Washington (D.C.) book series in reading order

by Elliott Roosevelt

by Ron Roy

by Alex Kava

by Robert W. Walker

by Ann Ripley

by Matthew Iden

by James Patterson

by Stacey Abrams

Margaret Truman

41 books• 1 series

Capital Crimes, a mystery series set in Washington, D.C., is the fiction Margaret Truman is listed for. Mac Smith, a law teacher, and Annabel Reed-Smith, an art dealer, recur through novels including Murder in the White House (1980), Murder on Capitol Hill (1981) and Murder in the Supreme Court (1982). The listing also holds biography, among it Harry S. Truman (1973), and runs to 41 entries ending at Murder at the CDC (2022).

George P. Pelecanos

27 books• 8 series

Washington, D.C. is the home ground of George P. Pelecanos, an American crime novelist who also works in television as a writer and producer. The 27 catalogued Pelecanos books run from A Firing Offense (1992) to The Blue Flame (2026). The Nick Stefanos, Derek Strange & Terry Quinn and Spero Lucas series sit beside the D.C. Quartet and standalone novels. For television, Pelecanos wrote episodes of The Wire and Treme with David Simon, and the two co-created The Deuce and We Own This City for HBO. Pelecanos was born in 1957.

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.

Vince Flynn

26 books• 2 series

Vince Flynn, an American political thriller novelist born April 6, 1966, built a series around Mitch Rapp, a fictional assassin. The catalogue opens with Term Limits (1997), followed by Transfer of Power (1999), The Third Option (2000), Separation of Power (2001) and Executive Power (2003). Terrorism, intelligence officers, presidents and Washington, D.C. are among the recorded subjects. Flynn also worked as a story consultant on the fifth season of the television series 24, and died of prostate cancer on June 19, 2013. The listing carries titles dated well after that year, up to Double Tap (2026).

Ron Roy, born 1940, is an American children's writer working mostly in mystery. Three series carry the name: A to Z Mysteries from 1997, Capital Mysteries from 2001 and Calendar Mysteries from 2009, with A to Z Animal Mysteries and an A to Z Super Edition line alongside. Roy taught fourth grade in Connecticut for ten years, sold a first book in 1978 and wrote full time after that. The catalogue holds 90 titles dated 1978 to 2024, short at a median 84 pages, and reaches Dolphin Detectives (2024).

Marie Force has 132 books catalogued from Line of Scrimmage (2008) to State of Mind (2026), across contemporary romance and romantic suspense. Force's series include Gansett Island, Fatal, First Family, Quantum, Green Mountain, Butler, Vermont, Treading Water, Wild Widows and Miami Heat/Miami Nights. Islands, Vermont, Washington, D.C., policewomen and murder investigations appear among the subjects. Fatal Affair dates from 2010. Force is still publishing.

26 catalogued books stand under Julie Hyzy's name, published between 2004 and 2018 and opening with Artistic License (2004). Hyzy is an American author of mystery fiction. The White House Chef Mysteries run through the middle of that list, with the cook Olivia Paras investigating murders in Washington, D.C. Manor of Murder Mysteries, the Alex St. James series and Riley Drake Mystery follow, and the catalogue closes with Virtual Sabotage (2018).

Donna Andrews is an American mystery writer with two award-winning amateur sleuth series, Meg Langslow and Turing Hopper. Subjects mark the books as humorous mysteries with women sleuths. Murder With Peacocks (1999) is the earliest catalogued title, and later titles include Murder With Puffins (2000), You've Got Murder (2002) and We'll Always Have Parrots (2003). Jay to the World (2026) is the newest, and Andrews is still publishing.

Naval aviation and espionage define Stephen Coonts's thrillers. Jake Grafton leads the series that opens with Flight of the Intruder (1986), Tommy Carmellini heads a later one, and the Saucer books and Deep Black sit alongside. Terrorism, conspiracies, undercover operations and the Vietnam War are recurring subjects. Thirty-eight books run to Dragon's Jaw in 2019, and nothing new has appeared since.

Ross Thomas (1926-1995) wrote American crime fiction, best known for witty thrillers that lay bare the machinery of professional politics. Five of his novels appeared under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck and feature Philip St. Ives, a professional go-between. Mac McCorkle and Arthur Case Wu head his other series. Twenty-seven books run from The Cold War Swap (1966) to Ah, Treachery! (1994), with Washington and the Cold War recurring as settings.

T. Davis Bunn, born in 1952 and raised in North Carolina, is an American writer of historical fiction and legal thrillers in which Christian faith plays a major part. After a 1974 BA in psychology and economics from Wake Forest University and graduate study in international finance and economics at Gresham College in London, Bunn worked as a consultant and lecturer in international finance in Switzerland and Germany. Bunn is Novelist in Residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford, and divides time between Oxford and Florida. The catalogue holds 108 books from The Presence (1990) to The Sapphire Sea (2026), including Florian's Gate (1992), The Amber Room (1992) and Rhineland Inheritance (1993); some books carry the name Davis Bunn, and Marc Royce and Acts Of Faith are among the series.

