Reading order · 26 books · 1981 to 2025 · Set in London
Richard Jury Books in Order
Superintendent Richard Jury of Scotland Yard investigates murders in English villages and London, with his aristocratic friend Melrose Plant, who has given up his titles, and his hypochondriac sergeant, Wiggins. Every book is named after a real pub. Witty, melancholy and full of eccentric characters.
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Series facts
- Books
- 26
- Published
- 1981 to 2025
- First book
- The Man with a Load of Mischief
- Latest
- The Red Queen (2025)
- Setting
- Set in London
The reading order
Every Richard Jury book in publication order. Choose a title for its cast and summary.
26 books · Set in London
- 1The Man with a Load of Mischief1981With Richard JuryIn the village of Long Piddleton, a man is found dead in a beer barrel in one pub, and another body turns up at a second inn.Buy on Amazon
- 2The Old Fox Deceiv’d1982With Richard JuryA woman in costume is stabbed on a foggy Twelfth Night in a Yorkshire fishing village, and Jury must uncover a family’s buried secrets to learn who she really was.Buy on Amazon
- 3The Anodyne Necklace1983With Richard JuryA village murder, an attack in London and a rumoured treasure turn out to be linked, and pub gossip helps Jury see how.Buy on Amazon
- 4The Dirty Duck1984With Richard JuryDuring Stratford’s theatre season, a member of an American tour group is killed near a pub, and Jury must find a killer hiding in plain sight.Buy on Amazon
- 5Jerusalem Inn1984With Richard JurySnowbound before Christmas, Jury meets a woman in a churchyard who soon dies, and a second death at a country house is tied to a remote inn.Buy on Amazon
- 6Help the Poor Struggler1985With Richard JuryA string of murders on Dartmoor leads Jury and Divisional Commander Brian Macalvie back to an old injustice.Buy on Amazon
- 7The Deer Leap1985With Richard JuryStrange deaths of pets in the village of Ashdown Dean are followed by human deaths, leading Jury and Melrose Plant to a guarded teenager and her hidden animal refuge.Buy on Amazon
- 8I Am the Only Running Footman1986With Richard JuryTwo women are strangled a year apart in Devon and London, and Jury and Macalvie hunt a clever killer who exploits family secrets.Buy on Amazon
- 9The Five Bells and Bladebone1987With Richard JuryA body is found inside a newly bought antique desk in Long Piddleton, and the case moves from a country estate to London’s riverside.Buy on Amazon
- 10The Old Silent1989With Richard JuryIn a Yorkshire inn, Jury watches a woman shoot her husband, and her silence leads him into a past of kidnapping, family money and long-buried grief.Buy on Amazon
- 11The Old Contemptibles1991With Richard JuryAfter the death of a woman he was involved with, Jury becomes a suspect, so he sends Plant to the Lake District to investigate a family with a history of unexplained deaths.Buy on Amazon
- 12The Horse You Came in On1993With Richard JuryA man is murdered in a Baltimore bar, and Jury follows the clues into a harbour tavern full of eccentrics.Buy on Amazon
- 13Rainbow’s End1995With Richard JuryThree women in England die of apparently natural causes, and the pattern leads Jury to Santa Fe, New Mexico.Buy on Amazon
- 14The Case Has Altered1997With Richard JuryTwo women linked to a fenland estate are found dead, and Jury’s former love Jenny Kennington is the main suspect, so Plant goes undercover to help clear her.Buy on Amazon
- 15The Stargazey1998With Richard JuryJury follows a glamorous blonde near a London pub, and when a woman who looks just like her is murdered, his search leads into the art world and a film star’s troubled family.Buy on Amazon
- 16The Lamorna Wink1999With Richard Jury and Melrose PlantPlant rents a house in Cornwall that was the scene of an old family tragedy, and when its caretaker vanishes and a woman dies, Jury and Macalvie investigate.Buy on Amazon
- 17The Blue Last2001With Richard JuryRemains found on a London bombsite raise questions about who really survived the Blitz, and a City broker’s murder ties the past to the present.Buy on Amazon
- 18The Grave Maurice2002With Richard JuryStill recovering from a shooting, Jury looks into the disappearance of his surgeon’s teenage daughter from a Cambridgeshire stud farm.Buy on Amazon
- 19The Winds of Change2004With Richard JuryThe death of an unidentified young girl on a London street leads Jury to a financier with a dark past and an older disappearance linked to a house in Cornwall.Buy on Amazon
- 20The Old Wine Shades2006With Richard JuryOver three nights, a stranger in a London wine bar tells Jury about a man whose wife, son and dog vanished, and as Jury checks the story, fact and fiction begin to blur.Buy on Amazon
