Series shortlist

Long-Running Mystery and Detective Series

What are the longest-running mystery series?

BookBinge tracks 30 mystery series with 10 or more books. The longest is Spenser at 53 books; 21 are still going, 5 are finished and 4 have no new book announced.

30 series · Updated 20 October 2026

Mystery and detective series with at least ten books, for readers who want one detective to follow for years. Finished series are marked, and ongoing ones show what's next.

Showing all 30 series

1. 

   Jack Reacher

   Lee Child and Andrew Child

   A drifting ex-military cop walks into a new town each book and dismantles whatever crooked scheme he finds there.

   30 books1997–2025★ 4.4Next: 20 Oct 2026

   Start with Killing Floor (1997) · Reading order →

2. 

   Hercule Poirot

   Agatha Christie

   Christie's fussy Belgian detective works through 33 cleverly plotted murders, from country houses to trains, most readable in any order.

   33 books~7,700 pages1920–1975★ 4.8Finished

   Start with The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) · Reading order →

3. 

   Harry Bosch

   Michael Connelly

   Procedural crime novels following a stubborn LAPD homicide detective through three decades of Los Angeles, best read roughly in order.

   25 books1992–2024★ 4.5Next: 27 Oct 2026

   Start with The Black Echo (1992) · Reading order →

4. 

   Alex Cross

   James Patterson

   Short-chapter serial-killer thrillers starring a Washington detective with a psychology degree and a close family at home.

   35 books1993–2026★ 4.2Ongoing

   Start with Along Came a Spider (1993) · Reading order →

5. 

   The Dresden Files

   Jim Butcher

   Hardboiled detective cases narrated by a wisecracking wizard for hire in Chicago, mixing noir with monsters and faerie politics.

   18 books~7,700 pages2000–2026★ 4.5Ongoing

   Start with Storm Front (2000) · Reading order →

6. 

   Lincoln Rhyme

   Jeffery Deaver

   Forensic puzzle thrillers in which a quadriplegic criminalist and his street-cop partner solve New York cases through trace evidence and late twists.

   16 books~7,600 pages1997–2023★ 4.3Next: 17 Nov 2026

   Start with The Bone Collector (1997) · Reading order →

7. 

   Chief Inspector Gamache

   Louise Penny

   Gentle-paced village mysteries set in rural Québec, as much about friendship, food and grief as about who did it.

   20 books2005–2025★ 4.6Next: 20 Oct 2026

   Start with Still Life (2005) · Reading order →

8. 

   Miss Marple

   Agatha Christie

   Village-set Golden Age mysteries in which an elderly woman solves murders by comparing suspects to people she has known for decades.

   12 books~2,800 pages1930–1976★ 4.81Finished

   Start with The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) · Reading order →

9. 

   Kay Scarpetta

   Patricia Cornwell

   Forensic procedurals narrated by Virginia's chief medical examiner, heavy on autopsy detail and the science of reading a crime scene.

   29 books~12,600 pages1990–2025★ 4.8Next: 19 Jan 2027

   Start with Postmortem (1990) · Reading order →

10. 

    Prey

    John Sandford

    Minneapolis cop thrillers that often cut to the killer's point of view, with dry humor and fast cat-and-mouse plotting.

    36 books~14,300 pages1989–2026★ 4.81Next: 30 Mar 2027

    Start with Rules of Prey (1989) · Reading order →

11. 

    Kurt Wallander

    Henning Mankell

    Bleak, slow-burning Swedish procedurals from the coastal town of Ystad, where a lonely detective watches crime track his country's social change.

    11 books1991–2009★ 4.81Finished

    Start with Faceless Killers (1991) · Reading order →

12. 

    Harry Hole

    Jo Nesbø

    Dark Norwegian crime novels about an alcoholic Oslo detective, with intricate serial-killer plots and a strong taste for misdirection.

    13 books~6,100 pages1997–2023★ 4.82Next: 5 Nov 2026

    Start with The Bat (1997) · Reading order →

13. 

    Inspector Rebus

    Ian Rankin

    Edinburgh crime fiction tying a stubborn, hard-drinking detective to the city's politics, gangsters and buried history as he ages in real time.

    25 books~9,500 pages1987–2024★ 4.82No new book announced

    Start with Knots and Crosses (1987) · Reading order →

14. 

    Kinsey Millhone

    Sue Grafton

    Self-contained cases narrated by a wry, frugal private investigator in fictional Santa Teresa, California, set in the 1980s before cell phones.

    25 books~8,700 pages1982–2017★ 4.8Finished

    Start with A Is for Alibi (1982) · Reading order →

15. 

    Spenser

    Robert B. Parker

    Boston private-eye novels built on snappy dialogue, a personal code of honor and a loyal, dangerous friend named Hawk.

    53 books~14,000 pages1973–2025★ 4.8Next: 24 Nov 2026

    Start with The Godwulf Manuscript (1973) · Reading order →

16. 

