Swindlers and swindling book series in reading order

by Ally Carter

by Scott Lynch

by Ian Hamilton

by Carl Hiaasen

Ally Carter

29 books• 8 series

Spies, thieves and boarding schools furnish Ally Carter's fiction for young readers. The Gallagher Girls series, set at a school that trains teenage spies, runs from 2006 through Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover and Only the Good Spy Young. Heist Society turns to con artists, Embassy Row to diplomatic intrigue, and Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor to a mystery for younger readers. Thirty titles make up the catalogue, which began with the adult novel Cheating at Solitaire (2005).

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.

Fern Michaels was the pen name of Mary Ruth Kuczkir, born Mary Ruth Koval on April 9, 1933, who died on November 12, 2025. The American novelist wrote romance and thrillers, including the Texas quartet, the Captive series, Family Blessings, Pretty Woman and Crown Jewel. Michaels's output passed 200 books with an estimated 150 million copies sold. The catalogue lists 190 titles, from Pride and Passion (1975) to A Season of Secrets (2026). Series include the Sisterhood, Godmothers, Men of the Sisterhood, Lost and Found, Vegas, Kentucky and Twin Lights. Female friendship, vigilantes and revenge appear among the subject tags.

Holly Black

60 books• 18 series

Holly Black is an American writer and editor, born in 1971, working in children's and young adult fiction, with fantasy and faeries prominent in the subjects. The Spiderwick Chronicles, created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and the Folk of the Air series are the best-known work, and the Modern Faerie Tales form the debut trilogy. The catalogue opens with Tithe (2002) and lists 60 books to 2026, including Curse Workers, Book of Night and the Stolen Heir Duology, with 2 titles shared with Cassandra Clare. Black has received a Nebula Award, a Newbery Honor and a Mythopoeic Award.

Hardboiled crime fiction is Jim Thompson's territory. Born James Myers Thompson in 1906 and died in 1977, Thompson wrote more than 30 novels, most of them original paperbacks issued from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, about swindlers, criminals, alcoholics and murderers in Oklahoma and Los Angeles. Recognition arrived late: little noticed in his lifetime beyond Anthony Boucher's reviews in The New York Times, Thompson was rediscovered when the Black Lizard imprint reissued his novels in the late 1980s. The Killer Inside Me, Savage Night, A Hell of a Woman and Pop. 1280 are his best-regarded books, among 33 catalogued titles dated 1942 to 1989.

David Robbins is a Western writer, according to subject records that name Skye Fargo and Canyon O'Grady as fictitious characters and cite frontier and pioneer life, Colorado and Texas. Series listed under the name include Wilderness, Canyon O'Grady, White Apache, Mountain Majesty, Davy Crockett, Preacher's Law and Blood Feud, alongside Omega Sub and Battlefield Mars. Endworld is also among the linked names. Stalked (2020) is the most recent title in the listing.

Tabor Evans is a house pseudonym used by a number of authors at Jove Books for the Longarm westerns. The Longarm novels follow Custis Long, known as Longarm, a U.S. Deputy Marshal working out of Denver, Colorado in the 1880s. The catalogue lists 464 books, from Longarm (1978) to Longarm and the Model Prisoner (2015), with the 2000s the busiest decade. Longarm Giant is also listed as a series. Subjects include outlaws, frontier and pioneer life, U.S. marshals, missing persons and Wyoming.

Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Mysteries pair the midwife Sarah Brandt with the police detective Frank Malloy in historical murder investigations. Thompson's full catalogue holds 56 books, opening with Texas Treasure (1985), one of several early Texas titles, and reaching City of Promises (2026). The Counterfeit Lady series, the Tates of Texas, the Hired Gunslinger books and two further historical lines complete the list.

Terry Pratchett

148 books• 18 series

Terry Pratchett (28 April 1948 to 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist and satirist. Discworld, a run of 41 comic fantasy novels published from 1983 to 2015, is the work most associated with Pratchett, together with Good Omens (1990), written with Neil Gaiman. The Carpet People (1971) was the first Pratchett novel, and The Colour of Magic (1983) opened Discworld. The Shepherd's Crown, the last Discworld novel, came out in August 2015, five months after Pratchett's death. The catalogue also lists the Long Earth, Bromeliad Trilogy and Johnny Maxwell series, with The Discworld Bestiary dated 2026.

Linwood Barclay

37 books• 9 series

Linwood Barclay, born in 1955, is an American-born Canadian novelist, humorist and former columnist. Barclay's detective novels have been bestsellers in Canada and abroad since No Time for Goodbye (2007). The catalogue holds 37 Barclay books, reaching back to Father Knows Zilch (1996) and forward to Not a Word (2026). Series include Promise Falls, Zack Walker, Keisha Ceylon and Chase, and the subjects take in suspense, missing persons, journalists, families and humor.

Jayne Ann Krentz, born Jayne Castle on 28 March 1948 in Cobb, California, is an American romance novelist with New York Times bestsellers under seven pseudonyms. Three names remain in use: Krentz for contemporary romantic suspense, Amanda Quick for historical romantic suspense and Jayne Ann Castle for futuristic and paranormal romantic suspense. More than 35 million copies are in print. The catalogue lists 205 books, from Vintage of Surrender (1979, as Jayne Castle) to Enter the Nightmare (2026), with The Book Hunter due in 2027. Early titles also appeared as Jayne Bentley, Jayne Taylor and Stephanie James. Series include Burning Cove, Eclipse Bay and the Dreamlight Trilogy.

