Literary Crime
Tana French Books in Order
by Tana French
Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad rotates detectives case-by-case across six novels of unmatched psychological depth, set against an atmospheric Ireland. Her standalones and Cal Hooper series are equally compelling.
About the series
Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series launched with In the Woods (2007) — winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Barry awards for best first novel — and redefined what literary crime fiction could be. Each book follows a different detective from the Dublin Murder Squad, meaning there is no single protagonist; instead, French passes the baton, letting secondary characters from one novel take center stage in the next. The books are atmospheric, psychologically intense, and set against an Ireland grappling with modernity. French has also written a standalone (The Witch Elm, 2018) and the Cal Hooper series set in rural Ireland (The Searcher, The Hunter), which share her characteristic slow-burn dread.
Recommended reading order
Read the Dublin Murder Squad books in publication order — In the Woods first — because characters recur and the emotional texture builds across novels. The Witch Elm can be read any time as a standalone. The Cal Hooper books (The Searcher onward) form their own sequence and are best read in order.
Reading order
10 books · Ongoing