    Women's Murder Club

    James Patterson

    Short-chaptered San Francisco thrillers in which a homicide detective, a reporter, a prosecutor and a medical examiner pool what they know.

    26 books~10,300 pages2001–2026★ 4.62Next: 19 Apr 2027

    Start with 1st to Die (2001) · Reading order →

17. 

    Longmire

    Craig Johnson

    Wyoming sheriff mysteries mixing open ranch country, Northern Cheyenne culture, deadpan humor and a lifelong friendship with Henry Standing Bear.

    22 books~7,900 pages2004–2026★ 4.6Next: 25 May 2027

    Start with The Cold Dish (2004) · Reading order →

18. 

    Vera Stanhope

    Ann Cleeves

    Northumberland murder mysteries led by a scruffy, sharp-tongued inspector who solves cases by reading people, set on moody coast and moorland.

    11 books~4,400 pages1999–2024★ 4.62Next: 7 Oct 2027

    Start with The Crow Trap (1999) · Reading order →

19. 

    Roy Grace

    Peter James

    Brighton police procedurals with real investigative detail, several viewpoints and a detective still searching for the wife who vanished years ago.

    21 books~10,300 pages2005–2025★ 4.61Next: 20 Oct 2026

    Start with Dead Simple (2005) · Reading order →

20. 

    Rizzoli & Isles

    Tess Gerritsen

    Medical thrillers from a physician-turned-novelist, pairing a blunt Boston homicide detective with a reserved medical examiner on dark serial cases.

    13 books~5,000 pages2001–2022★ 4.62No new book announced

    Start with The Surgeon (2001) · Reading order →

21. 

    Temperance Brennan

    Kathy Reichs

    Forensic anthropology mysteries split between Montreal and North Carolina, written by a working forensic anthropologist and full of lab detail.

    24 books~8,800 pages1997–2025★ 4.6Ongoing

    Start with Déjà Dead (1997) · Reading order →

22. 

    Department Q

    Jussi Adler-Olsen

    Danish cold-case thrillers with a grumpy detective, an oddball assistant and bleak crimes, offset by warm and funny team banter.

    11 books~5,200 pages2011–2026★ 4.61Ongoing

    Start with The Keeper of Lost Causes (2011) · Reading order →

23. 

    Ruth Galloway

    Elly Griffiths

    Mysteries about a forensic archaeologist on the Norfolk saltmarsh, mixing ancient bones, local folklore and a slow-building personal storyline.

    15 books~5,400 pages2009–2023★ 4.6No new book announced

    Start with The Crossing Places (2009) · Reading order →

24. 

    Aloysius Pendergast

    Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

    Gothic thrillers about an eccentric FBI agent from New Orleans, mixing museum horror, near-supernatural menace and old-fashioned detection in New York.

    23 books~10,900 pages1995–2026★ 4.61Ongoing

    Start with Relic (1995) · Reading order →

25. 

    Joe Pickett

    C.J. Box

    Outdoor mysteries about a modest Wyoming game warden whose routine patrols lead into murder, land disputes and environmental politics.

    26 books~9,500 pages2001–2026★ 4.61Next: 23 Feb 2027

    Start with Open Season (2001) · Reading order →

26. 

    Matthew Scudder

    Lawrence Block

    Hardboiled New York crime novels about an unlicensed ex-cop who works cases as favors, with drinking and guilt as running threads.

    18 books~5,100 pages1976–2023★ 4.4No new book announced

    Start with The Sins of the Fathers (1976) · Reading order →

27. 

    Easy Rawlins

    Walter Mosley

    Los Angeles detective novels moving decade by decade from 1948, following a Black war veteran who finds people for a living.

    17 books~5,200 pages1990–2025★ 4.42Ongoing

    Start with Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) · Reading order →

28. 

    Rivers of London

    Ben Aaronovitch

    Police procedural with magic, following a London constable apprenticed to the Met's last wizard; witty, local, and full of river gods.

    10 books~3,300 pages2011–2025★ 4.61Ongoing

    Start with Rivers of London (2011) · Reading order →

29. 

    Maisie Dobbs

    Jacqueline Winspear

    Quiet, character-driven mysteries following a WWI nurse turned London investigator from the late 1920s through the Second World War.

    18 books~6,400 pages2003–2024★ 4.2Finished

    Start with Maisie Dobbs (2003) · Reading order →

30. 

    Agatha Raisin

    M.C. Beaton

    Light, comic village mysteries starring an abrasive London PR executive who retires to the Cotswolds and keeps stumbling into murder.

    36 books1992–2025★ 4.1Ongoing

    Start with Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992) · Reading order →

How this list was built

This page lists every mystery and detective series with at least ten books in BookBinge's catalogue of 333 series. Statuses were checked on 11 October 2026; ongoing series show their next announced release when there is one. It is sorted with the best-known series first; use the menu to sort by length, the year the last book came out, or average rating. Page totals are summed from each book's page count, and the catalogue is the same one the BookBinge app uses, so new books and status changes reach this page when the catalogue is updated.

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