Inspector Carlyle Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Enemy Within | 2012 | Buy |
| What Dies Inside | 2013 | N/A |
| The Hand of God | 2013 | N/A |
| London Calling | 2011 | Buy |
| Never Apologise, Never Explain / Time of Death | 2012 | Buy |
| Buckingham Palace Blues | 2012 | Buy |
| The Circus | 2013 | N/A |
| The Circus / The Criminals We Deserve | 2013 | Buy |
| Then We Die | 2013 | Buy |
| A Man of Sorrows | 2014 | Buy |
| Shoot to Kill | 2014 | Buy |
| Sins of the Fathers | 2015 | Buy |
| Nobody’s Hero | 2015 | Buy |
| Acts of Violence | 2017 | Buy |
| All Kinds of Dead | 2017 | Buy |
| This is Where I Say Goodbye | 2018 | Buy |
| Dying Days | 2019 | Buy |
| Into the Valley | 2020 | Buy |
| Circus Games | 2021 | Buy |
| The Taste of Blood | 2022 | Buy |
| The Lesson | 2024 | Buy |
| Declared Dead | 2025 | Buy |
Max Drescher Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| A Shot At Salvation | 2016 | Buy |
| The Sweetest Morsel | 2017 | Buy |
James Craig has been writing the Inspector Carlyle series since 2011, producing over twenty novels set in central London. The series follows Inspector John Carlyle of Charing Cross police station as he handles cases in one of the busiest and most visible parts of the city. The West End location puts Carlyle in proximity to political power, tourist crowds, and the criminal activity that thrives in the gaps between them.
Craig also writes the Max Drescher series, with two books published in 2016 and 2017. But the Carlyle books are his main body of work, running from London Calling through Declared Dead in 2025. The long run gives readers a detailed portrait of London policing across nearly fifteen years of real-world change, filtered through a detective who has seen enough to be cynical but not enough to quit.