Private investigators book series in reading order

by Peter Corris

by Richard & Frances Lockridge

by Stuart M. Kaminsky

by John Dickson Carr

by John D. MacDonald

by Loren D. Estleman

by Ross Macdonald

by Philip R. Craig

by Robert Crais

by Max Allan Collins

by Andrew Vachss

by William Kent Krueger

by John Connolly

by Lawrence Block

by Anne Perry

by Marcia Muller

by Sue Grafton

by Jane Haddam

by Dorothy L. Sayers

by Glen Cook

by Richard S. Prather

by David Housewright

by James Lee Burke

by Dana Stabenow

by Philip Kerr

by Todd Borg

by Lawrence Sanders

by Michael Bond

by David Dickinson

by Steve Hamilton

by S.S. Van Dine

by Richard Stevenson

by Jeremiah Healy

by Stephen Greenleaf

by Howard Engel

by John Maddox Roberts

by Ken Bruen

by Will Thomas

by G.M. Ford

by Dennis Lynds

by P.N. Elrod

by Walter Mosley

Rex Stout

76 books• 6 series

Nero Wolfe, a private investigator in New York, is the figure Rex Stout is listed for. Fer-de-Lance, also published as Meet Nero Wolfe (1934), opens that run, which extends through novels and short stories; the Tecumseh Fox books and a set of standalone novels sit beside it. Stout's catalogue holds 76 titles, beginning with Her Forbidden Knight (1913), and is listed as likely complete.

Agatha Christie

290 books• 18 series

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was an English writer of detective fiction, the author of 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections. Three sleuths anchor the work. Hercule Poirot first appears in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), Tommy and Tuppence in The Secret Adversary (1922) and Miss Marple in The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). The catalogue also carries Superintendent Battle, Harley Quin and Parker Pyne stories, standalone novels, plays and non-fiction, with many short stories listed individually. Christie was born Agatha Miller and published under her first married name.

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.

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.

Leslie Charteris (12 May 1907 to 15 April 1993) was a British-Chinese writer of adventure fiction and a screenwriter, born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin. Charteris created Simon Templar, the hero known as The Saint, and the catalogue lists titles such as Enter the Saint (1930) and Alias the Saint (1931). The catalogue begins with X Esquire (1927) and also lists a Bill Kennedy series. Mystery, crime and espionage thrillers are among the subjects.

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.

Sue Grafton

33 books• 4 series

Sue Grafton is known for the alphabet mysteries, a California series starring the private investigator Kinsey Millhone that runs from A is for Alibi (1982) to Y is for Yesterday (2017). Grafton's catalogue holds 33 books in total, beginning with the novel Keziah Dane in 1967 and taking in standalones and non-fiction. The catalogue is listed as complete.

Cliff Hardy is a Sydney private investigator and the character Peter Corris is known for, beginning with The Dying Trade (1980). Corris (1942-2018) worked as an academic, historian and journalist in Australia, and was described as the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-writing. Ray Crawley, Richard Browning and Luke Dunlop head further series. The listing holds 77 titles dated 1973 to 2017, opening with a history of Solomon Islands labour migration and closing with Win, Lose or Draw (2017).

Bill Pronzini, born April 13, 1943, is an American detective fiction writer and the creator of the Nameless Detective, a San Francisco private investigator who appeared in over 40 books from the early 1970s into the 2000s. Pronzini has also compiled more than 100 anthologies of mystery, western and science fiction stories. The catalogue lists 115 books, from The Stalker (1971) and The Snatch (1971) to The Hanging Man & Other Western Stories (2024). Other series include Carpenter and Quincannon and Academy Mystery.

Loren D. Estleman

122 books• 10 series

Loren D. Estleman, born September 15, 1952, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is an American author of detective fiction and westerns. Estleman is known for crime novels featuring Amos Walker, a private investigator, and Detroit recurs in the subject headings. Page Murdock, US Deputy Marshal, Peter Macklin, Valentino and Detroit are the other series. The catalogue counts 122 books from Red Highway (1976) to Man One (2026), and Motor City Blue appeared in 1980.

Stuart M. Kaminsky (29 September 1934 to 9 October 2009) was an American mystery novelist who also taught film. Four mystery series carry the name: Toby Peters, a private eye in 1940s Hollywood; Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector; Abe Lieberman, a Chicago police officer; and Lew Fonesca, a process server in Sarasota, Florida. A Cold Red Sunrise, a Rostnikov novel, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1989. The catalogue holds 85 books from 1974 to 2011, and its earliest entries are American Film Genres (1974) and Don Siegel: Director (1974).

Debra Webb, born 1958, is an American author of suspense novels and a USA Today bestseller. The catalogue credits Webb with 180 books from 1999 to 2026, starting with Tempting Trace (1999). Series include Colby Agency, Faces of Evil, Undertaker's Daughter, Shades of Death, Lookout Mountain Mysteries and Winchester, Tennessee. Subjects cover romantic suspense, private investigators, serial murderers and missing persons. The Woman I've Become (2026) is the newest title.

Marcia Muller, born September 28, 1944 in Detroit, is an American mystery and thriller author who created the female private detective Sharon McCone. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel after four earlier nominations, and Mystery Writers of America named Muller a Grand Master in 2005. Muller studied English at the University of Michigan and worked at Sunset magazine. Muller is married to Bill Pronzini, a collaborator on several novels. The catalogue lists 74 books, including Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977) and Circle in the Water (2024).

