Anne Perry Books In Order (Thomas Pitt, William Monk, Elena Standish)

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Anne Perry is a prolific English author who mostly writes historical detective fiction who’s also known for her non-conventional past-as she was convicted in the murder of her friend’s mother, Honora Rieper, which led her to change her name (the story inspired the movie Heavenly Creatures). But that’s the past. After being released from prison in November 1959, she returned to England and became a flight attendant.

 Later, in 1979, using her stepfather’s surname, Anne Perry started writing. Her first published novel was The Cater Street Hangman. Now, Anne Perry is best known for her series about Victorian detective Thomas Pitt and the one about amnesiac private investigator William Monk. She also wrote Christmas-themed novels, and a World War I series.  Lately, she’s been working on the Elena Standish series, a pre-World War II Spy series.

How to read Anne Perry’s Books In Order?

The Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series

This historical detective series by Anne Perry is about Thomas Pitt, a police inspector in Victorian London, and his wife, Charlotte. Thomas Pitt is from a working-class background, but Charlotte is from an upper-class family and she likes to use her connections to the landed gentry and aristocracy to help her husband solve murder investigations. For more information, go directly to our article about the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series.

1. The Cater Street Hangman (1979)
2. Callander Square (1980)
3. Paragon Walk (1981)
4. Resurrection Row (1981)
5. Rutland Place (1983)
6. Bluegate Fields (1984)
7. Death in the Devil’s Acre (1985)
8. Cardington Crescent (1987)
9. Silence in Hanover Close (1988)
10. Bethlehem Road (1990)
11. Highgate Rise (1991)
12. Belgrave Square (1992)
13. Farrier’s Lane (1993)
14. The Hyde Park Headsman (1994)
15. Traitors Gate (1995)
16. Pentecost Alley (1996)
17. Ashworth Hall (1997)
18. Brunswick Gardens (1998)
19. Bedford Square (1999)
20. Half Moon Street (2000)
21. The Whitechapel Conspiracy (2001)
22. Southampton Row (2002)
23. Seven Dials (2003)
24. Long Spoon Lane (2005)
25. Buckingham Palace Gardens (2008)
26. Treason at Lisson Grove (2011)
27. Dorchester Terrace (2012)
28. Midnight at Marble Arch (2013)
29. Death on Blackheath (2014)
30. The Angel Court Affair (2015)
31. Treachery at Lancaster Gate (2016)
32. Murder on the Serpentine (2016)

The Daniel Pitt Series

A spin-off of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries, Anne Perry’s Daniel Pitt Series is about their son Daniel who is not a detective like his father, but a reluctant lawyer in the 1910s who worked to prove his client’s innocence. Visit our article about the Daniel Pitt series for more details.

1. Twenty-One Days (2018)
2. Triple Jeopardy (2019)
3. One Fatal Flaw (2020)
4. Death with a Double Edge (2021)
5. Three Debts Paid (2022)
6. The Fourth Enemy (2022)

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The William Monk Series

Anne Perry’s William Monk is a policeman in the Victorian era. Brilliant, and ambitious, but suffering from amnesia after a coach accident in 1856, this son of a fisherman has lost a lot and tried to keep this a secret to save his job. After the accident, he met Hester Latterly, a Crimean War nurse and they became close as she helped him in his work. Soon, Monk is fired from the police force for insubordination. That’s why he became a private investigator, working with Hester and Sir Oliver Rathbone to solve crimes. Go directly to our article about the William Monk series for more information.

1. The Face of a Stranger (1990)
2. A Dangerous Mourning (1991)
3. Defend and Betray (1992)
4. A Sudden, Fearful Death (1993)
5. The Sins of the Wolf (1994)
6. Cain His Brother (1995)
7. Weighed in the Balance (1996)
8. The Silent Cry (1997)
9. A Breach of Promise (1997)
10. The Twisted Root (1999)
11. Slaves of Obsession (2000)
12. Funeral in Blue (2001)
13. Death of a Stranger (2002)
14. The Shifting Tide (2004)
15. Dark Assassin (2006)
16. Execution Dock (2009)
17. Acceptable Loss (2011)
18. A Sunless Sea (2012)
19. Blind Justice (2013)
20. Blood on the Water (2014)
21. Corridors of the Night (2015)
22. Revenge in a Cold River (2016)
23. An Echo of Murder (2017)
24. Dark Tide Rising (2018)

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The Elena Standish Series

Set in pre–World War II Europe, the Anne Perry series follows Elena Standish, an intrepid young photographer who carries her dead lover’s final, world-shattering message into the heart of Berlin as Hitler ascends to power.

