Police chiefs book series in reading order

by Michael Pearce

by Michael McGarrity

by Mark Schweizer

by James D. Doss

by K.C. Constantine

Martin Walker

51 books• 3 series

Martin Walker, born 1947, is a Scottish former journalist and historian who writes the Bruno detective novels, featuring Bruno Courrèges, a police chief in rural France. Walker worked at The Guardian from 1971 to 1999, joined United Press International in 2000 as a Washington correspondent, and is now UPI's editor-in-chief emeritus. The 51 catalogued titles run from The National Front (1977) to A Murder in Springtime (2026). Non-fiction in the list includes The Waking Giant: Soviet Union Under Gorbachev (1986) and The Cold War and the Making of the Modern World (1993).

Robert B. Parker

87 books• 9 series

Robert B. Parker (September 17, 1932 – January 18, 2010) was an American writer working mainly in mystery and detective fiction. The Spenser novels, about a private detective, are Parker's most famous works and inspired the ABC series Spenser: For Hire and a run of TV movies. The Godwulf Manuscript (1973), God Save the Child (1974) and Mortal Stakes (1975) are among the early titles. Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall are further characters, and Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch form another series. Parker's books draw on detailed knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area, and Robert Crais, Harlan Coben and Dennis Lehane are among those who credit the Spenser novels with renewing the detective genre.

Cairo under British administration is the setting of Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt mysteries, whose detective is Gareth Cadwallader Owen. The catalogue holds 28 books dated 1988 to 2017, at a median of 207 pages, beginning with The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet and running through The Donkey-vous (1990), The Girl in the Nile (1992) and The Fig Tree Murder (1996). Two further series appear: Seymour of Special Branch and Dmitri Kameron. The 1990s is the heaviest decade, and The Women of the Souk (2017) closes the run.

Reed Farrel Coleman

57 books• 12 series

Reed Farrel Coleman, born March 29, 1956, is an American crime fiction writer and poet. Series include Moe Prager, Gus Murphy, Gulliver Dowd, Dylan Klein, Nick Ryan and Jack Kenny, and the Joe Serpe books appeared as Tony Spinosa. The catalogue also links Coleman to Jesse Stone. The 57 books run from Life Goes Sleeping (1991) to Blind to Midnight (2024), with Walking the Perfect Square (2002) and Redemption Street (2004) among them. Subjects include private investigators, ex-police officers and police chiefs.

Stuart Woods

104 books• 9 series

Crime and detective thrillers make up Stuart Woods's catalogue of 104 titles, running from Blue Water, Green Skipper (1977) to Finders Keepers (2025). The Barrington Universe, built around the recurring character Stone Barrington, is the largest strand; Teddy Fay, Ed Eagle and Rick Barron head further series, with standalone novels and non-fiction beside them. Private investigators, police and New York settings recur through the subject tags.

Fred Vargas

12 books• 2 series

Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is a police chief in Paris, and Fred Vargas built the longer of two series around him. The Chalk Circle Man (1991) opens that run, with Have Mercy on Us All (2001), This Night's Foul Work (2006) and Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand (2007) after it. The Three Evangelists (1995) starts a second sequence. Twelve titles are catalogued, the last of them dated 2017.

Jean Hager is an American writer of mystery fiction, children's fiction and romance, born in 1932, who published romance under the names Jeanne Stephens, Leah Crane, Marlaine Kyle, Amanda McAllister and Sara North. Two of her three mystery series draw on modern Cherokee life in Oklahoma, one following police chief Mitch Bushyhead and the other civil rights investigator Molly Bearpaw. The third is set at Iris House, a Missouri bed and breakfast run by the amateur sleuth Tess Darcy. The catalogue records 55 Hager titles between 1970 and 2000.

Julia Spencer-Fleming writes a single mystery series, the Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne books, where the Episcopal Church and police work meet over murder and missing-person cases. Eleven catalogued titles run from In the Bleak Midwinter (2002) to At Midnight Comes the Cry in 2025, and Spencer-Fleming continues to publish.

Michael McGarrity

19 books• 3 series

New Mexico is the setting for Michael McGarrity's police procedurals, which follow Kevin Kerney from Santa Fe through the state's murder investigations. Tularosa (1996) opens the series, continuing through Mexican Hat, Serpent Gate, Hermit's Peak, The Judas Judge and The Big Gamble. The American West Trilogy and standalone novels bring the catalogue to 19 titles, reaching Night in the City in 2025.