John Dickson Carr wrote traditional detective fiction, most of it set in England. It Walks by Night (1930) opens the catalogue with the investigator Henri Bencolin, Hag's Nook (1932) starts the Dr. Gideon Fell series, and the Sir Henry Merrivale novels appeared as Carter Dickson. Eighty-seven catalogued titles, reissues included, run to 2022, at a median of 251 pages.

John Sandford is the professional name of John Roswell Camp, an American novelist born on February 23, 1944. Camp is a former journalist and a Pulitzer Prize recipient. The Sandford catalogue runs to 63 books, opening with Rules of Prey (1989) and reaching Revenge Prey (2026), with Ruthless Prey announced for 2027. Lucas Davenport and Minnesota appear among the subject headings, and the series list includes Virgil Flowers, Letty Davenport, Kidd & LuEllen, Singular Menace and the Prey Universe.

Lawrence Block

262 books• 22 series

Lawrence Block, born June 24, 1938, is an American writer of crime, mystery and suspense fiction whose career spans more than half a century. Block is best known for two long-running series set in New York: Matthew Scudder, a recovering alcoholic private investigator, and Bernie Rhodenbarr, a gentleman burglar. The Mystery Writers of America named Block a Grand Master in 1994. The catalogue begins in 1958 with Carla and A Fire At Night and reaches Writing Drunk, Writing Sober in 2025. John Keller, Evan Tanner, Kit Tolliver and Ehrengraf for the Defense are further series, and books written as Jill Emerson form another.

Richard and Frances Lockridge wrote detective fiction together. Pam and Jerry North, a married couple, are the recurring investigators: Mr. and Mrs. North (1936) introduces them and The Norths Meet Murder (1940) begins the crime novels. Captain Heimrich, Lieutenant Nathan Shapiro, Paul Lane and Bernard Simmons head four further series, much of the work set in New York State. The listing holds 77 books through to The Old Die Young (1980).

Mickey Spillane

62 books• 5 series

Mike Hammer is the detective Mickey Spillane is best known for, and subject headings place Hammer in New York. Spillane, born Frank Morrison Spillane on March 9, 1918, was an American crime novelist called the king of pulp fiction, and died on July 17, 2006. Industry estimates put sales of 26 Spillane books above 200 million copies, and Spillane played Hammer in the 1963 film The Girl Hunters. The catalogue lists 62 books from I, the Jury (1947) to Baby, It's Murder (2025), with My Gun Is Quick (1950), One Lonely Night (1951), Kiss Me, Deadly (1952) and The Girl Hunters (1962) among them. Caleb York and Tiger Mann are further series.

Les Roberts, born July 18, 1937, is an American mystery novelist and screenwriter. Milan Jacovich and Saxon are the recurring characters, and private investigators, Cleveland, Slovenian Americans and Los Angeles appear in the subjects. The catalogue holds 36 books from An Infinite Number of Monkeys (1987) to Sierra Bravo (2025), with Pepper Pike (1988) and Full Cleveland (1989) among the early titles. The Dominick Candiotti series, standalone novels and non-fiction complete the list.

Margery Allingham (20 May 1904 – 30 June 1966) was an English crime novelist of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, counted with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh as one of four Queens of Crime. Albert Campion, a gentleman sleuth, is Allingham's most remembered creation; Campion made a first appearance in The Crime at Black Dudley (1929) and went on to anchor 18 novels and many short stories. Early readers took Campion for a parody of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey. The catalogue begins with Blackkerchief Dick (1923) and includes Mystery Mile (1930), Police at the Funeral (1931) and Death of a Ghost (1934), with some titles written as Maxwell March.

John D. MacDonald wrote hard-boiled crime fiction, most of it in Florida, and created the Fort Lauderdale salvage investigator Travis McGee. 82 catalogued titles open with The Brass Cupcake (1950) and continue through Judge Me Not (1951), Murder for the Bride (1951) and Weep For Me (1951), with early science fiction in Wine of the Dreamers (1951) and Ballroom of the Skies (1952). Standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction fill out a catalogue that closed in 2019.

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.

Ross Macdonald

31 books• 2 series

Lew Archer, a private investigator working in California, is the character Ross Macdonald is catalogued for. The Moving Target (1949), The Drowning Pool (1950) and The Way Some People Die (1951) sit early in that series, and the listing runs to 31 titles from The Dark Tunnel (1944) to Midnight Blue (2010). Some early books carry the name Kenneth Millar. Hard-boiled detection, murder and revenge fill the subject tags.

John Lutz

66 books• 6 series

John Lutz (1939-2021) was an American writer in mystery, crime and suspense, with a career past fifty years, at least fifty books and roughly 250 short stories to it. Three private investigators carry the series work, Alo Nudger, Fred Carver and Frank Quinn, with St. Louis, Florida and New York among the settings. SWF Seeks Same, filmed in 1992 as Single White Female, is his best known title, and Lutz led both the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America as president. The catalogue holds 66 books, from The Truth of the Matter (1971) to Single White Female Seeks Same (2022).