Anne Perry: Complete Guide to Books & Series

Anne Perry wrote more than 100 books in a career that ran from 1979 to her death in 2023, and most of them are set in the gaslit streets of Victorian London. Her two long series, one following Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte, the other the amnesiac detective William Monk, made the Victorian mystery a place to argue about class, justice, and conscience as well as a place to solve murders.

She is also one of the most widely read historical crime writers anywhere. Her UK publisher, Headline, reported sales of 25 million copies, and The Times chose her as one of its 100 Masters of Crime. This guide covers every series and every book, in order, with advice on where to begin.

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About Anne Perry

Early Life

Anne Perry was born Juliet Marion Hulme in London on October 28, 1938. Her father was the physicist Henry Hulme. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis as a child and was sent abroad for her health, to the Caribbean, South Africa, and finally New Zealand.

On June 22, 1954, in Christchurch, the fifteen-year-old Juliet and her friend Pauline Parker, who was sixteen, killed Parker’s mother, Honorah. Both girls were found guilty that August and, being too young for a death sentence, were detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Juliet was released in November 1959.

She took the name Anne Perry, using her stepfather’s surname, and worked for a time as a flight attendant in England. She later settled in the Scottish village of Portmahomack, where she lived for many years, and moved to Los Angeles in 2017. Her past became public in 1994, when journalists traced her some months after the release of Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures, which tells the story of the 1954 case.

Writing Career

Her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, was published in 1979 and introduced Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Ellison. The Pitt series ran for 32 novels. In 1990, she began a second Victorian series with The Face of a Stranger, and the William Monk books ran for 24 novels alongside it.

From 2003, she widened her range. That year brought the first of five novels about the First World War and the first of 21 annual Christmas novellas. Later came a series about the Pitts’ son Daniel and a set of 1930s spy novels about the photographer Elena Standish. She appeared on the New York Times bestseller list many times, and her agency, Ki Agency, has more than 20 million books in print.

Writing Style

Perry’s mysteries ask why a crime happened at least as often as who committed it. The answer usually lies in something Victorian society preferred not to look at: the gap between respectable appearances and private conduct, the weak legal position of women, the distance between rich and poor.

Her women carry much of the work. Charlotte Pitt uses her family connections to go where her policeman husband cannot, and Hester Latterly, the nurse at the center of the Monk books, is as much an investigator as Monk himself. The plots are traditional detective stories, with a body, a closed circle of suspects, and a final reckoning, but the tone is serious, and the endings are rarely comfortable.

Anne Perry Series in Reading Order

Perry wrote five series for adults, a run of Christmas novellas, two fantasy novels, and a short series for younger readers. Each series is best read in publication order. Years below are those of first publication, and some US editions appeared a year later.

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt (32 books, 1979 to 2016)

Setting: London, from 1881
Main characters: Thomas Pitt, a police inspector and a gamekeeper’s son; Charlotte Ellison, the upper-class woman he marries; her sister Emily; Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould

The first book is set in 1881, when a series of murders of young women near the Ellison family home brings Inspector Pitt to their door. Pitt was educated alongside the son of the estate where his father worked, which leaves him able to speak to the upper classes without belonging to them. Charlotte marries beneath her station and then turns her family’s social access into an investigative tool.

Over the series, Pitt rises from inspector to superintendent, then moves to Special Branch and, in time, becomes its head, and the cases grow from private scandals into matters of state. The couple has two children, Jemima and Daniel. For a summary of every book, see the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt reading order.

  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. Farriers’ 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. Betrayal at Lisson Grove (2010)
  27. Dorchester Terrace (2011)
  28. Midnight at Marble Arch (2012)
  29. Death on Blackheath (2013)
  30. The Angel Court Affair (2014)
  31. Treachery at Lancaster Gate (2015)
  32. Murder on the Serpentine (2016)

William Monk (24 books, 1990 to 2018)

Setting: London, from the 1850s
Main characters: William Monk, a detective; Hester Latterly, a nurse; Oliver Rathbone, a barrister

Monk wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of who he is. He learns that he is a police detective and has to return to work to solve a murder without letting anyone see how little he knows about himself. What he slowly finds out about the man he used to be is the thread that runs through the series.

