Isaac Bell Adventures books in order

Reading order

Isaac Bell is a detective with the Van Dorn Agency in the early 1900s, working cases that take him from the coal fields of Appalachia to the docks of New York to the newly completed Panama Canal. The period setting gives the series plenty of texture, and Cussler’s knack for historical research keeps the backdrop feeling authentic rather than merely decorative. Bell himself is a sharp, principled investigator who relies on observation and deduction as much as on physical courage.

The series launched in 2007 with The Chase and ran through fifteen books by 2025. The first ten books came out under the Cussler and Du Brul co-authorship arrangement, with Du Brul doing the heavy lifting on the actual prose while Cussler shaped the broader storylines. After Cussler’s death in 2020, Du Brul took over fully, and the later entries show no meaningful dip in quality.

Each book in the series focuses on a self-contained case, which makes it easy to pick up at any point, though reading in order gives you a better sense of Bell’s ongoing relationships and personal life. Readers who enjoy early-twentieth-century settings, solid detective work, and action sequences that feel period-appropriate will find this series consistently entertaining.