Jeffery Deaver Books in Order

Jeffery Deaver is an American crime and thriller author and MWA Grand Master best known for the Lincoln Rhyme forensic thriller series, which launched with The Bone Collector in 1997. A former journalist and corporate attorney turned full-time novelist, he was president of Mystery Writers of America two times, and his books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages.

This page lists all Jeffery Deaver books in order, including the Lincoln Rhyme, Kathryn Dance, Colter Shaw series, standalone novels, and short stories, along with the novels written as Jeffery Wilds Deaver and William Jefferies

Latest Jeffery Deaver Books

Untouchable
Untouchable (Special Agent Constant Marlowe novella), February 2026

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Lincoln Rhyme Series (Books in Order)

The Lincoln Rhyme series follows former head of NYPD forensics, quadriplegic forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, who was left paralyzed after a line-of-duty accident, as he solves cases from his Upper West Side home using using physical evidence found at the crime scenes. NYPD detective Amelia Sachs acts as his partner in the field. The series is known for its detailed forensic methods, short and punchy chapters, and the cases centered around physical evidence like fibers, soil, and chemicals, all gathered while racing against the clock.

Reading Order

  1. The Bone Collector, 1997
  2. The Coffin Dancer, 1998
  3. The Empty Chair, 2000
  4. The Stone Monkey, 2002
  5. The Vanished Man, 2003
  6. The Twelfth Card, 2005
  7. The Cold Moon, 2006
  8. The Broken Window, 2008
  9. The Burning Wire, 2010
  10. A Textbook Case, 2013
  11. The Kill Room, 2013
  12. Rhymes With Prey, 2014
  13. The Skin Collector, 2014
  14. The Deliveryman, 2016
  15. The Steel Kiss, 2016
  16. The Burial Hour, 2017
  17. The Cutting Edge, 2018
  18. The Perfect Plan, 2021
  19. The Midnight Lock, 2019
  20. Swiping Hearts, 2023
  21. The Watchmaker’s Hand, 2023
  22. Deadliest Sense, 2026
  23. The Collateral Heart, 2026

Rune Trilogy (Books in Order)

The Rune series follows Rune, a street-smart, film-obsessed twenty-year-old who lives in a squat in TriBeCa. While working at a video store in Greenwich Village, she finds herself caught up in murder investigations due to her stubborn nature and a wild imagination fueled by watching too many old movies.

Reading Order

  1. Manhattan Is My Beat, 1988
  2. Death of a Blue Movie Star, 1990
  3. Hard News, 1991

John Pellam Series (Books in Order)

The John Pellam series follows former stuntman turned Hollywood location scout John Pellam, who is pulled into murder cases while scouting film locations around the United States due to his knack for finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The series was originally published under the pseudonym William Jefferies.

Reading Order

  1. Shallow Graves, 1992
  2. Bloody River Blues, 1993
  3. Hell’s Kitchen, 2001

Kathryn Dance Series (Books in Order)

The Kathryn Dance series follows California Bureau of Investigation agent Kathryn Dance who uses kinesics, the study of body language and nonverbal communication, to solve complex crimes through her ability to read people in cases that often involve stalkers, killers, and heavy interrogations. Set on the Monterey Peninsula, the series focuses mostly on interrogation and reading people to understand their behavior. Each book deals with a different type of threat, from a cult escapee to a stalker to a panic-inducing killer. Kathryn Dance first appeared as a supporting character in the Lincoln Rhyme novel The Cold Moon before getting her own series with The Sleeping Doll in 2007.

Reading Order

  1. The Sleeping Doll, 2007
  2. Roadside Crosses, 2009
  3. XO, 2012
  4. Solitude Creek, 2015

Colter Shaw Series (Books in Order)

The Colter Shaw series follows reward seeker Colter Shaw, the son of a survivalist family and an expert tracker, who works as a reward seeker, traveling the country to help police solve crimes and locate missing persons for private citizens. The series also includes a personal story where Shaw deals with his broken family background. The CBS series Tracker, starring Justin Hartley, is based on the main character.

Reading Order

  1. Captivated, 2019
  2. The Never Game, 2019
  3. The Second Hostage, 2020
  4. The Goodbye Man, 2020
  5. The Final Twist, 2021
  6. The Deadline Clock, 2022
  7. Hunting Time, 2022
  8. South of Nowhere, 2025
  9. The Bookkeeper, 2026

Unsettling Series (Books in Order)

The Unsettling series is a collection of standalone suspense stories produced as Audible Originals.

Reading Order

  1. The Intruder, 2021
  2. Stay Tuned, 2021
  3. Date Night, 2021
  4. The Muse, 2023

Special Agent Constant Marlowe Series (Books in Order)

The Special Agent Constant Marlowe series follows FBI Agent Constant Marlowe, as she investigates criminal cases involving protected witnesses. Dodge is also part of the Broken Doll short series.

Reading Order

  1. Dodge, 2022
  2. The Rule of Threes, 2024
  3. Downstate, 2025
  4. Untouchable, 2026

Broken Doll Series (Books in Order)

The Broken Doll series is a collection of four interconnected short thriller stories released through Amazon Original Stories in 2022.

