Superintendent William Meredith books in order

The Superintendent William Meredith series by John Bude follows a methodical Scotland Yard detective through twenty-two classic Golden Age mysteries set across England and the Continent, from 1935 to 1957.
Series · Mystery · Detective Fiction · Golden Age Mystery · Crime Fiction

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 The Lake District Murder 1935 John Bude Buy
2 The Sussex Downs Murder 1936 John Bude Buy
3 The Cheltenham Square Murder 1937 John Bude Buy
4 Death On Paper 1940 John Bude N/A
5 Death on the Riviera 1952 John Bude Buy
6 Trouble A-Brewing 1940 John Bude N/A
7 Slow Vengeance 1941 John Bude N/A
8 Death Knows No Calendar 1942 John Bude Buy
9 Death Deals A Double 1943 John Bude N/A
10 Death in an Ambush 1945 John Bude N/A
11 Death Makes a Prophet 1947 John Bude Buy
12 Dangerous Sunlight 1948 John Bude N/A
13 A Glut of Red Herrings 1949 John Bude N/A
14 Death Steals the Show 1950 John Bude Buy
15 The Constable & the Lady 1951 John Bude N/A
16 When the Case Was Opened 1952 John Bude N/A
17 Twice Dead 1953 John Bude N/A
18 So Much in the Dark 1954 John Bude N/A
19 Two Ends to the Town 1955 John Bude Buy
20 A Shift of Guilt 1956 John Bude Buy
21 A Telegram from Le Touquet 1956 John Bude Buy
22 Another Man’s Shadow 1957 John Bude N/A

The Superintendent William Meredith series runs to twenty-two novels published between 1935 and 1957. Meredith is a Scotland Yard man dispatched to rural England and occasionally further afield, and the series benefits from Bude’s talent for using specific locations as more than backdrop. The Lake District Murder, the first book, is set almost entirely around the local petrol station and rural roads of Cumberland, with the geography working as evidence.

The books are procedural in spirit — Meredith interviews witnesses, studies physical evidence, and works through suspects systematically. He does not have a dramatic weakness or a romantic backstory that dominates the plots. This restraint gives the series a clean, readable quality that holds up well. The British Library Crime Classics reprints from the 2010s have made many of these books easy to find again for readers new to the series.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Superintendent William Meredith series?

There are 22 books in the Superintendent William Meredith series, published between 1935 and 1957.

What is the first book in the Superintendent William Meredith series?

The first book in the Superintendent William Meredith series is The Lake District Murder, published in 1935.

Has the Superintendent William Meredith series been reprinted recently?

Yes. Several titles, including The Lake District Murder and Death on the Riviera, were reprinted by the British Library Crime Classics imprint from the 2010s onward, making them widely available again after decades out of print.

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