Ed McBain Reading Order

55 books (1956–2005)

Start with Cop Hater, the first of 55 books in the 87th Precinct series.

#	Title
1	Cop Hater 1956Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Mugger 1956Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Pusher 1956Buy 🇺🇸
4	Killer's Choice 1957Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Con Man 1957Buy 🇺🇸
6	Killer's Payoff 1958Buy 🇺🇸
7	Killer's Wedge 1958Buy 🇺🇸
8	Lady Killer 1958Buy 🇺🇸
9	'Til Death 1959Buy 🇺🇸
10	King's Ransom 1959Buy 🇺🇸
11	Give the Boys a Great Big Hand 1960Buy 🇺🇸
12	See Them Die 1960Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Heckler 1960Buy 🇺🇸
14	Lady, Lady, I Did It! 1961Buy 🇺🇸
15	Like Love 1962Buy 🇺🇸
16	The Empty Hours 1962Buy 🇺🇸
17	Ax / Axe 1963Buy 🇺🇸
18	Ten Plus One 1963Buy 🇺🇸
19	Doll 1965Buy 🇺🇸
20	He Who Hesitates 1965Buy 🇺🇸
21	Eighty Million Eyes 1966Buy 🇺🇸
22	Fuzz 1968Buy 🇺🇸
23	Shotgun 1968Buy 🇺🇸
24	Jigsaw 1970Buy 🇺🇸
25	Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! 1971Buy 🇺🇸
26	Sadie When She Died 1972Buy 🇺🇸
27	Hail to the Chief 1973Buy 🇺🇸
28	Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man 1973Buy 🇺🇸
29	Bread 1974Buy 🇺🇸
30	Blood Relatives 1975Buy 🇺🇸
31	So Long as You Both Shall Live 1976Buy 🇺🇸
32	Long Time No See 1977Buy 🇺🇸
33	Calypso 1980Buy 🇺🇸
34	Ghosts 1980Buy 🇺🇸
35	Heat 1981Buy 🇺🇸
36	Ice 1983Buy 🇺🇸
37	And All Through The House 1984Buy 🇺🇸
38	Lightning 1984Buy 🇺🇸
39	Eight Black Horses 1985Buy 🇺🇸
40	Poison 1987Buy 🇺🇸
41	Lullaby 1989Buy 🇺🇸
42	Tricks 1989Buy 🇺🇸
43	Vespers 1989Buy 🇺🇸
44	Widows 1991Buy 🇺🇸
45	Kiss 1992Buy 🇺🇸
46	Mischief 1993Buy 🇺🇸
47	Romance 1995Buy 🇺🇸
48	Nocturne 1997Buy 🇺🇸
49	The Big Bad City 1998Buy 🇺🇸
50	The Last Dance 1999Buy 🇺🇸
51	Money, Money, Money 2001Buy 🇺🇸
52	Fat Ollie's Book 2002Buy 🇺🇸
53	The Frumious Bandersnatch 2003Buy 🇺🇸
54	Hark! 2004Buy 🇺🇸
55	Fiddlers 2005Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1988–1989)

Start with McBain's Ladies(As: Evan Hunter) and read in order.

#	Title
1	McBain's Ladies(As: Evan Hunter) 1988Buy 🇺🇸
2	McBain's Ladies Too(As: Evan Hunter) 1989Buy 🇺🇸

27 books (1981–2012)

Start with Great Stories of Mystery and Suspense, the first of 27 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Great Stories of Mystery and Suspense 1981Buy 🇺🇸
2	Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels 1986Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories 1988Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Second Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction 1988Buy 🇺🇸
5	City Sleuths and Tough Guys 1989Buy 🇺🇸
6	Crimes of Passion 1993Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1996 1995Buy 🇺🇸
8	Murder For Love 1996Buy 🇺🇸
9	Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories 1996Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories 1996Buy 🇺🇸
11	Crime After Crime 1999Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Best American Mystery Stories 1999 1999Buy 🇺🇸
13	The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 2000Buy 🇺🇸
14	The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2 2000Buy 🇺🇸
15	The Mysterious Press Anniversary Anthology: Celebrating 25 Years 2001Buy 🇺🇸
16	Writers on Writing 2001Buy 🇺🇸
17	The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 2002Buy 🇺🇸
18	The Longman Anthology of Detective Fiction 2004Buy 🇺🇸
19	Dangerous Women 2005Buy 🇺🇸
20	Price of Desire 2005Buy 🇺🇸
21	Transgressions 2005Buy 🇺🇸
22	Transgressions, Vol. 2 2006Buy 🇺🇸
23	Transgressions, Vol. 3 2006Buy 🇺🇸
24	Transgressions, Vol. 4 2006Buy 🇺🇸
25	Masters of Noir, Volume One 2010Buy 🇺🇸
26	Masters of Noir, Volume Three 2010Buy 🇺🇸
27	Books to Die For 2012Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1942–1958)

Start with The Sunday Pigeon Murders(By: Craig Rice) and read in order.

4 books (1952–1976)

Start with Find the Feathered Serpent, the first of 4 books in the Children's series.

#	Title
1	Find the Feathered Serpent 1952Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Remarkable Harry(As: Evan Hunter) 1961Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Wonderful Button(As: Evan Hunter) 1961Buy 🇺🇸
4	Me and Mr. Stenner(As: Evan Hunter) 1976Buy 🇺🇸

13 books (1976–1998)

Start with Goldilocks, the first of 13 books in the Matthew Hope series.