Her agency lists these books as the William Monk and Hester Latterly series, which is fair, because Hester is his equal partner from early on and later his wife. The Monk books are darker than the Pitt books and spend more time in courtrooms, hospitals, and the poorer parts of the city. For a summary of every book, see the William Monk reading order.

  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) (UK title: Whited Sepulchres)
  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)

Daniel Pitt (7 books, 2017 to 2026)

Setting: London, from 1910
Main characters: Daniel Pitt, a young lawyer and the son of Thomas and Charlotte; Miriam Ford Croft, a scientist with expertise in forensic medicine

This series picks up the Pitt family a generation later. Daniel is at the start of a legal career, and the cases mix courtroom work with the new forensic science that Miriam brings to them.

Perry had written about half of the seventh book when she died. Her friend Victoria Zackheim, an author and editor, completed it, and Death Times Seven was published in 2026 as the final novel in the series.

  1. Twenty-One Days (2017)
  2. Triple Jeopardy (2018)
  3. One Fatal Flaw (2019)
  4. Death with a Double Edge (2020)
  5. Three Debts Paid (2021)
  6. The Fourth Enemy (2022)
  7. Death Times Seven (2026) (completed by Victoria Zackheim)

Elena Standish (5 books, 2019 to 2023)

Setting: Europe, from 1933
Main characters: Elena Standish, a young British photographer; her grandfather, Lucas Standish, who was the secret head of MI6 during the First World War

The first novel follows Elena from Amalfi to Paris and Berlin in 1933, after a chance meeting draws her into the British Secret Service. These are espionage thrillers, faster and wider in scope than the Victorian books, set against the rise of the Nazi regime.

  1. Death in Focus (2019)
  2. A Question of Betrayal (2020)
  3. A Darker Reality (2021)
  4. A Truth to Lie For (2022)
  5. The Traitor Among Us (2023)

World War I: The Reavley Family (5 books, 2003 to 2007)

Setting: England and the Western Front, 1914 to 1918
Main characters: Joseph Reavley; his brother Matthew, who works in the secret service; their two sisters

The five novels follow one English family from the assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 to the end of the war. In the first, the Reavleys’ parents die in a car accident that may not have been one. Their father, a retired Member of Parliament, had been carrying a document about a plot he had uncovered, and the document is missing. The search for the man behind it, known as the Peacemaker, runs through the whole series.

  1. No Graves As Yet (2003)
  2. Shoulder the Sky (2004)
  3. Angels in the Gloom (2005)
  4. At Some Disputed Barricade (2006)
  5. We Shall Not Sleep (2007)

Christmas Novellas (21 books, 2003 to 2023)

Every year from 2003, Perry published a short Christmas mystery. Each one stands alone, and each gives the lead to a secondary character from the world of the Pitt or Monk novels, so they can be read in any order and make an easy first taste of her writing. The last, A Christmas Vanishing, came out in the year of her death.

  1. A Christmas Journey (2003)
  2. A Christmas Visitor (2004)
  3. A Christmas Guest (2005)
  4. A Christmas Secret (2006)
  5. A Christmas Beginning (2007)
  6. A Christmas Grace (2008)
  7. A Christmas Promise (2009)
  8. A Christmas Odyssey (2010)
  9. A Christmas Homecoming (2011)
  10. A Christmas Garland (2012)
  11. A Christmas Hope (2013)
  12. A New York Christmas (2014)
  13. A Christmas Escape (2015)
  14. A Christmas Message (2016)
  15. A Christmas Return (2017)
  16. A Christmas Revelation (2018)
  17. A Christmas Gathering (2019)
  18. A Christmas Resolution (2020)
  19. A Christmas Legacy (2021)
  20. A Christmas Deliverance (2022)
  21. A Christmas Vanishing (2023)

Tathea (2 books, 1999 to 2001)

Perry’s two fantasy novels stand apart from everything else she wrote. They follow Tathea, a queen driven into exile after her husband is assassinated, who sets out to find purpose after losing her family, home, and country.