Eric Jerome Dickey wrote about African American men and women, love and betrayal, often in Los Angeles. 33 catalogued books run from Sister, Sister (1996) to The Son of Mr. Suleman, including Friends and Lovers (1997), Milk in My Coffee (1998), Cheaters (1999) and Liar's Game (2000). The Gideon novels, the McBroom Sisters and Nia Simone Bijou head series of their own, alongside standalone fiction, short stories and graphic novels. The catalogue closed in 2021.

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.

Barbara Freethy is a California-born, #1 New York Times bestselling American author of women's fiction, contemporary romance and romantic suspense. Freethy has won the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award twice, sold more than 5 million books and placed 18 titles on the New York Times list, and Amazon named Freethy its KDP Bestselling Author of All Time in 2014. The catalogue holds 109 books from Promise of Marriage (1990) to Love Me Like You Do (2026), with Whoever She Was due in 2027. Callaways, Off The Grid: FBI, Angel's Bay, River Rock and Mysteries Uncorked are among the series.

Nikki Turner is an American writer of urban fiction whom Trendsetter Magazine called the Queen of Hip Hop Lit. A Hustler's Wife and A Project Chick, both from 2003, were the first two books and had sold about 150,000 copies by 2005. Turner, born in Richmond, Virginia, holds a degree from North Carolina Central University and left work as a travel agent to write full time, aiming to show the dark side of street life. The catalogue lists 28 books through Mamma (2024), including The Glamorous Life (2005), Riding Dirty on I-95 (2006), Forever a Hustler's Wife (2007) and Black Widow (2008). Unique, A Hustler's Wife, Project Chick and Glamorous Life are the series.

James Swain writes crime fiction and books on card magic. Two recurring figures carry the crime novels: Tony Valentine, a private investigator, and Jack Carpenter, a former police officer who recovers missing children. Card dealers, gambling crime, swindlers and Las Vegas run through the subject headings. The catalogue holds 28 books published between 1989 and 2026, from The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1989) to Neon Hustle (2026). Other series include Billy Cunningham, Lancaster & Daniels, Vincent Hardare and Peter Warlock. The magic titles, among them Miracles With Cards (1996) and 21st Century Card Magic (1999), are self-published. Swain, born in 1956, has twice been nominated for the Barry Award.

Scott Lynch

11 books• 3 series

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence is the series American fantasy writer Scott Lynch, born April 2, 1978, is best known for. The Lies of Locke Lamora, bought by Orion Books in August 2004, came out in June 2006 from Gollancz in the United Kingdom and Bantam in the United States. Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007) and The Republic of Thieves (2013) continued the sequence, and The Thorn of Emberlain is planned as the fourth of seven books. The catalogue holds 11 books through Kaiju Agonistes (2026), including The Effigy Engine (2018) and Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent (2024). Swindlers, robbers and epic fantasy appear in the subjects.

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.

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.

Scotland is where Gerald Hammond's mysteries take place, much of the action in the invented town of Newton Lauder. Keith Calder is a gunsmith, John Cunningham a dog breeder, and Honey Laird leads a third series; between them they carry a catalogue of 73 books. Hammond wrote short, at a median of 190 pages, from Fred in Situ (1965) to The Unkindest Cut in 2012.

Ava Lee, a forensic accountant and martial artist, carries Ian Hamilton's crime series. Twenty-two books are catalogued between 2011 and 2024, opening with The Water Rat of Wanchai (2011), also issued as The Deadly Touch of the Tigress, and continuing through The Wild Beasts of Wuhan (2011), The Red Pole of Macau (2012), The King of Shanghai (2014) and The Couturier of Milan (2017). The Uncle Chow Tung books run alongside. Gangsters, swindling and forensic accounting recur as subjects.

Greg Cox, born in 1959, is an American science fiction writer whose work includes media tie-ins; Cox lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania. Star Trek novels by Cox include The Eugenics Wars (Volumes One and Two), The Q Continuum, Assignment: Eternity and The Black Shore. Readers of Dreamwatch magazine voted The Eugenics Wars: Volume One, Cox's first Khan novel, the best science fiction book of its year. The catalogue lists 65 books from The Pirate Paradox (1991) to Identity Theft (2025). Other series include DC Comics Novels, Librarians, Warehouse 13, X-Men and The Avengers: Gamma Quest and Robert Silverberg's Time Tours.

William Trevor, born William Trevor Cox on 24 May 1928 and died 20 November 2016, was an Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer, widely rated among the finest short story writers in English. Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, most recently for Love and Summer (2009), which also reached the International Dublin Literary Award shortlist in 2011. He took the International Nonino Prize in 2008 and was made a Saoi of Aosdana in 2014. His catalogue holds 55 titles, from A Standard of Behaviour (1958) to Last Stories (2018).

Canadian travel writer and novelist Will Ferguson, born October 12, 1964, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel 419 (2012). Ferguson's 21 catalogued books begin in 1998 with humorous travel writing such as Hokkaido Highway Blues and The Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan. His Canadian humour includes Why I Hate Canadians (1999) and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw (2004). Ferguson also writes the Miranda Abbott Mystery series, and Killer on the First Page (2025) is the newest title.