#	Title
1	Goldilocks 1976Buy 🇺🇸
2	Rumpelstiltskin 1981Buy 🇺🇸
3	Beauty and the Beast 1982Buy 🇺🇸
4	Jack and the Beanstalk 1984Buy 🇺🇸
5	Snow White and Rose Red 1985Buy 🇺🇸
6	Cinderella 1986Buy 🇺🇸
7	Puss in Boots 1987Buy 🇺🇸
8	The House That Jack Built 1988Buy 🇺🇸
9	Three Blind Mice 1990Buy 🇺🇸
10	Mary, Mary 1991Buy 🇺🇸
11	There Was A Little Girl 1994Buy 🇺🇸
12	Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear 1996Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Last Best Hope 1998Buy 🇺🇸

17 books (1993–2012)

Start with For Better and for Worse, the first of 17 books in the Selected Shorts series.

#	Title
1	For Better and for Worse 1993Buy 🇺🇸
2	Even More Laughs 1998Buy 🇺🇸
3	Timeless Classics 2006Buy 🇺🇸
4	Edith Wharton 2007Buy 🇺🇸
5	Falling in Love 2007Buy 🇺🇸
6	Family Matters 2007Buy 🇺🇸
7	Food Fictions 2007Buy 🇺🇸
8	Pets! 2007Buy 🇺🇸
9	Tales of Betrayal 2007Buy 🇺🇸
10	Travel Tales 2007Buy 🇺🇸
11	Are We There Yet? 2008Buy 🇺🇸
12	A Touch of Magic 2009Buy 🇺🇸
13	The William Hurt Collection 2009Buy 🇺🇸
14	Whodunit? 2009Buy 🇺🇸
15	American Classics 2010Buy 🇺🇸
16	New American Stories 2011Buy 🇺🇸
17	Poe! 2012Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1982–2006)

Start with The McBain Brief, the first of 4 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	The McBain Brief 1982Buy 🇺🇸
2	Running from Legs and Other Stories 2002Buy 🇺🇸
3	Keller's Adjustment; Forever 2006Buy 🇺🇸
4	Learning to Kill 2006Buy 🇺🇸

33 books (1952–2004)

Start with Don\'t Crowd Me / Paradise Party(As: Evan Hunter), the first of 33 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Don\'t Crowd Me / Paradise Party(As: Evan Hunter) 1952Buy 🇺🇸
2	Rocket to Luna(By: Richard Marsten) 1952Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Big Fix 1952Buy 🇺🇸
4	Cut Me In 1954Buy 🇺🇸
5	Runaway Black / Runaway(By: Richard Marsten) 1954Buy 🇺🇸
6	Death of a Nurse 1955Buy 🇺🇸
7	Murder in the Navy(By: Richard Marsten) 1955Buy 🇺🇸
8	So Nude, So Dead(By: Richard Marsten) 1956Buy 🇺🇸
9	Tomorrow's World / Tomorrow & Tomorrow(By: Hunt Collins) 1956Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Spiked Heel(By: Richard Marsten) 1957Buy 🇺🇸
11	Vanishing Ladies(By: Richard Marsten) 1957Buy 🇺🇸
12	Even the Wicked(By: Richard Marsten) 1958Buy 🇺🇸
13	Strangers When We Meet(As: Evan Hunter) 1958Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Gutter and the Grave 1958Buy 🇺🇸
15	A Matter of Conviction(As: Evan Hunter) 1959Buy 🇺🇸
16	Big Man(By: Richard Marsten) 1959Buy 🇺🇸
17	Buddwing(As: Evan Hunter) 1961Buy 🇺🇸
18	The Sentries 1965Buy 🇺🇸
19	Nobody Knew They Were There(As: Evan Hunter) 1971Buy 🇺🇸
20	Seven 1972Buy 🇺🇸
21	Doors(By: Ezra Hannon) 1975Buy 🇺🇸
22	Where There's Smoke 1975Buy 🇺🇸
23	Guns 1976Buy 🇺🇸
24	Gangs! / Walk Proud 1979Buy 🇺🇸
25	Love, Dad(As: Evan Hunter) 1981Buy 🇺🇸
26	Far from the Sea(As: Evan Hunter) 1982Buy 🇺🇸
27	Lizzie(As: Evan Hunter) 1984Buy 🇺🇸
28	Another Part of the City 1986Buy 🇺🇸
29	Downtown 1989Buy 🇺🇸
30	Criminal Conversation(As: Evan Hunter) 1994Buy 🇺🇸
31	Privileged Conversation(As: Evan Hunter) 1995Buy 🇺🇸
32	Driving Lessons 1998Buy 🇺🇸
33	Alice In Jeopardy 2004Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (2005–2006)

Start with Transgressions(With: Stephen King,Lawrence Block,Anne Perry,Jeffery Deaver,Sharyn McCrumb,Donald E Westlake,Bonnie Jeanne Perry,Joyce Carol Oates,Walter Mosley,John Farris), the first of 4 books in the Transgressions series.

#	Title
1	Transgressions(With: Stephen King,Lawrence Block,Anne Perry,Jeffery Deaver,Sharyn McCrumb,Donald E Westlake,Bonnie Jeanne Perry,Joyce Carol Oates,Walter Mosley,John Farris) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
2	Transgressions, Vol. 2(With: Stephen King,Lawrence Block,John Farris) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
3	Transgressions, Vol. 3(With: Anne Perry,Sharyn McCrumb,Donald E Westlake,John Farris) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
4	Transgressions, Vol. 4(With: Anne Perry,Sharyn McCrumb) 2006Buy 🇺🇸