  1. Tathea (1999)
  2. Come Armageddon (2001)

Timepiece (4 books, 2011 to 2012)

These are short historical adventures for younger readers. Rosie is given an antique timepiece that carries her into the past, and in the first book, she arrives at the court of Elizabeth I as the Spanish Armada approaches.

  1. Tudor Rose (2011)
  2. Rose of No Man’s Land (2011)
  3. Blood Red Rose (2012)
  4. Rose Between Two Thorns (2012)

Standalone Novels

Perry wrote three standalone books, each set far from Victorian London.

  1. A Dish Taken Cold (1998). A short novella.
  2. The One Thing More (2000). A novel of Paris during the French Revolution, built around a plot to restore the monarchy.
  3. The Sheen on the Silk (2010). Her one large-scale historical novel is set in thirteenth-century Constantinople.

Where to Start with Anne Perry

Best First Book

Start with The Cater Street Hangman. It is the first Pitt novel; it introduces Thomas and Charlotte before they are a couple, and it shows in one book what Perry does best: a murder that forces a comfortable family to look at itself.

If You Want…

Books by Time Period

  • Thirteenth-century Constantinople: The Sheen on the Silk
  • Revolutionary France: The One Thing More
  • Victorian London: the Pitt and Monk series. See the Victorian Era hub.
  • Edwardian London, from 1910: the Daniel Pitt series
  • The First World War: the Reavley novels. See the World War I hub.
  • Europe in the 1930s: the Elena Standish series. See the World War II hub for what came next.

All the periods the site covers are listed on the Time Periods page.

Popular Anne Perry Series

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt

The Pitt novels are the center of Perry’s work, and the reading order shows why they lasted for 32 books. The marriage is the engine. Thomas has the warrant, and Charlotte has the invitations, and most of the early cases turn on something said in a drawing room that no policeman would have been allowed to hear.

The supporting cast grows with the series. Charlotte’s sister Emily marries a viscount and later a rising politician, which opens more doors, and Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould, the elderly aunt of Emily’s first husband, becomes a friend and guide to both sisters. When Pitt moves to Special Branch, the books change shape and become political thrillers, but the household stays at the heart of them.

William Monk

The Monk novels start from a harder place. A detective who cannot remember his own life has to judge other people’s, and he does not always like what he learns about the man he was. That gives the series a question the Pitt books do not ask: how far a person can change.

Hester Latterly supplies the conviction. She is a nurse, blunt and practical, with no patience for the way the sick and the poor are treated, and many of the plots begin with her. Oliver Rathbone, the barrister who takes their cases into court, gives the series its trials. Readers who like legal drama usually prefer Monk to Pitt.

Awards and Recognition

  • Edgar Award for Best Short Story, 2000, for “Heroes”, a story that appeared in the anthology Murder and Obsession
  • Lifetime achievement award at the Agatha Awards, 2009
  • Premio de Honor Aragón Negro, 2015
  • Guest of honour at Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, in 2013 and 2020
  • One of The Times’s 100 Masters of Crime

Only one of her novels has reached the screen. A television film of The Cater Street Hangman, with Eoin McCarthy as Pitt and Keeley Hawes as Charlotte, was produced by Ardent Productions in association with Yorkshire Television and broadcast on ITV on 23 September 1998 and on A&E in the United States. A documentary about her life and work, Anne Perry: Interiors, followed in 2009.