- 21Dust2007With Richard JuryA charming bachelor is murdered after a night at an exclusive London club, and Jury examines his double life in the art world while Plant takes a job at Henry James’s old house in Rye.Buy on Amazon
- 22The Black Cat2010With Richard JuryA young woman is found shot behind a country pub, and Jury discovers she was leading a double life.Buy on Amazon
- 23Vertigo 422014With Richard JuryTom Williamson asks Jury to look again at his wife’s death, believed to be a fall during a vertigo attack, and new deaths draw Jury and Plant into old tragedies.Buy on Amazon
- 24The Knowledge2018With Richard JuryA gunman kills an American couple outside a London casino and escapes in a black cab, and Jury teams up with London cabbies and a fearless ten-year-old girl.Buy on Amazon
- 25The Old Success2019With Richard JuryA French tourist’s body washes ashore in Cornwall, and as two more murders follow, Jury, Macalvie and a retired detective test whether the killings are connected.Buy on Amazon
- 26The Red Queen2025With Richard JuryA businessman is shot in a suburban London pub, and the case is complicated by a mysterious double of the victim and Wiggins’s search for his missing sister.Buy on Amazon
Do you need to read them in order?
Read in order, starting with The Man with a Load of Mischief. Each case stands alone, but the regulars develop through the series.
Who appears in which book
The series’ main characters, book by book. Lead means the book is told around them; minor covers cameos.
| Book | Richard Jury | Melrose Plant | Sergeant Wiggins | Chief Superintendent Racer | Lady Agatha Ardry | Marshall Trueblood | Carole-anne Palutski |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 The Man with a Load of Mischief | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 2 The Old Fox Deceiv’d | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 3 The Anodyne Necklace | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 4 The Dirty Duck | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 5 Jerusalem Inn | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 6 Help the Poor Struggler | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 7 The Deer Leap | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 8 I Am the Only Running Footman | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | |
| 9 The Five Bells and Bladebone | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 10 The Old Silent | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 11 The Old Contemptibles | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 12 The Horse You Came in On | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 13 Rainbow’s End | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 14 The Case Has Altered | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 15 The Stargazey | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 16 The Lamorna Wink | LLead | LLead | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 17 The Blue Last | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 18 The Grave Maurice | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 19 The Winds of Change | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 20 The Old Wine Shades | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 21 Dust | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 22 The Black Cat | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 23 Vertigo 42 | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 24 The Knowledge | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 25 The Old Success | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
| 26 The Red Queen | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor | ·Minor |
Characters in the Richard Jury books
7 characters from Martha Grimes’s chart, with the number of Richard Jury books each appears in.
| Character | Books | First in this series |
|---|---|---|
| Richard JurySuperintendent at Scotland Yard | 26 | The Man with a Load of Mischief 1981 |
| Melrose PlantAristocrat who gave up his titles, Jury’s friend | 26 | The Man with a Load of Mischief 1981 |
| Sergeant WigginsJury’s hypochondriac sergeant | 26 | The Man with a Load of Mischief 1981 |
| Chief Superintendent RacerJury’s scheming boss | 26 | The Man with a Load of Mischief 1981 |
| Lady Agatha ArdryMelrose’s meddling aunt | 26 | The Man with a Load of Mischief 1981 |
| Marshall TruebloodLong Piddleton antiques dealer | 26 | The Man with a Load of Mischief 1981 |
| Carole-anne PalutskiJury’s young neighbour | 18 | The Five Bells and Bladebone 1987 |