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).

David Swinson writes crime fiction set in Washington D.C. Seven books are catalogued, opening with A Detailed Man (2011) and reaching From the Dust (2026). Frank Marr, an ex-police officer turned private investigator, heads the main series, which starts with The Second Girl (2016). Drug addiction, kidnapping and vigilante justice recur as subjects.

Matthew Iden writes mystery and suspense, including police procedurals and private investigator stories. The catalogue records 18 books from One Bad Twelve (2011) to Chasing the Pain (2021). Iden's series are Marty Singer and John Rain Kindle Worlds. Subject tags include Washington, D.C., kidnapping and human trafficking. A Reason to Live (2012), Blueblood (2012), One Right Thing (2013) and The Spike (2013) are among the titles. No new Matthew Iden book has appeared since 2021.

Brad Meltzer

85 books• 14 series

Brad Meltzer, born April 1, 1970, is an American novelist, non-fiction author, television creator and comic book writer. The novels span political thrillers, legal thrillers and conspiracy fiction. Meltzer has written superhero comics for DC Comics and, at times, Marvel, and a run of short biographies of well-known people for young readers. The catalogue holds 86 titles from The Tenth Justice (1997) to We are the Wright Brothers (2026), and I am Taylor Swift is scheduled for 2027. Series include Ordinary People Change the World, Beecher White/Culper Ring and Escape Artist/Zig & Nola. Other titles include Identity Crisis (2004) and The Book of Fate (2006).

Susan Wiggs has 75 books in the catalogue, published from 1987 to 2025, beginning with Texas Wildflower (1987) and reaching Wayward Girls (2025). Wiggs is an American author of historical and contemporary romance, born on 17 May 1958. Series include Lakeshore Chronicles, Bella Vista Chronicles, Calhoun Chronicles, Heart of the West and the Great Chicago Fire Trilogy. Early titles include Briar Rose (1987), Moonshadow (1989) and The Mistress of Normandy (1991). Catalogue subjects include family life, mothers and daughters and love stories.

Phillip Margolin

35 books• 6 series

Legal thrillers built on murder trials are the work of Phillip Margolin. Gone, But Not Forgotten (1993) sits early in a catalogue of 35 books that reaches 2026, and Margolin's series follow the lawyers Robin Lockwood, Amanda Jaffe, Madison Kincaid, and Brad Miller with Dana Cutler. Courtroom suspense and criminal investigation carry the novels, which run to a median of 362 pages.

Maggie O'Dell, a criminal profiler, and Ryder Creed, who works with search dogs, carry Alex Kava's two thriller series. A Perfect Evil (2000) opens the O'Dell run, and the catalogue reaches 27 books with Chasing Creed in 2026. Criminal profilers, women detectives, veterans and search dogs are the catalogued subjects, with Washington D.C. among the settings.

Matthew Quirk

9 books• 4 series

Political thrillers set around Washington, D.C. are Matthew Quirk's stock in trade - consulting firms, corruption and crime. The 500 (2012) opens the catalogue, followed by The Directive (2014), Cold Barrel Zero (2016), Dead Man Switch (2017), The Night Agent (2019), Hour of the Assassin (2020) and Red Warning (2022). Mike Ford and John Hayes each head a series. Nine books are catalogued, reaching The Method in 2026.

Maggie Sefton writes mystery and detective fiction. Kelly Flynn is the figure recorded for the Knitting Mysteries, and knitting, knitters, murder and Colorado all appear among the listed subjects. The catalogue holds 26 books, from Abilene Gambler (1995) to Dyeing Up Loose Ends (2018), and the run is marked likely complete. Molly Malone Mystery, Real Estate Mysteries and the Widow and the Rogue Mysteries also carry the Sefton name. Ellery Adams, Kate Collins, Leann Sweeney and Lorraine Bartlett are each credited alongside Sefton on two of the listed titles.

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.

Barbara Michaels was a pen name of Barbara Louise Mertz (1927-2013), an American author who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters. Mertz earned a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1952, wrote the ancient Egypt histories Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land, and was best known for mystery and suspense novels including the Amelia Peabody series. The Barbara Michaels catalogue holds 29 books from The Master of Blacktower (1966) to Other Worlds (1999), among them Ammie, Come Home (1968). Gothic, supernatural and romantic suspense tags run through the subjects.

Sean Drummond, an army lawyer, is the character Brian Haig wrote his thrillers around. Murder trials, Washington scandal and the Iraq war supply the material. Nine books are catalogued: Secret Sanction (2001), Mortal Allies (2002), Private Sector (2003), The Kingmaker (2003), The President's Assassin (2005), Man In The Middle (2007) and further titles through The Night Crew. The catalogue is likely complete.

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.