Legacy and Final Books

Anne Perry died in Los Angeles on April 10, 2023, at the age of 84. As the Locus obituary notes, she had written over 100 books. The Fourth Enemy was the last Daniel Pitt novel published in her lifetime, and A Christmas Vanishing appeared later that year.

One book was left unfinished. Death Times Seven, by Victoria Zackheim, was published in 2026 and closes the Daniel Pitt series. The Pitt, Monk, Reavley, and Elena Standish series are all complete, so new readers can start any of them knowing the whole story is there.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Anne Perry’s best book?

There is no single agreed answer, but two books are the usual starting recommendations. The Cater Street Hangman opens the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series and sets up everything that follows, and The Face of a Stranger opens the William Monk series with its amnesia premise. Readers who want a short sample often begin with one of the Christmas novellas.

In what order should I read Anne Perry’s books?

Read each series in publication order, because the characters age, marry and change jobs from book to book. The series themselves can be read in any order. Most readers start with either the Pitt novels or the Monk novels, and the Daniel Pitt books work best after the Pitt series, since Daniel is the son of Thomas and Charlotte.

How many books did Anne Perry write?

More than 100. The core of the list is 32 Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, 24 William Monk novels, 7 Daniel Pitt novels, 5 Elena Standish novels, 5 World War I novels and 21 Christmas novellas. She also wrote two fantasy novels, four short Timepiece books for younger readers and a small number of standalone titles.

Are the Thomas Pitt and William Monk series connected?

No. Both are set in Victorian London, but they have separate casts and can be read independently. The Monk books begin in the 1850s, and the Pitt books begin in 1881. The Daniel Pitt series is the one that connects directly to the Pitt novels.

What time periods does Anne Perry write about?

Mostly Victorian London, from the 1850s to the end of the century. The Daniel Pitt novels move on to the years from 1910, the Reavley novels cover the First World War from 1914 to 1918, and the Elena Standish novels begin in 1933. Two standalone novels go further back, to Revolutionary Paris and to Byzantine Constantinople.

Has Anne Perry’s work been adapted for TV or film?

Once. The Cater Street Hangman was made into a television film that was broadcast on ITV in Britain on 23 September 1998 and on A&E in the United States, with Eoin McCarthy as Pitt and Keeley Hawes as Charlotte. No series followed. The 1994 film Heavenly Creatures is about the 1954 murder case in her own life, not about any of her novels.

What is the connection between Anne Perry and Heavenly Creatures?

Anne Perry was born Juliet Hulme. In 1954, at the age of fifteen, she and her friend Pauline Parker killed Parker’s mother in Christchurch, New Zealand, and both were convicted. Peter Jackson’s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures tells that story, and journalists made her identity public some months after its release.

Is Anne Perry still alive?

No. Anne Perry died in Los Angeles on April 10, 2023, at the age of 84. The Fourth Enemy was the last Daniel Pitt novel published in her lifetime, and A Christmas Vanishing followed later in 2023.

Will there be more Anne Perry books?

Death Times Seven, the seventh Daniel Pitt novel, was about half written when she died. It was completed by her friend, the author and editor Victoria Zackheim, and published in 2026. It is described by her literary agency as the final novel in that series, and no further books have been announced.

Are Anne Perry’s books suitable for younger readers?

The Victorian mysteries are written for adults but are not graphic, and many older teenagers read them. The murders are central to the plots, and the books deal with poverty, abuse of power, and other hard subjects of the period. The four Timepiece books are the only ones written specifically for younger readers.

Conclusion

Anne Perry left one of the largest bodies of work in historical crime fiction, and almost all of it is finished and in order. The Pitt and Monk series are the core, two different ways of walking through the same Victorian city, and the later series carry her interests forward into the twentieth century.

If you are new to her, start with The Cater Street Hangman and follow Thomas and Charlotte from there. If you would rather begin in the dark, start with The Face of a Stranger. Either way, there are dozens of books ahead of you.

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