Stephen Booth Books In Order – Complete List

Stephen Booth is a bestselling author well known for his Ben Cooper & Diane Fry series, which currently includes 18 books and a short story, with the latest one titled Fall Down Dead. His books in order will be listed below chronologically and in publication order (they are the same).

The British author is well known among lovers of mystery novels, and his Cooper & Fry series has been a favorite of many who enjoy murder mystery novels involving couples or partners who solve crimes.

Here are the Stephen Booth books in order of reading from the first to the currently last.

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Cooper & Fry Books in Publication Order

The Cooper & Fry series by Stephen Booth features DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry as main characters, who are solving complex murder cases. The series is set in the atmospheric backdrop of Derbyshire’s Peak District.

1. Black Dog, 2000
2. Dancing With the Virgins, 2001
3. Blood on the Tongue, 2002
4. Blind to the Bones, 2003
5. One Last Breath, 2004
6. The Dead Place, 2005
7. Scared to Live, 2007
8. Dying to Sin, 2007
9. Claws, 2007 (short story)
10. The Kill Call, 2009
11. Lost River, 2010
12. The Devil’s Edge, 2011
13. Dead and Buried, 2012
14. Already Dead, 2013
15. The Corpse Bridge, 2014
16. The Murder Road, 2015
17. Secrets of Death, 2016
18. Dead in the Dark, 2017
19. Fall Down Dead, 2018

Standalone Novels in Publication Order

• Top Hard, 2012
• Drowned Lives, 2019

Anthologies in Publication Order

• Criminal Tendencies: Great Stories from Great Crime Writers, 2009
• The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8, 2011
• The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, 2011

Should we read the Stephen Booth books in order?

This is a series that I sort of read out of order and I didn’t feel much the need to leave a book and go back to a previous one just to catch up. The author gives background from earlier books in any newer ones, so I think starting the series with any book should not confuse anyone much.

Having said that, however, I do recommend starting with the first book and continuing the Cooper and Fry mysteries in order, just to really understand the interaction and chemistry between the two main characters. If I had to start the series from scratch, I’d definitely tackle them one by one in the right chronological order.

One note about reading the books in order: I haven’t read yet the latest book  Already Dead, however many readers recommend reading first Dead and Buried because one follows directly the storyline from the previous one.

Stephen Booth Biography

Stephen Booth was born in 1952 in Burnley, Lancashire, UK. Very early in his life, at the age of 2, he moved with his family to Blackpool, Lancashire, where he also attended the local Arnold School. At the age of 12 he wrote his first novel.

After leaving school, following his graduation from City of Birmingham Polytechnic, he moved to Manchester to become a teacher, something that eventually didn’t pursue any longer. Next, in 1974, he started working as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines around the country, among them being the Wilmslow Advertiser, Huddersfield Examiner, and the Worksop Guardian. He also worked for various local newspapers around the area. For a while, he also worked as a sub-editor for the popular Daily Express and The Guardian newspaper.

Working as a journalist was Stephen Booth’s entry into the world of writing, which led to him become a recognized novelist.

When in 1999 he was shortlisted for various awards and even received the Lichfield Prize for an unpublished novel, following which he signed a contract with HarperCollins for the first two books in a new series, he knew that his path would soon take him away from journalism and towards a new career altogether.

In 2001 he left his day job completely to focus on writing books full time after his debut novel, Black Dog, which was published in 2000, really took off. The book won the Barry Awards for Best British Crime and was also nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery.

Success followed the author ever since, many of the Stephen Booth books either winning or being nominated for various awards and earning lots of praise both from critics and readers alike. In the UK, the series is released by Little, Brown, while in the US HarperCollins is still publishing the author’s novels through their Witness Impulse Imprint. His books are also published in Canada.

Stephen Booth’s books are pretty much written in the British style of slower action paced novels. However, that hasn’t put me off from reading the books. They’re perfect for those lazy evenings of winter weekends when you want to read something relaxing – yet engaging – on your couch with a glass of your favorite drink sitting on a nearby table.

There is a strange interaction between the two main characters, Ben Cooper and his boss Diane. The author goes in-depth in developing the characters with all their entangled emotions, and he doesn’t glaze over them just to get the story going. And this is something I appreciate – the real 3 dimension of the characters – even with the sometimes annoying traits of Diane.

That’s what makes her – and him – real in our eyes. Diane is far from being a social person, she’s really a recluse, and definitely a people’s person, which makes it interesting to watch her being the boss around there.

Besides the characters, Stephen Booth knows how to evoke an ambient in his novels. Sometimes you find yourself reading pages of descriptions, and while this is something I’d just flip the pages over in another novel, here these atmospheric descriptions work quite well.

As for the plot, I found in most books that it moves along quite well. All in all, I highly recommend this series for anyone who wants to read a good, solid British mystery series. I’ve read his first novel many years ago and decided to catch up to the rest of the books in the series because I really enjoyed Ben’s character.

His books have been translated into several languages and are available in various countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Stephen Booth and his wife, Lesley, live in a village in Nottinghamshire in England along with their three cats. He is currently working on his next book.

About the Stephen Booth Book List and Settings

Stephen Booth’s crime novels are set against the beautiful backdrop of England’s Peak District. This adds quite a unique charm to the stories that feature our two favorite characters, Detective Constable Ben Cooper and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry, who love to investigate cases from book to book.

The Cooper & Fry series are now published by Little, Brown in the UK and by the Witness Impulse imprint of HarperCollins in the USA. The series has been translated into 16 languages, including French, German, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Japanese, and Hebrew.

The series, including 18 books published from 2000 to 2018, begins with the debut novel Black Dog. Set in Derbyshire, England, Black Dog starts with the f a 15-year-old girl, Laura Vernon, and the following investigation led by Ben Cooper.

Dancing With the Virgins, published in 2001, is the following story, set in the same place, and it revolves around a young cyclist’s body found beside the Nine Virgins stone circle..

In addition to the Cooper & Fry series, Stephen Booth has also written two standalone novels. Drowned Lives, published in 2019, is set in South Staffordshire. Top Hard, his first standalone book, goes back to the Nottinghamshire pit villages of the 1990s. With this novel the author gives us a nice, authentic view of that era.

Stephen Booth Awards and Nominations

Over the years, Stephen Booth received several awards and was nominated for multiple ones as well.

• Black Dog was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel in 2001
  • The book received the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2001
  • It was also recognized as the Best Crime Novel of England
• Dancing with the Virgins was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger in 2001
• Dancing with the Virgins received the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2002
  • The book was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2002
  • The book received the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2003
• One Last Breath was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2006
• The Dead Place was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2007

The character Ben Cooper was also nominated for a Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British author.

Stephen Booth received the Dagger in the Library Award from the Crime Writers’ Association for the “author whose books have given readers most pleasure”.