Reading Order

  1. The Pain Hunter, 2022
  2. Dodge, 2022
  3. Execution Day, 2022
  4. Sixty-One Seconds, 2022

Sanchez & Heron Series (Books in Order)

The Sanchez & Heron series follows Homeland Security agent Carmen Sanchez and security consultant Jake Heron who team up to investigate major crimes in Southern California, starting from the attack on her own sister.

Co-authored with Isabella Maldonado.

Reading Order

  1. Fatal Intrusion, 2024
  2. The Grave Artist, 2025
  3. Face Last Seen, 2026

Harold Middleton Series (Books in Order)

The Harold Middleton series follows Harrold “Harry” Middleton, a former war crimes investigator turned musicologist, in a series of collaborative thriller audiobooks. Jeffery Deaver contributed the opening and closing chapters to each installment.

Reading Order

  1. The Chopin Manuscript, 2007
  2. The Copper Bracelet, 2009
  3. The Starling Project, 2014

Standalone Novels

Novellas and Short Stories

Short Story Collections

Anthologies

Show all anthologies +

Non Fiction Books

Jeffery Deaver Biography

Jeffery Deaver author

Jeffery Deaver is an American crime and thriller author whose work includes the Lincoln Rhyme, Kathryn Dance, and Colter Shaw series, as well as numerous standalone novels and short stories. He has published more than 50 novels since his debut, and 120 short stories. He was a two-term president of Mystery Writers of America and was named a Grand Master of MWA.
Official website: jefferydeaver.com

Jeffery Deaver was born as Jeffery Wilds Deaver on May 6, 1950, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, near Chicago. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, after which he worked as a magazine writer, before returning to study law at the Fordham University in New York City. He received his J.D. from Fordham University, and then he worked as a corporate attorney on Wall Street. He left the law in 1990 to write full-time.

While practicing law, he continued writing novels. His first two books, Voodoo and Always a Thief, were published in 1988 under the name Jeffery Wilds Deaver. Both are out of print and the author does not include them in his official bibliography. His acknowledged debut, Manhattan Is My Beat, followed in 1989 and introduced the character Rune.

The Lincoln Rhyme series began in 1997 with The Bone Collector, which was adapted as a feature film starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie and later as an NBC television series. The CBS series Tracker, based on his Colter Shaw novel The Never Game, has been the number-one network drama in the United States. Jeffery Deaver became the second American author to write Bond novels following Raymond Benson, after he wrote and published Carte Blanche in 2011.

He has been nominated for eight Edgar Awards and received lifetime achievement honors from the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, Strand Magazine, and the Raymond Chandler Award in Italy. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including The New York Times, The Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, Corriere della Sera, and The Los Angeles Times.

Jeffery Deaver Book Adaptations

  • A Maiden’s Grave – adapted into the HBO television film Dead Silence (1997)
  • The Bone Collector – adapted into the feature film The Bone Collector (1999)
  • The Devil’s Teardrop – adapted into the Lifetime television movie The Devil’s Teardrop (2010)
  • The Bone Collector – adapted into the NBC television series Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (2020)
  • The Never Game – adapted into the CBS television series Tracker (2024)

Jeffery Deaver Awards and Honors

Awards

  • The Bone Collector – Nero Award (1999)
  • The Empty Chair – WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award (2001)
  • Garden of Beasts – CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (2004)
  • The Weekender – CWA Short Story Dagger (2004)
  • The Bodies Left Behind – ITW Award for Best Thriller (2009)
  • Bouchercon World Mystery Convention Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)
  • Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award (Italy, 2014)
  • Edgar Award Grand Master (2021)

Nominations and Shortlists

  • Manhattan Is My Beat – Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original (1990)
  • Shallow Graves – Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original (1993)
  • The Kneeling Soldier – Edgar Award for Best Short Story (1998)
  • The Coffin Dancer – Barry Award for Best Novel (1999)
  • Triangle – Edgar Award for Best Short Story (2000)
  • Triangle – Anthony Award for Best Short Story (2000)
  • Hell’s Kitchen – Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original (2002)
  • Born Bad – Edgar Award for Best Short Story (2006)
  • Bump – Barry Award for Best Short Story (2008)
  • The Broken Window – ITW Award for Best Thriller (2009)
  • The Plot – Edgar Award for Best Short Story (2011)
  • Edge – ITW Award for Best Hardcover Novel (2011)
  • The Sequel – Shamus Award for Best PI Short Story (2013)
  • The Sequel – Macavity Award for Best Mystery Short Story (2013)
  • Reconciliation – CWA Short Story Dagger (2014)
  • Hard to Get – Edgar Award for Best Short Story (2018)
  • Connecting the Dots – Short Story Dagger (2020)
  • The Bully – Short Story Dagger (2020)

Edited by

Marika

Founder of Mystery Sequels, a reference site focused on listing mystery and thriller books in the correct reading order. I maintain and update the site’s bibliographies as new titles are released, ensuring accuracy and consistency across author and series pages.

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3 Comments

  1. One of my favorite 2 authors….Stories packed with intelligent and detailed subject matter. Needs to write more novels!

  3. Can you tell me the title of the book that is about the use of data (loyalty cards) in frame people for murders? Thamnk you.

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