Charlie Parker books

Charlie Parker is the pen name associated with a long-running series of dark crime thrillers set in Maine and New England, with 27 books from 1999 to 2026.

Charlie Parker Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Every Dead Thing 1999 Buy
Dark Hollow 2000 Buy
The Killing Kind 2001 Buy
The White Road 2002 Buy
The Reflecting Eye 2004 Buy
The Black Angel 2005 Buy
The Unquiet 2007 Buy
The Reapers 2008 Buy
The Lovers 2009 Buy
The Whisperers 2010 Buy
The Burning Soul 2011 Buy
The Wrath of Angels 2012 Buy
The Wolf in Winter 2014 Buy
A Song of Shadows 2015 Buy
A Time of Torment 2016 Buy
A Game of Ghosts 2017 Buy
The Woman in the Woods 2018 Buy
A Book of Bones 2019 Buy
The Dirty South 2020 Buy
The Nameless Ones 2021 Buy
The Furies 2022 Buy
The Instruments of Darkness 2024 Buy
The Children of Eve 2025 Buy
A River Red with Blood 2026 Buy

Charlie Parker Non-Fiction Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Parker: A Miscellany 2016 Buy
Horror Express 2018 Buy
Shadow Voices 2021 Buy

The Charlie Parker crime series began in 1999 with Every Dead Thing and has continued to grow into one of the longest-running dark crime franchises in contemporary fiction. The series follows Charlie Parker, a private detective and former New York police officer based in Maine, as he investigates cases that often carry a supernatural or mythological edge alongside conventional crime investigation. The books are set primarily in Portland, Maine, and throughout New England.

Parker is a morally complex protagonist who operates in a world where genuine evil – sometimes metaphysical, sometimes banal – has a physical presence. He is accompanied through much of the series by two recurring allies, Louis and Angel, who provide counterpoint to Parker’s increasingly obsessive pursuit of the darkest cases. The series grew a large international readership particularly in the UK, where it found early success.

The non-fiction titles under this author’s name – Parker: A Miscellany (2016), Horror Express (2018), and Shadow Voices (2021) – are works about crime fiction and horror as genres, with Shadow Voices being an anthology of Irish horror fiction. They stand apart from the detective novel series entirely. Readers new to the series should start with Every Dead Thing.


Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Charlie Parker written?

Charlie Parker has written 27 books across two series.

What was Charlie Parker's first book?

Charlie Parker’s first book is Every Dead Thing, published in 1999.

Are the Charlie Parker crime novels and the Charlie Parker non-fiction books connected?

No. The three non-fiction titles (Parker: A Miscellany, Horror Express, Shadow Voices) are separate works about crime fiction and horror, not connected to the detective novel series.

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