Organized crime book series in reading order

by Janet Evanovich

by James Lee Burke

by Mike Lawson

by Donald E. Westlake

by Quintin Jardine

by Ian Hamilton

by Steve Hamilton

by Kathy Reichs

by Rob Thomas

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).

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.

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.

Howie Carr

13 books• 1 series

Howie Carr is an American radio host, reporter and author with 13 catalogued books. The Brothers Bulger (2006) opens the run, followed by Hitman (2011), Hard Knocks (2012), Ratman (2013), Rifleman (2013), Plug Uglies (2014), Killers (2015) and What Really Happened (2018), reaching Mass Corruption in 2025. Two volumes of Kennedy Babylon appeared in 2018 and 2020. Organised crime in Boston, gangsters, murderers, political corruption and Massachusetts politicians run through the subjects. Carr hosts The Howie Carr Show from Wellesley, Massachusetts, broadcast weekdays on WRKO in Boston, and writes three columns a week for the Boston Herald.

Janet Evanovich

79 books• 13 series

Stephanie Plum, a bail bond agent turned bounty hunter, is the recurring lead of Janet Evanovich's longest series. Evanovich writes humorous mystery and romance, and the catalogue holds 79 books from Full House (1981) to Split Second in 2026. Other recurring lines include Kate O'Hare & Nicolas Fox, Lizzy & Diesel, Knight and Moon, Alexandra Barnaby and the Culhane Family.

Paranormal romance is Christine Feehan's field, with vampires, shapeshifters and the Carpathians recurring across the work. Feehan's 119 catalogued books open with Dark Prince and Dark Desire (1999) and reach Dark Joy (2026). The Dark books head the list, joined by GhostWalkers, Leopard People, Torpedo Ink, Shadow Riders and the two Sea Haven sequences, Drake Sisters and Sisters of the Heart. The 2010s hold the largest share of the catalogue.

Espionage, terrorism and the Second World War supply Jack Higgins with his material. Higgins published the earliest of 76 catalogued books as Harry Patterson, among them Sad Wind from the Sea (1959), Cry of the Hunter (1960) and Hell Is Too Crowded (1962). Sean Dillon, Paul Chavasse, Liam Devlin and Martin Fallon head series of their own, alongside standalone thrillers. The Midnight Bell, published in 2016, closes the catalogue.

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.

Malcolm Mackay, born on 1 September 1981 in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, writes Scottish crime fiction. The Glasgow Underworld books and the Saviors books make up nine catalogued titles, from The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter (2013) to Saviors (2019), with gangsters, organised crime and hired killers throughout. How a Gunman Says Goodbye took the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year in 2013. Nothing has followed since 2019.

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.

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.

Mike Lawson writes political thrillers built around government investigators. The catalogue lists 25 books, from The Inside Ring (2005) to The Asset (2026), in two named series: Joe DeMarco and Agent Kay Hamilton. Joe DeMarco is the recurring character. House Rules / Dead on Arrival (2008), House Secrets (2009) and House Justice (2010) appear early in the run, alongside the standalone title Rosarito Beach (2013). Undercover operations, drug trafficking and the US Drug Enforcement Administration appear among the subject headings.

Dan Simmons

41 books• 9 series

Dan Simmons (1948-2026) wrote science fiction and horror, often mixing the two inside a single novel. The Hyperion Cantos is Simmons's central work, opening with Hyperion (1989) and continuing in The Fall of Hyperion (1990); the Ilium cycle is the other major sequence. Song of Kali (1985), his first book, won the World Fantasy Award. Simmons also wrote mysteries and thrillers, some following the recurring character Joe Kurtz, plus standalone horror, short fiction and non-fiction. 41 catalogued titles run to Omega Canyon (2020) at a median of 480 pages, with the 1990s his heaviest decade.

Brian Freemantle (10 June 1936 – 23 December 2024) was an English writer of thrillers and nonfiction, known for the 1977 spy novel Charlie Muffin. The catalogue opens with The Touchables (1969) and ends with The Cloud Collector (2015). Charlie Muffin is a recurring character, and Cowley and Danilov and Sebastian Holmes are further series. Espionage, intelligence services, Great Britain, Russia and the Soviet Union are recorded subjects. Other titles include Goodbye To An Old Friend (1973), Face Me When You Walk Away (1976) and The Inscrutable Charlie Muffin (1979).