1. Death in Focus (2019) – It is 1933, and Europe is a place of increasing fear and violence. Young British photographer Elena Standish is on assignment in Amalfi when she meets Ian Newton, a charming Englishman with whom she falls in love.Accompanying him on a train across Italy to Paris, she finds him critically stabbed and dying. He tells her he is a member of Britain’s Secret Service, on his way to Berlin to warn MI6 so that they can foil a plot to assassinate one of Hitler’s vilest henchmen and blame Britain for it, thus causing a devastating diplomatic crisis. Elena promises to deliver the message. But she is too late and finds herself fleeing for her life.
2. A Question of Betrayal (2020) – July, 1934. Following the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss in Vienna, Elena Standish is enlisted by MI6 in London to travel to Trieste to rescue her former lover, Aiden Strother.
   Aiden left her broken-hearted several years ago, and she vowed to have nothing more to do with him, but MI6 chief Peter Howard explains that Aiden was acting undercover at the time and is a loyal British double agent…
3. A Darker Reality (2021) – Spring, 1934. Elena Standish is visiting her grandparents’ home in Washington, DC, when tragedy strikes. A lavish party is held to mark her grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary, and Elena takes pride in capturing the event on camera, but when the beautiful wife of a renowned scientist is found murdered in the driveway, allegedly run over by Elena’s grandfather’s car, Elena’s world is turned upside down.

4. A Truth To Lie For (2022) – Summer of 1934. Hitler is nearing the summit of supreme power in Germany, his eyes set on European domination. When Britain’s MI6 gets word that a pair of German scientists have made breakthroughs in germ warfare, they send Elena Standish on a dangerous mission to get one of them out of Germany before he’s forced to share his knowledge and its devastating power with Hitler’s elite.
5. The Traitor Among Us (2023) – Not far from the sprawling grounds of Wyndham Hall, longtime MI6 agent John Repton’s body is found with a bullet hole through the heart. The corpse’s proximity to the estate sends ripples of concern through the intelligence community: Repton was killed while surveilling the members of a household with alleged ties to fascists-who threaten the security of the country as Hitler’s control spreads across Europe. Elena Standish is assigned the case since she has a connection to the Wyndham family…

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The World War I series

These World War I novels by Anne Perry juxtapose the tranquil life of the English countryside with the horrors of war.

1. No Graves As Yet (2003) – On a sunny afternoon in late June 1914, Cambridge professor Joseph Reavley learns that his parents have died in an automobile crash. Joseph’s brother, an officer in the Intelligence Service, reveals that their father had been en route to London with a mysterious secret document– allegedly possessing the power to disgrace England and destroy the civilized world.Now, that explosive paper has vanished, and Joseph is left to wonder: How had it fallen into the hands of his father, a quiet countryman?
2. Shoulder the Sky (2004) – By April 1915, as chaplain Joseph Reavley tends to the soldiers in his care, the nightmare of trench warfare is impartially cutting down England’s youth. On one of his rescue forays into no-man’s-land, Joseph finds the body of an arrogant war correspondent, Eldon Prentice.A nephew of the respected General Owen Cullingford, Prentice was despised for his prying attempts to elicit facts that would turn public opinion against the war. Most troublesome to Joseph, Prentice has been killed not by German fire but, apparently, by one of his own compatriots. What Englishman hated Prentice enough to kill him?
3. Angels in the Gloom (2005) – In March 1916, Joseph, a chaplain at the front, and Judith, an ambulance driver, are fighting not only the Germans but the bitter cold and the appalling casualties of the Battle of Somme. Scarcely less at risk, Matthew, an officer in England’s Secret Intelligence Service, fights the war covertly from London.Only Hannah, living with her young children in the old family home in tranquil Cambridgeshire, seems safe. Appearances, however, are deceiving.

4. At Some Disputed Barricade (2006) – July 1917: Joseph Reavley and his sister Judith are bone-weary as they approach the fourth year of the conflict. On the Western Front, the Battle of Passchendaele has begun, and among the many fatalities from Joseph’s regiment is the trusted commanding officer, who is replaced by a young major whose pompous incompetence virtually guarantees that many good soldiers will die needlessly.But soon he, too, is dead-killed by his own men. Although Joseph would like to turn a blind eye, he knows that he must not.
5. We Shall Not Sleep (2007) – After four long years, peace is finally in sight. But chaplain Joseph Reavley and his sister, Judith, are more hard pressed than ever. Behind the lines, violence is increasing: Soldiers are abusing German prisoners, a nurse has been raped and murdered, and the sinister ideologue called the Peacemaker now threatens to undermine the peace just as he did the war.

