John Lescroart Books In Order – Complete List

New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart is an American legal and crime thriller writer best known for his Dismas Hardy series featuring a lawyer in San Francisco who takes on hard cases with his partner Abe Glitsky. In fact Abe Glitsky has his own series now. His other series feature Wyatt Hunt and Auguste Lupa.

The author has well over 30 books written to date, several as part of 3-book series, with a few standalone novels included as well, not to mention short stories and anthologies.

Here are the John Lescroart books in order for his legal mystery series, his crime mystery series and his standalone novels in order of publication. The reading order for each book in the series is given in brackets.

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Auguste Lupa Books In Publication Order

1. Son of Holmes, 1986
2. Rasputin’s Revenge, 1987

Dismas Hardy Books In Publication Order

1. Dead Irish, 1989
2. The Vig, 1990
3. Hard Evidence, 1993
4. The Thirteenth Juror, 1994
5. The Mercy Rule, 1998
6. Nothing But the Truth, 2000
7. The Hearing, 2001
8. The Oath, 2002
9. The First Law, 2003
10. The Second Chair, 2004
11. The Motive, 2005
12. Betrayal, 2008
13. A Plague of Secrets, 2009
14. The Ophelia Cut, 2013
15. The Keeper, 2014
16. The Fall, 2015 (features Rebecca Hardy)
17. Poison, 2018
18. The Rule of Law, 2019
19. The Missing Piece, 2022

Other Dismas Hardy Books

• Dismas Hardy: A Mysterious Profile, 2022

Abe Glitsky Books In Publication Order

Some Abe Glitsky novels are also part of the Dismas Hardy series

1. A Certain Justice, 1995
2. Guilt, 1997
3. The Hearing, 1997
4. Damage, 2011
5. The Keeper, 2014

Wyatt Hunt Books In Publication Order

1. The Hunt Club, 2006
2. Treasure Hunt, 2010
3. The Hunter, 2012

Standalone Novels in Order of Publication

• Sunburn, 1982
• The Suspect, 2007 (features Gina Roake)
• No Rest for the Dead, 2011 (with David Baldacci, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Kathy Reichs, et al)
• Fatal, 2017

Anthologies in Order of Publication

• The Best American Mystery Stories: 1998, 1998
• A Taste of Murder: Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers, 1999
• Natural Suspect, 2001 (with Lisa Scottoline, Brad Meltzer, et al)
• Murderers’ Row: Original Baseball Mysteries, Vol. 1, 2001
• Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, 2006 (edited by James Patterson)
• A Merry Band of Murderers, 2006
• Dead Man’s Hand: Crime Fiction At the Poker Table, 2007
• The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives, 2009
• Hook, Line & Sinister: Mysteries to Reel You In, 2010 (with Michael Connelly)
• First Thrills: Volume 4, 2011
• Suspense Magazine December 2011, 2011
• FaceOff, 2014
• Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold, 2014
• In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, 2014
• Nothing Good Happens After Midnight, 2020
• The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe, 2020
• The Darkling Halls of Ivy, 2020

Non-Fiction Books

• Writing the Popular Novel: A Comprehensive Guide To Crafting Fiction That Sells, 2004 (with Loren D Estleman)

John Lescroart Biography

Born in 1948 in Houston, Texas, John Lescroart was raised in San Mateo, California. In 1966 he graduated from Junipero Serra high school after which he went to study at Berkeley UC, receiving his BA in English in 1970.

While still in college, he wrote his first novel which was put on the shelf for 14 years before it was finally published under the title Son of Holmes in 1986.

Before becoming a full-time author John Lescroart wrote and performed his own songs playing with the Johnny Capo and his Real Good Band at various small clubs around the San Francisco area. He performed under the name Johnny Capo. In his 20s music was his main passion and he went after it with full steam.

At around the age of 30, he realized that making it big in the music industry was a dream that would never be fulfilled, so he turned his full attention to writing, and eventually, readers all over the world got a new favorite legal mystery author to follow.

Music still having a leading role in his heart, John Lescroart has now a record company called Crow Art Records.

Only two months after his last musical gig he wrote his second book Sunburn, a standalone novel, which was published 4 years later, in 1981.

Surprisingly, the novel won the Best Novel by a California author by the San Francisco Foundation (coming on top even against books like Interview With a Vampire), and this probably was the turning point in his writing career.

He had now a glimpse of the life of an author and knew he could do it.

Still, writing meant that he had to make a living and pay his bills another way at least until the books were published and sold.

And this meant taking odd jobs like a newspaper editor, computer programmer, house painter, bartender in San Francisco, Ad Director of Guitar Player Magazine, legal secretary, fundraising executive, and management consultant. Talk about a dedication to writing!

After a long battle for his life following a body-surfing accident where he contracted spinal meningitis from contaminated water, he quit his full-time job to move back home to California and write full time.

Having been given only 2 hours to live by the doctors in the hospital, now looking back he realized that life is too short to not do what he really wants to do before it’s too late: write books.

Reading the John Lescroart books in order is easy for most of his series since they include three books. The Dismas Hardy series is currently up to book 17 with Poison published in 2018.

The Dismas Hardy novels are all courtroom dramas, which is what author is best known for (I like his legal mystery series much better than his Wyatt Hunt crime mystery books). In Poison, Dismas Hardy is strongly looking at early retirement. After he suffered some gunshot wounds, he wants to work less until eventually, he eases into his new life. However, it is not meant to happen just yet.

When Grant Carver has been murdered, his bookkeeper, Abby Jarvis, is immediately suspected of the crime. But Abby says she didn’t do it. Now Dismas is taking on the case and in the process learns more about the entire family business than he ever wanted.

What Are the Latest John Lescroart Books?

Currently, John Lescroart doesn’t have any new books. The latest published ones are The Missing Piece and Dismas Hardy: A Mysterious Profile, both published in 2022.

John Lescroart Awards, Nominations and Recognitions

• Sunburn won the San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Award for best as yet unpublished novel by a California author in 1981
• Dead Irish was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel in 1989
• Hard Evidence was named in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Ultimate Reading List in 1993
• The 13th Juror was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Novel in 1994. Also The 13th Juror is included in the International Thriller Writers publication “100 Must-Read Thrillers Of All Time.”
• Guilt was a Reader’s Digest Select Edition choice in 1997
• The Suspect was the One Book Sacramento choice of the Sacramento Library Foundation in 2007. It was also chosen by the American Author’s Association as its 2007 Book of the Year, and in the same year, John Lescroart was awarded for this book the American Author Medal
• The author was part of the California Library Laureates, in association with the California State Assembly in 2008
• Damaged was included in the Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List” in 2011