opens with Gallows View (1987), followed by A Dedicated Man (1988), A Necessary End (1989) and The Hanging Valley (1989), and lists 49 books through Standing in the Shadows (2023). Beyond the Banks series, the output includes standalone novels, short stories and novellas, along with some poems and two articles on writing. Police procedure, murder investigation and England are recorded subjects.