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The Christmas stories

A series of Christmas-themed murder mystery novellas featuring characters from other series by Anne Perry.

1. A Christmas Journey (2003) – Feat. Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould from the Thomas Pitt series. It’s Christmas and the Berkshire countryside lies wrapped in winter chill. But the well-born guests who have gathered at Applecross for a delicious weekend of innocent intrigue and passionate romance are warmed by roaring fires and candlelight, holly and mistletoe, good wine, and gorgeously wrapped gifts. It’s scarcely the setting for misfortune, and no one–not even that clever young aristocrat and budding sleuth Vespasia Cumming-Gould–anticipates the tragedy that is to darken this light-hearted holiday house party. But soon one young woman lies dead, a suicide, and another is ostracized, held partly responsible for the shocking turn of events.
2. A Christmas Visitor (2004) – Feat. Henry Rathbone from the William Monk series. It is mid-December and Henry Rathbone travels to the Dreghorn family manor house near Ullswater. But despite the festive season and the beautiful surroundings, this is not a happy occasion; he is going to comfort the family following the death of his friend, the master of the house. It seems that Judah Dreghorn slipped while crossing a stream in the grounds of the estate in the middle of the night, and drowned. And, when Henry arrives, he finds that there is more than a widow’s grief to contend with…
3. A Christmas Guest (2005) – Feat. Mariah Ellison from the Thomas Pitt series. For Grandmama Ellison, Christmas is no reason to celebrate. And when her daughter and son-in-law plan a Christmas vacation to Paris sans hers truly, the cantankerous Grandmama is forced to stay elsewhere–and travels to the chilly, windswept Romney Marshes to spend the holiday with Charlotte Pitt’s parents, Caroline and Joshua Fielding.

4. A Christmas Secret (2006) – Feat. the Cordes from the Thomas Pitt series. Dominic and Clarice Corde, who met and fell in love in Brunswick Gardens, journey to a quaint hamlet to replace the local vicar who is away on holiday. The holiday takes a nasty turn when the vicar is discovered not to be away at all, but brutally murdered and stashed in the cellar. So instead of fulfilling the vicar’s duties, the Cordes are charged with solving his murder. All the while, the picturesque village is becoming increasingly and dangerously snowbound, its residents trapped as a killer remains at large.
5. A Christmas Beginning (2007) – Feat. Superintendent Runcorn from the William Monk series. Superintendent Runcorn is feeling rather lonely during his holiday on the remote, snowy island of Anglesey, off the north coast of Wales. However, he is suddenly called into action when the sister of the local vicar is discovered murdered and draped over a gravestone in her brother’s churchyard.
6. A Christmas Grace (2008) – Feat. Emily Radley from the Thomas Pitt series. With Christmas just around the corner, Thomas Pitt’s sister-in-law, Emily Radley, is suddenly called from London to be with her dying aunt. Leaving her husband and two children behind, Emily makes the long journey to an all-but-forgotten town in the county of Connemara, on the western coast of Ireland. She soon discovers that a tragic legacy haunts the once close-knit community.

7. A Christmas Promise (2009) – Feat. young Gracie from the Thomas Pitt series. Three days before Christmas, in the freezing slums of London’s East End, thirteen-year-old Gracie Phipps encounters Minnie Maude Mudway, who is only eight, alone, and determined to find her friend Charlie. However, Charlie is no ordinary companion: He is a donkey who belonged to Minnie Maude’s Uncle Alf. Gracie is shocked to learn that only the day before, someone brutally murdered Uncle Alf and made off with his rag-and-bones cart and the beloved beast who pulled it.
8. A Christmas Odyssey (2010) – Feat. Henry Rathbone from the William Monk series. Henry Rathbone is called by an old friend whose son has gone missing just before the Christmas holiday. Now in his early twenties, Lucien has known trouble for some time and has often fallen victim to the vices of drugs, alcohol, and women. His father now fears the worst. Their old friend, Squeaky Robinson, volunteers to help as well. Henry agrees and, joined by Crow, a young doctor at the clinic, the pair trawls the pubs, brothels, and opium dens of the West End in search of clues.
9. A Christmas Homecoming (2011) – Feat. Caroline from the Thomas Pitt series. Charlotte’s mother, Caroline-travels with her young husband, Joshua Fielding, and his theatrical troupe to Whitby, the Yorkshire fishing village where Dracula the vampire first touched English soil in the sensational novel named after him. Joshua has arranged to produce a stage adaptation of Dracula by the daughter of Whitby millionaire Charles Netheridge during the Christmas holiday, but after the disastrous first read-through of her amateurish script, only the fact that the company is depending on Netheridge’s financial backing for their spring tour keeps them at work.

