Peter Ackroyd Standalone Novels books in order

A complete list of Peter Ackroyd's standalone novels in publication order, from The Great Fire of London (1982) to Mr. Cadmus (2020).

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 The Great Fire of London 1982 Peter Ackroyd Buy
2 The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde 1983 Peter Ackroyd Buy
3 Hawksmoor 1985 Peter Ackroyd Buy
4 Chatterton 1987 Peter Ackroyd Buy
5 First Light 1989 Peter Ackroyd Buy
6 English Music 1992 Peter Ackroyd Buy
7 The House of Doctor Dee 1993 Peter Ackroyd Buy
8 Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem / The Trial of Elizabeth Cree / The Limehouse 1994 Peter Ackroyd Buy
9 Milton in America 1996 Peter Ackroyd Buy
10 The Plato Papers 1999 Peter Ackroyd Buy
11 The Clerkenwell Tales 2003 Peter Ackroyd Buy
12 The Lambs of London 2004 Peter Ackroyd Buy
13 The Fall of Troy 2006 Peter Ackroyd Buy
14 The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein 2008 Peter Ackroyd Buy
15 The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling 2009 Peter Ackroyd Buy
16 The Death of King Arthur 2010 Peter Ackroyd Buy
17 The Mystery of Charles Dickens 2012 Peter Ackroyd Buy
18 Three Brothers 2013 Peter Ackroyd Buy
19 Mr. Cadmus 2020 Peter Ackroyd Buy

Peter Ackroyd’s standalone novels span nearly four decades, from The Great Fire of London (1982) to Mr. Cadmus (2020). His fiction is almost always set in London and frequently involves the collision of historical periods, with past and present bleeding into each other.

Hawksmoor (1985) remains his most celebrated novel, while The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde (1983) won the Somerset Maugham Award. Later novels like The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008) and The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling (2009) show his continued interest in reimagining classic stories. Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) was adapted into a 2016 film.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Peter Ackroyd Standalone Novels series?

There are nineteen books in the Peter Ackroyd Standalone Novels series, published between 1982 and 2020.

What is the first book in the Peter Ackroyd Standalone Novels series?

The first book in the Peter Ackroyd Standalone Novels series is The Great Fire of London, published in 1982.

Which Peter Ackroyd novel should I start with?

Hawksmoor (1985) is the most commonly recommended starting point. It tells parallel stories of an 18th-century church architect and a modern detective investigating murders at those same churches, and it won two major literary prizes. For something shorter and more playful, The Clerkenwell Tales (2003) reimagines Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 14th-century London.

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