Gabrielle Zevin

10 books• 1 series

Gabrielle Zevin's 10 catalogued books span 2005 to 2022. Elsewhere (2005) and Margarettown (2005) open the list, followed by Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (2007), The Hole We're in (2010) and a three-book sequence of All These Things I've Done (2011), Because It Is My Blood (2012) and In the Age of Love and Chocolate (2013). The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014), Young Jane Young (2017) and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) close the run. Families, high schools, organized crime and death are the recorded subjects. The catalogue has been dormant since 2022.

Ali Vali writes lesbian romance and romantic suspense, with 41 books catalogued from All It Took Was You (2001) to Journey to Amazonia (2026). Cain Casey is a series, and The Devil Inside (2006), The Devil Unleashed (2006) and Deal with the Devil (2008) are among the listed titles. Genesis Clan, Harry & Desi's, Sept Savoie & Keegan Blanchard, Blue Skies and Waves are other series. Subjects include New Orleans, organized crime, women lawyers, restaurateurs and lesbian police officers.

Organised crime and Italian American life shape Lorenzo Carcaterra's books. Sleepers (1995) is the best known, set in Hell's Kitchen and adapted into a film in 1996. Carcaterra, born in 1954, has since written the Apaches and Tank Rizzo thrillers and the Nonna Maria mysteries, which now lead the catalogue. Sixteen books run from A Safe Place (1993) to Nonna Maria and the Case of the Lost Treasure in 2024.

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.

Stephen King

223 books• 25 series

Horror fiction is the field most closely tied to Stephen King, an American author born on September 21, 1947, and nicknamed the "King of Horror". King's work also reaches into suspense, crime, science fiction, fantasy and mystery, and includes roughly 200 short stories, most later gathered in collections. Carrie (1974) was the debut that set King in horror; Different Seasons (1982), four novellas in one volume, marked the first major step outside it. The catalogue lists 223 books from 1971 to 2026, starting with The Blue Air Compressor, a short story, and reaching Other Worlds Than These (2026). Series on file include Holly Gibney, the Bill Hodges Trilogy, Green Mile, Shining and Talisman.

Dave Robicheaux, a Louisiana detective, is the figure most associated with James Lee Burke, who also writes the Holland family novels around Billy Bob, Hackberry and Weldon Holland. Burke's 49 catalogued books stretch from Half of Paradise (1965) to The Hadacol Boogie in 2026, a span of six decades. Hard-boiled crime in Louisiana and Texas is the core subject. Median length is 387 pages, with the 2000s as the peak decade.

Martha Grimes is an American detective novelist born on May 2, 1931. The best-known Grimes series features Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard inspector, and Melrose Plant, an aristocrat who became an amateur sleuth. The catalogue opens with The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981), followed by The Old Fox Deceiv'd and The Anodyne Necklace, and totals 40 books through The Red Queen (2025). Emma Graham, Andi Oliver and Foul Matter are among the other series.

Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 to March 12, 2001) was an American thriller author who wrote 27 novels and created Jason Bourne. Between 300 million and 500 million copies of Ludlum's books are estimated to be in print, in 33 languages and 40 countries. The catalogue opens with The Scarlatti Inheritance (1971), followed by The Osterman Weekend (1972) and The Matlock Paper (1973). Ludlum also wrote as Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd. The catalogue also carries Covert-One and Paul Janson entries, plus titles dated after 2001 such as The Bourne Revenge (2026).

Elmore Leonard

65 books• 12 series

Elmore Leonard (October 11, 1925 to August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. Leonard began with Westerns in the 1950s and moved on to crime fiction and suspense, and many of those books were filmed. The story "Three-Ten to Yuma" became the film 3:10 to Yuma (1957), which was remade in 2007. Anthony Lane, a British journalist, called Leonard one of the best crime writers in the land. Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out of Sight, Glitz and LaBrava rank among Leonard's best-known works. The catalogue lists 65 titles starting with The Bounty Hunters (1953), plus series featuring Raylan Givens, Chili Palmer, Jack Foley and Carl Webster.

Alex McKnight, a private investigator in Michigan, is the recurring lead in Steve Hamilton's crime novels. A Cold Day in Paradise (1998) opens a catalogue of 19 titles that reaches An Honorable Assassin, with The Dark Side of the Street dated 2027. Nick Mason heads a second series, and standalone novels fill out the rest. Murder, missing persons and organised crime run through the subject tags.