10. A Christmas Garland (2012) – The year is 1857, soon after the tragic Siege of Cawnpore. In the British garrison, a guard is killed and an Indian prisoner escapes, which leads to yet more British deaths.Cries for revenge are overwhelming. Despite no witnesses and no evidence against him, a luckless British medical orderly named John Tallis is arrested as an accomplice simply because he was the only soldier unaccounted for when these baffling crimes were committed.
11. A Christmas Hope (2013) – Feat. Claudine Burroughs from the William Monk series. Claudine Burroughs, a volunteer in Hester Monk’s clinic for sick and injured prostitutes, no longer expects closeness with her coldly ambitious husband and dreads the holidays. Then, at a glittering yuletide gala, she meets the attractive poet Dai Tregarron, and suddenly her spirits lift. But an hour later, this fascinating man is enmeshed in a nightmare — accused of killing a young streetwalker who had been smuggled into the party.
12. A New York Christmas (2014) – Feat. Jemima from the Thomas Pitt series. In New York, at the turn of the century, where new American money and old English aristocracy collide, a young bride’s secret past could destroy her future. Jemima, in America as a chaperone until her friend’s wedding, is instead drawn into the crisis, and must decide whom to trust, and how to thread her way through the dangerous streets of this cold, brash new city.

13. A Christmas Escape (2015) – Feat. Charles Latterly from the William Monk series. Lonely Charles Latterly arrives at his small hotel hoping that the island’s blue skies and gentle breezes will brighten his spirits. Unfortunately, there’s no holiday cheer to be found among his fellow guests. The one charming exception is orphaned teenager Candace Finbar, who takes Charles under her wing and introduces him to the island’s beauty. Then events take an even darker turn: A body is found, and Charles quickly realizes that the killer must be among the group of guests.
14. A Christmas Message (2016) – Feat. Victor Narraway from the Thomas Pitt series. When Victor Narraway, Thomas Pitt’s close friend and former boss, and his new wife, Lady Vespasia, travel to Jerusalem for a Christmas holiday, Vespasia cannot shake the feeling that they are being watched. Then, an old man leaves a mysterious envelope for Narraway — and is murdered soon after.
15. A Christmas Return (2017) – Feat. Mariah Ellison from the Thomas Pitt series. As Charlotte Pitt’s grandmother Mariah Ellison finds herself investigating a long-unsolved slaying, it becomes clear that grappling with intrigue and foul play runs in the family.A festive Christmas package left on Mariah’s doorstep contains an ominous present, sparking memories of a twenty-year-old murder that shattered her friendship with the victim’s widow. Though the gift is a bitter reminder of that tragic time, in the spirit of the season Mariah travels to Surrey in hopes of reconciling with her estranged friend and solving the crime that drove them apart.

16. A Christmas Revelation (2018) – Feat. Claudine Burroughs from the William Monk series. Formerly a river urchin living on the banks of the Thames, nine-year-old Worm has never experienced a family Christmas. But thanks to a job at Hester Monk’s clinic in Portpool Lane, he’s found a makeshift family in kindly volunteer Miss Claudine Burroughs and curmudgeonly old bookkeeper Squeaky Robinson.
17. A Christmas Gathering (2019) – Feat. Victor Narraway from the Thomas Pitt series. Victor Narraway and his wife, Lady Vespasia, are invited to spend Christmas at Cavendish Hall with a gathering of old acquaintances, but it is not the quiet, rather stiff house party they had expected. While there, Victor must undertake his final mission for Special Branch, reminiscent of another one in the past, at which he had tragically failed.
18. A Christmas Resolution (2020) – Feat. John Hooper from the William Monk series. Detective John Hooper is blissfully happy in his new marriage to Celia, the cousin of a victim in one of the river police’s recent murder cases. Celia wants the same happiness for her good friend Clementine, who’s just announced her engagement to Seth Marlowe, a member of her church. Christmas is nearing, and this should be extra cause for celebration, but when Marlowe begins receiving threatening letters about his first wife’s death, it becomes clear that he is far from the devout man Clementine thought he was.

