Reading Order
Inspector Wexfordseries.seoTitleShort
Start with From Doon With Death and continue through all 25 books in the listed reading order.
Start Here
Start with From Doon With Death
Book 1 by Ruth Rendell
Use the reading order above to move through the series in the intended sequence.
Complete List
Inspector Wexford reading order
Ends with No Man's Nightingale
- 1
Book 1:From Doon With Death
Ruth Rendell
Use the reading order above to move through the series in the intended sequence.
- 2
Book 2:Sins of the Fathers / A New Lease of Death
Ruth Rendell • 1967
Wexford thought the brutal killing of elderly Mrs Primero was an open-and-shut case, until new doubts reopen his first major investigation. With old evidence questioned and the past stirred up again, he has to find wh...
- 3
Book 3:Wolf to the Slaughter
Ruth Rendell • 1967
Anita Margolis disappears without a body or clear crime, leaving Wexford and Inspector Burden with only an anonymous letter and the name Smith. As they dig into her private life, a missing-person case starts to look l...
- 4
Book 4:The Best Man to Die
Ruth Rendell • 1969
A bizarre car crash leaves a man dead and his daughter supposedly killed, and Wexford waits for the mother to wake and explain. Then a second violent death demands his attention, until the two mysteries start to connect.
- 5
Book 5:A Guilty Thing Surprised
Ruth Rendell • 1970
Elizabeth Nightingale is found beaten to death in woods near Kingsmarkham, and her husband insists they had no enemies. Wexford suspects the perfect marriage hid something darker, and every new detail makes the motive...
- 6
Book 6:No More Dying Then
Ruth Rendell • 1971
When little Stella Rivers vanishes without a trace, Kingsmarkham is left with dread and unanswered questions. Months later another child disappears, and threatening letters push Wexford and Burden into a race to stop...
- 7
Book 7:Murder Being Once Done
Ruth Rendell • 1972
Ordered to rest in London, Wexford still can't ignore a cemetery murder linked to his nephew’s case. Following the trail draws him into the shadow of a cult and an old scandal, where belief and manipulation can be let...
- 8
Book 8:Some Lie and Some Die
Ruth Rendell • 1973
At a festival outside Kingsmarkham, Wexford finds the battered body of Dawn Stonor, a local girl who reinvented herself far from home. The case pulls him into a tangle around the folk singer Zeno Vedast, where loyalti...
- 9
Book 9:Shake Hands Forever
Ruth Rendell • 1975
Meek, solitary Angela Hathall is strangled in her own bed, and her husband’s calm reaction only deepens the unease. A single palm print is the one flaw in an over-cleaned house, and Wexford refuses to let the case be...
- 10
Book 10:A Sleeping Life
Ruth Rendell • 1978
Rhoda Comfrey turns up murdered with almost nothing on her, just keys and cash, and no one who seems to miss her. Wexford has to reconstruct a life with no obvious footprint, and work out who wanted her gone.
- 11
Book 11:Death Notes / Put On By Cunning
Ruth Rendell • 1981
Flute virtuoso Sir Manuel Camargue’s death is ruled a misadventure, but Wexford never fully believes it. Nineteen years later his daughter resurfaces as an heiress with a suspicious story, and the reopened case become...
- 12
Book 12:Speaker of Mandarin
Ruth Rendell • 1983
Back from China, Wexford can’t shake the memory of an old woman who seemed to shadow him, and a drowning he never explained. When a fellow traveler is murdered in England, he realizes the answers may lie in what he mi...
- 13
Book 13:An Unkindness of Ravens
Ruth Rendell • 1985
A worried wife asks Wexford to look into her missing husband, Rodney Williams, and what seems like a favor becomes a baffling case. When men are attacked and a young woman appears to be the link, Wexford has to untang...
- 14
Book 14:The Veiled One
Ruth Rendell • 1988
A woman’s body, hidden under filthy velvet, is found in a shopping center car park, and Wexford has only a fleeting clue to go on. Before he can dig deeper he is taken out of action, leaving Burden to solve a case tha...
- 15
Book 15:Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
Ruth Rendell • 1992
After Sergeant Caleb Martin is killed, Kingsmarkham tries to move on, until a brutal attack leaves a house full of bodies and one traumatized survivor, Daisy Flory. Wexford senses a link between the bloodbath and the...
- 16
Book 16:Ginger and the Kingsmarkham
Ruth Rendell • 1992
A lighter Kingsmarkham-set tale that steps away from the police station to follow Ginger through a small mystery. It’s a quick read with Rendell’s eye for community life and the odd secrets people keep in quiet streets.
- 17
Book 17:Simisola
Ruth Rendell • 1994
When Melanie Akande, the daughter of Wexford’s new doctor, disappears, the case becomes personal as well as professional. A body is found and assumptions flare, forcing Wexford to confront prejudice while he fights to...
- 18
Book 18:Road Rage
Ruth Rendell • 1997
A proposed by-pass sparks protests in Kingsmarkham, and Dora Wexford throws herself into the movement. Then a young woman’s body is found and people start vanishing, including Dora. Wexford has to keep working while f...
- 19
Book 19:Harm Done
Ruth Rendell • 1999
The release of a notorious pedophile puts Kingsmarkham on edge, and vigilante talk is suddenly everywhere. While Wexford works a domestic-violence program and worries about his daughter Sylvia, two major crimes drag t...
- 20
Book 20:The Babes in the Wood
Ruth Rendell • 2002
After unprecedented floods, a search team scours the River Brede and finds no trace of missing siblings Giles and Sophie Dade or their companion Joanna Troy. With the town expecting the worst, Wexford digs into their...
- 21
Book 21:End in Tears
Ruth Rendell • 2005
A case involving a missing child and a death that refuses to look simple pulls Wexford into a tangle of relationships in Kingsmarkham. As he and Burden trace what happened, they uncover a family story built on secrecy...
- 22
Book 22:Not in the Flesh
Ruth Rendell • 2007
A truffle hunter’s dog digs up a human hand, leading Wexford to a body buried for a decade with almost no trace of how it died. Then a second corpse turns up nearby, and the team has to work backward through time to n...
- 23
Book 23:The Monster in the Box
Ruth Rendell • 2009
An old suspect, Eric Targo, returns to Kingsmarkham and drags Wexford back into a case that has haunted him for years. When another woman is strangled, Wexford is convinced a patient predator is close by, and he can’t...
- 24
Book 24:The Vault
Ruth Rendell • 2011
When hidden human remains are uncovered years later, Wexford and Burden are forced to reopen old questions and long-forgotten missing-person files. The investigation exposes quiet bargains and buried shame in the town...
- 25
Book 25:No Man's Nightingale
Ruth Rendell • 2013
Kingsmarkham is shaken when a local clergyman is found murdered, a man few people liked and even fewer truly knew. As the case unfolds, small grudges and private shame prove as dangerous as any obvious suspect.
Quick Answers
Inspector Wexford FAQ
What is the best order to read the Inspector Wexford series?
The recommended reading order is the numbered order shown on this page, starting with From Doon With Death.
How many books are in the Inspector Wexford series?
There are 25 books currently listed in the Inspector Wexford series on GurusReads.
Where should I start with the Inspector Wexford series?
New readers should start with From Doon With Death, the first book in the reading order.
Is the Inspector Wexford series complete?
Based on the publication years we have, the series appears likely complete and spans releases from 1967 to 2013.