Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Burning Season | 1988 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
| 2 | The Skintight Shroud | 1989 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
| 3 | The Brutal Ballet | 1991 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
| 4 | And Flesh and Blood So Cheap | 2001 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
| 5 | The Fight in the Dog | 2005 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
| 6 | The Day After Yesterday | 2007 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
| 7 | Blade of the Tiger | 2013 | Wayne D. Dundee | Buy |
Joe Hannibal started in pulp short stories before Wayne D. Dundee moved him into novels, and that origin shows in the writing. The books are lean, with Hannibal taking cases from clients who can’t afford better help, digging into crimes that have roots in the ordinary desperation of working people.
The series is set in a fictional Illinois city that feels like a composite of several Midwest industrial towns, and Dundee uses that setting to ground Hannibal in a specific economic and social world. The cases involve murder, missing persons, corruption, and the kind of violence that doesn’t get much attention outside of the neighborhood where it happens.
Seven books over twenty-five years means Hannibal aged realistically across the series, and the later books carry that accumulated history. Starting with The Burning Season and reading forward gives the fullest picture of the character.