19. A Christmas Legacy (2021) – Feat. Gracie from the Thomas Pitt series. After leaving her position with Charlotte and Thomas Pitt to get married, Gracie thought her days as a maid were behind her. But when her good friend’s daughter, Millie, turns up on her doorstep just before the holidays, frantic because things are going missing from the kitchen in the household she serves, Gracie knows she has to find out what is happening. Millie, whose mother died years before, can’t risk being accused of theft and getting thrown out on the street, with no character references for a new position.
20. A Christmas Deliverance (2022) – Scuff has come a long way from his time as a penniless orphan scraping together a living on the banks of the Thames. Now he’s studying medicine at a free clinic run by Dr. Crowe. Lately, Crowe has grown distracted after witnessing an altercation between a former patient of his named Ellie-a woman he not only treated but grew to love-and her controlling fiancé. It seems someone is forcing Ellie to marry the man, and as Crowe’s emotions come flooding back, he sets out to uncover the troubling connection between Ellie, her father, and her betrothed.
21. A Christmas Vanishing (2023) – Feat. Mariah Ellison from the Thomas Pitt series. Mariah Ellison, Charlotte Pitt’s grandmother, accepts her longtime friend Winnie’s gracious invitation to spend Christmas with her and her husband, Barton, in their picturesque village. But upon arrival, Mariah discovers that Winnie has vanished without a trace, and Barton rudely rescinds the invitation. Once Mariah finds another acquaintance to stay with during the holiday season, she begins investigating Winnie’s disappearance.

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The Timepiece series

A young adult series by Anne Perry about Rosie who travels back in time!

1. Tudor Rose (2011) – Rosie hates her life; she’s always getting into trouble, and she desperately tries to hide the fact that she can’t read properly. But everything changes when she is given a mysterious old watch and wakes up at Elizabeth I’s court with the Spanish Armada approaching. When Rosie uncovers a spy she knows she must act and warn the Queen. Can she make it to the port before it’s too late?
2. Rose of No Man’s Land (2011) – Rosie is in trouble at school again, just because she struggles with reading. When she picks up an old watch in an antique shop, it transports her to a World War I Red Cross hospital. As a nurse Rosie listens to the men’s stories and meets Edith Cavell – who helps soldiers to escape from the Germans. When Rosie learns of Edith Cavell’s arrest, she has to make a tricky decision.
3. Blood Red Rose (2012) – When Rosie travels back in time she arrives on a ship bound for America. She soon discovers that she is on an illegal slave ship, trading after the abolition of slavery. First it seems there’s nothing she can do until the crew all start turning blind. It’s up to Rosie to keep the ship running until they reach America.
4. Rose Between Two Thorns (2012) – Rosie travels back in time to 1649: the period of Oliver Cromwell and the beheading of King Charles I. She must mend the relationship between her Puritan brother and the love of his life, who supports the Monarch – but will the two stay together after the King’s beheading? And will Rosie be able to return the present if they don’t reconcile?

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The Tathea series

A fantasy series by Anne Perry about an empress who, exiled from her palace by a bloody coup, travels the dangerous wilds of her kingdom in search of enlightenment-and righteous vengeance.

1. Tathea (1999) – She was an empress until she lost everything. Now known simply as Tathea, she will wander the Lost Lands and become empowered by the teachings in a book-a book will that guide her onto a path even greater than the one she walked as a ruler.
2. Come Armageddon (2001) – Tathea, the Empress of Sihinabar, has continued her odyssey through the Lost Lands for half a millennium, sharing the teachings of a mysterious and mystical Book in order to prepare humankind for an epic battle with the Great Enemy, but now her time of wandering is over as the period of conflict rapidly approaches.

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Other novels by Anne Perry

• The One Thing More (2000) – Célie Laurent stands in the convention hall of the French Republic, watching the deputies vote one by one. Most of them have just one word to say: “Death.” As the night wears on, the outcome of the vote moves beyond doubt, and Louis XVI is condemned to the guillotine. Célie will have just four days to save the king’s life.
• A Dish Taken Cold (2001) – Paris 1792. Revolution is yielding to Terror, and the city is hungry-for justice, for vengeance, for bread. So, too, is Celie Deleure, a servant in the household of the celebrated Madame de Stael, when her infant son suffers an inexplicable death.
• The Sheen on the Silk (2010) – Arriving in the ancient Byzantine city in the year 1273, Anna Zarides has only one mission: to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill Bessarion, a nobleman. Disguising herself as a eunuch named Anastasius, Anna moves freely about in society, using her skills as a physician to maneuver close to the key players involved in her brother’s fate. With her medical practice thriving, Anna crosses paths with Zoe Chrysaphes, a devious noblewoman with her own hidden agenda, and Giuliano Dandolo, a ship’s captain conflicted not only by his mixed Venetian-Byzantine heritage but by his growing feelings for Anastasius.

If you like our article about reading the Anne Perry book in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in Charles Todd, Louise Penny, Ellis Peters, Rhys Bowen…