Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fallen Into the Pit | 1951 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 2 | Death and the Joyful Woman | 1961 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 3 | Flight of a Witch | 1964 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 4 | A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs | 1965 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 5 | The Piper on the Mountain | 1966 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 6 | Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart | 1967 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 7 | The Grass Widow’s Tale | 1968 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 8 | The House of Green Turf | 1969 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 9 | Mourning Raga | 1969 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 10 | The Knocker on Death’s Door | 1970 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 11 | Death to the Landlords | 1972 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 12 | City of Gold and Shadows | 1973 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
| 13 | Rainbow’s End | 1978 | Ellis Peters | Buy |
The Inspector Felse series spans thirteen novels published between 1951 and 1978. Ellis Peters created George Felse as a thoughtful, methodical detective working in the fictional English county of Comerfordshire. The series is unusual in that it gradually expands its focus beyond George himself to include his wife Bunty and their son Dominic as investigators.
The early books like Fallen Into the Pit and Death and the Joyful Woman are straightforward detective novels, but Peters grew more adventurous with the settings as the series progressed. Later entries take the Felse family to Wales, India, and continental Europe, blending travel with mystery. The Piper on the Mountain is set in Czechoslovakia, and Mourning Raga takes Dominic to India.
These novels predate the Brother Cadfael series and show Peters developing her mystery-writing skills in a contemporary setting. Readers who know Peters only through Cadfael will find a different kind of detective fiction here, grounded in post-war England rather than medieval monasteries.