Reading order · 7 books · 2001 to 2012 · Set in Swindon
Thursday Next Books in Order
Thursday Next is a literary detective in an alternative 1980s Britain where literature is taken very seriously, the Crimean War is still going on and people can travel into books. She works for SpecOps, then for Jurisfiction, the police force inside fiction. Funny and full of literary jokes.
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Series facts
- Books
- 7
- Published
- 2001 to 2012
- First book
- The Eyre Affair
- Latest
- The Woman Who Died a Lot (2012)
- Setting
- Set in Swindon
The reading order
Every Thursday Next book in publication order. Choose a title for its cast and summary.
7 books · Set in Swindon
- 1The Eyre Affair2001With Thursday NextIn an alternative 1985, literary detective Thursday Next pursues Acheron Hades, a master criminal who has stolen the manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kidnapped Jane Eyre from the pages of her own book.Buy on Amazon
- 2Lost in a Good Book2002With Thursday NextThursday Next’s husband has been erased from history, and to get him back she must learn to travel inside books, with Miss Havisham of Great Expectations as her mentor.Buy on Amazon
- 3The Well of Lost Plots2003With Thursday NextThursday Next hides inside an unpublished novel in the Well of Lost Plots, where books are built, while she waits for her baby.Buy on Amazon
- 4Something Rotten2004With Thursday NextThursday Next returns to the real world with Hamlet in tow, to find a dictator on the rise and her husband still missing.Buy on Amazon
- 5First Among Sequels2007With Thursday NextFourteen years after her last adventure, Thursday Next runs a carpet business as a cover for her SpecOps work, and trains two apprentices in the BookWorld, one of them a fictional version of herself.Buy on Amazon
- 6One of Our Thursdays Is Missing2011The real Thursday Next has gone missing, and the written Thursday, who lives in the BookWorld, sets out to find her.Buy on Amazon
- 7The Woman Who Died a Lot2012With Thursday NextRecovering from injury, Thursday takes a job as Swindon’s chief librarian, as the Goliath Corporation pursues her and the town faces a predicted smiting from above.Buy on Amazon
Do you need to read them in order?
Read the books in order, starting with The Eyre Affair. The first four form a sequence, and the rest follow on.
Who appears in which book
The series’ main characters, book by book. Lead means the book is told around them; minor covers cameos.
| Book | Thursday Next | Landen Parke-Laine | Pickwick | Mycroft Next | Miss Havisham |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 The Eyre Affair | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 2 Lost in a Good Book | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | MMajor |
| 3 The Well of Lost Plots | LLead | ·Minor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 4 Something Rotten | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 5 First Among Sequels | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 6 One of Our Thursdays Is Missing | MMajor | MMajor | ·Minor | ||
| 7 The Woman Who Died a Lot | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor |
Characters in the Thursday Next books
6 characters from Jasper Fforde’s chart, with the number of Thursday Next books each appears in.
| Character | Books | First in this series |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday NextLiterary detective in SpecOps | 7 | The Eyre Affair 2001 |
| Landen Parke-LaineThursday's husband | 7 | The Eyre Affair 2001 |
| PickwickThursday's pet dodo | 7 | The Eyre Affair 2001 |
| Mycroft NextThursday's inventor uncle | 3 | The Eyre Affair 2001 |
| Miss HavishamThursday's mentor inside fiction | 3 | Lost in a Good Book 2002 |
| Acheron HadesMaster criminal | 1 | The Eyre Affair 2001 |