Elizabeth George Books In Order – Complete List

To read the Elizabeth George books in order of chronology, you should first pick up A Suitable Vengeance to start the series with, as even though it was written as the 4th in publication order, the story takes place before A Great Deliverance, so it is a prequel to the series.

The Inspector Lynley books have sparked the creation of a BBC TV series based on the two main characters played by Nathaniel-Parker and Sharon-Small, which lasted for 6 seasons from 2001 to 2007.

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Inspector Lynley Books In Publication Order

Thomas (Tommy) Lynley is a detective inspector with the New Scotland Yard, working with his partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers.

1. A Great Deliverance, 1988
2. Payment in Blood, 1989
3. Well-Schooled in Murder, 1990
4. A Suitable Vengeance, 1991 – prequel to the series
5. For the Sake of Elena, 1992
6. Missing Joseph), 1992
7. Playing for the Ashes, 1993
8. In the Presence of the Enemy, 1996
9. Deception on His Mind, 1997
10. In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, 1999
11. A Traitor to Memory, 2001
12. A Place of Hiding, 2003
13. With No One as Witness, 2005
14. What Came Before He Shot Her, 2006
15. Careless in Red, 2008
16. This Body of Death, 2010
17. Believing the Lie, 2012
18. Just One Evil Act), 2013
19. A Banquet of Consequences, 2015
20. The Punishment She Deserves), 2018
21. Something to Hide, 2022

Edge of Nowhere Books In Publication Order

aka the Whidbey Island series

A young adult paranormal series about Becca King who can hear whispers of other people’s thoughts

1. The Edge of Nowhere, 2012
2. The Edge of the Water, 2014
3. The Edge of the Shadows, 2015
4. The Edge of Light, 2016

Short Story Collections and Anthologies in Publication Order

• Sisters in Crime 2, 1990
• Women on the Case, 1996 (edited by Sara Paretsky)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 1997, 1997
• The Best of Sisters in Crime, 1997
• The Evidence Exposed, 1999
• Murder and Obsession, 1999
• I, Richard, 2001
• A Moment on the Edge (aka Crime from the Mind of a Woman), 2002 (author edited)
• Two of the Deadliest: New Tales of Lust, Greed, and Murder from Outstanding Women of Mystery, 2009 (author edited)
• Suspense Magazine September 2012, 2012
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2016, 2016
• Bibliomysteries: Volume Two: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores, 2018

Non-Fiction Books in Publication Order

• Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, 2004
• Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel, 2020

Elizabeth George Biography

Elizabeth George is the American author of the popular Inspector Lynley series which takes place in Great Britain.

Susan Elizabeth George was born in Warren, Ohio on February 26th, 1949. When she was 18 months old her family moved to San Francisco. She graduated from the University of California majoring in English, after which she received a teaching certificate from the same university.

After she finished college, she began teaching English in a public high school, while at the same time working her way through getting certified in counseling and psychology with a master’s degree.

Continuing her education, in 2004 she received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Cal State University Fullerton, followed by an honorary Masters in Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in 2010.

After close to 14 years of working in education, she quit her job when she published and sold her first novel A Great Deliverance, the first book in the Inspector Lynley series, which the author completed in less than a month.

The Inspector Lynley series features Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (who is also the eighth Earl of Asherton) and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Lynley is wealthy, handsome, and charming. He is so charming that his partner, Barbara often wonders why the criminals simply don’t surrender to his infuriating charm.

The first of the numerous to come Elizabeth George books has won numerous awards, including the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and France’s Le Grand Prix de Literature Policiere. Her third novel, Well-Schooled in Murder won her Germany’s MIMI award.

In the Punishment She Deserves, the 20th book in the series, the two detectives investigate the death of Ian Druitt, a respected deacon of the Church of England in the idyllic town of Ludlow. The death looks like a suicide, but it smells like murder all too much.

Lynley only enters the scene a bit later, once Barbara Havers and another detective, Isabelle Ardery, do their preliminary investigation, but once he is there, things really heat up and become much more interesting.

As usual, this latest of the Elizabeth George book is an excellent British police procedural in the usual style of the popular crime mystery author.

Currently, the novelist has published some 25  books which have been translated into more than 20 languages. She writes books set in England because “I like to write about England“, finding the roots of her passion about the country back in the 1960s when The Beatles became popular in the US as well.

The Elizabeth George books are not only set in England but are also written with a very British flavor. If you don’t specifically know the author’s bio, you’d think she was born on the island as well, even though she was born a continent away.

On her research before writing her books she says:

I go on location to do the research. If there’s a place that’s in a book, I’ve been in that place, with the exception of the crack house in With No One as Witness.

In 2018, the Inspector Lynley series reached not only its 20th book but also its 30th year of anniversary. Currently, the author and her husband, ex-firefighter Tom McCabe, have put their multi-million dollar house on Whidbey Island, Washington State, up for sale, and they both want to move to Seattle. At the age of 69, she wants to take a short break from writing the books. Not for long, though, as she doesn’t want to give up on her favorite series just yet.

While you could read books as standalone, especially for the Inspector Lynley series, it is best to read the Elizabeth George books in order of reading.

Elizabeth George Books Adaptations

Lynley is a new BBC TV series featuring Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay as the detective duo DI Tommy Lynley and DS Barbara Havers. It will be a four-part series distributed worldwide by BBC.

Elizabeth George Awards and Nominations

Over the years, Elizabeth George has received and was nominated several times for her bestselling novels.

• A Great Deliverance received the Agatha Award for Best First Novel in 1988
• A Great Deliverance was nominated for the 1989 Edgar Award for Best First Novel
• A Great Deliverance was nominated for the 1989 Macavity Award for Best Novel
• A Great Deliverance received the Anthony Award for Best First Novel in 1989
• Well-Schooled In Murder was nominated for the 1991 Macavity Award for Best Novel
• Missing Joseph was nominated for the 1994 Macavity Award for Best Novel
• Playing For The Ashes was nominated for the 1995 Macavity Award for Best Novel
• A Suitable Vengeance was nominated for the 1992 Dilys Award for Best Book
• The Edge of Nowhere was nominated for the 2012 Agatha Award for Best Children/Young Adult Fiction
• The Edge of Nowhere was nominated for the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel

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