Alan Hunter books

Inspector George Gently Reading Order

Alan Hunter (1922-2005) was a British author who spent most of his life in Norfolk, England, and set the majority of his detective fiction in that region. He began the Inspector George Gently series in 1955 with Gently Does It and continued writing new entries for over four decades. Hunter published 47 Gently novels during his lifetime, with four additional titles released posthumously between 2014 and 2016. The series is one of the longest-running single-detective series in British crime fiction.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Hunter worked as a bookseller and poultry farmer. His deep familiarity with East Anglia gives the Gently books a strong sense of place, with Norfolk’s broads, heaths, and coastal towns serving as frequent settings. Hunter also occasionally sent Gently abroad, as in Gently Continental and Gently French, but the series always returned to its English roots. The books were adapted into a BBC television series starring Martin Shaw in 2007, though the show relocated the action to northeast England. Hunter’s writing style is measured and atmospheric, more interested in character and setting than in graphic violence or fast-paced action.