Joan Hess's mysteries run in three series: Claire Malloy, a bookseller who investigates; Arly Hanks, a policewoman in the imaginary Arkansas town of Maggody; and Theo Bloomer. The catalogue holds 45 books, from Strangled Prose (1985) to Caveat Emptor and Other Stories in 2016, with Malice in Maggody (1987) and Dear Miss Demeanor (1987) among the early titles. The catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Mark Schweizer is the author of the Liturgical Mysteries series. The catalogue lists 17 Schweizer books from The Alto Wore Tweed (2002) to The Choir Director Wore Out (2018). The Baritone Wore Chiffon (2004) and The Organist Wore Pumps (2010) appear in the list. Subjects on the listing include humorous mystery, police chiefs, choirs, organists and North Carolina. Schweizer also has graphic novel and standalone novel listings.

Patricia Cornwell

45 books• 6 series

Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is the character that made Patricia Cornwell's name. Cornwell, born Patricia Carroll Daniels on June 9, 1956, is an American crime writer. The first Scarpetta novel drew on a string of murders in Richmond, Virginia, the city where most of the books take place, and the plots lean heavily on forensic science. The catalogue lists 46 Cornwell titles, from Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham (1983) and Postmortem (1990) through True Crime (2026), with Rapid and Fatal due in 2027. Other series include Andy Brazil/Judy Hammer, Winston Garano and Captain Chase. Cornwell has also named Walter Sickert as Jack the Ripper.

Terry Shames writes small-town police procedural mystery, set in Texas. The Samuel Craddock Mystery series opens with A Killing at Cotton Hill (2013) and continues through Guilt Strikes at Granger's Store (2023); a second series, Jessie Madison, runs alongside it. Murder investigations, family secrets, police chiefs and town life recur across the 14 catalogued books, which date from 2013 to 2025 at a median 265 pages.

Denise Grover Swank has 110 books in the catalogue, from 2011 to Last Reckoning (2026). The 2011 titles include Chosen, Here, Hunted and Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes. Series include Rose Gardner Mystery, Rose Gardner Investigations, Magnolia Steele Mystery, Harper Adams Mystery, Carly Moore, Curse Keepers, Bluebird Bay, Asheville Brewing, Wedding Pact, Bad Luck Club and Highland Hills. Subjects range over women sleuths, suspense, romance, chick lit, sisters, missing persons, prophecies and curses.

Charlie Moon is the detective in James D. Doss's mysteries, set in Colorado among Ute communities. The Shaman Sings (1994) opens a 17-book run that closed with The Old Gray Wolf in 2012. Police procedure, missing persons and Native American life carry the series, and the shaman titles - The Shaman Laughs, The Shaman's Bones, The Shaman's Game - group its early years.

Richard Helms writes crime thrillers, with 21 books catalogued from Joker Poker (2000) to A Kind and Savage Place (2022). The Helms series feature Pat Gallegher, Eamon Gold and Judd Wheeler. Subjects include murder investigation, police chiefs and forensic psychology. Voodoo That You Do (2001), Juicy Watusi (2002), Cordite Wine (2005) and The Daedalus Deception (2010) are among the titles.

Rocksburg, an imaginary place in Pennsylvania, gives its name to the K.C. Constantine series. The catalogue lists 18 books from 1972 to 2024, tagged as police procedural mysteries. Mario Balzic and Ruggiero Carlucci are fictitious characters named in the subjects, alongside police chiefs and private investigators. The Rocksburg Railroad Murders (1972) comes first, then The Man Who Liked To Look At Himself (1973) and The Blank Page (1974). Joey's Case (1988) and Sunshine Enemies (1990) are later entries, and Another Day's Pain (2024) is the newest.

Susan Oleksiw has 17 books catalogued from The Readers Guide to the Classic British Mystery (1989) to In Sita's Shadow (2022). Murder in Mellingham (1993) is the second title listed. The Oleksiw series are Mellingham, Anita Ray and A Pioneer Valley Mystery. Mystery, police chiefs, missing persons and East Indian American women figure in the subjects. Under the Eye of Kali (2010) and The Wrath of Shiva (2012) also appear.