Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Act of Love | 1981 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 2 | Texas Night Riders | 1983 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 3 | The Magic Wagon | 1986 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 4 | The Nightrunners | 1987 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 5 | Cold in July | 1989 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 6 | The Boar | 1998 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 7 | Freezer Burn | 1999 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 8 | The Bottoms | 2000 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 9 | The Big Blow | 2000 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 10 | Bubba Ho-Tep | 2002 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 11 | A Fine Dark Line | 2003 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 12 | Sunset and Sawdust | 2003 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 13 | Lost Echoes | 2005 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 14 | Leather Maiden | 2008 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 15 | All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky | 2011 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 16 | Edge of Dark Water | 2012 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 17 | The Thicket | 2013 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 18 | Deadman’s Crossing | 2013 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 19 | I Tell You It’s Love | 2014 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 20 | Paradise Sky | 2015 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 21 | Fender Lizards | 2015 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 22 | Hell’s Bounty | 2016 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 23 | M.I.A. Hunter | 2016 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 24 | Bubba and the Cosmic Blood-Suckers | 2017 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 25 | Man With Two Lives | 2018 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 26 | Driving to Geronimo’s Grave | 2018 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 27 | More Better Deals | 2020 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 28 | Jane Goes North | 2020 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 29 | Fishing for Dinosaurs and Other Stories | 2020 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 30 | Moon Lake | 2021 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 31 | Radiant Apples | 2021 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 32 | The Events Concerning | 2022 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 33 | The Donut Legion | 2023 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
| 34 | Big Lizard | 2025 | Joe R. Lansdale | Buy |
Joe R. Lansdale’s 34 standalone novels span his entire career, from Act of Love (1981) to Big Lizard (2025), and cover horror, crime fiction, westerns, literary fiction, and everything in between. The Bottoms (2000), a Depression-era mystery told through a child’s eyes, won the Edgar Award. Cold in July (1989) was adapted into a 2014 film starring Michael C. Hall and Don Johnson.
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), about Elvis and JFK fighting a mummy in a nursing home, became a cult classic and a Don Coscarelli film. Other standouts include Edge of Dark Water (2012), Paradise Sky (2015), and Moon Lake (2021). These novels show the full range of Lansdale’s voice, from brutal horror to tender coming-of-age stories, all rooted in the East Texas landscape he has made his own.