John Banville Books / Benjamin Black Reading Order

5 books (2005–2012)

Start with The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers, the first of 5 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers 2005Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Paris Review Issue 188 2009Buy 🇺🇸
3	Imagined Lives 2010Buy 🇺🇸
4	Best European Fiction 2013 2012Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Picador Book of 40 2012Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2024–2024)

3 books (1989–1995)

Start with The Book of Evidence and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Book of Evidence 1989Buy 🇺🇸
2	Ghosts 1993Buy 🇺🇸
3	Athena 1995Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (2012–2016)

Start with Possessed of a Past: A John Banville Reader and read in order.

#	Title
1	Possessed of a Past: A John Banville Reader 2012Buy 🇺🇸
2	Time Pieces 2016Buy 🇺🇸

13 books (1939–2023)

Start with The Big Sleep(By: Raymond Chandler), the first of 13 books in the Philip Marlowe series.

#	Title
1	The Big Sleep(By: Raymond Chandler) 1939Buy 🇺🇸
2	Farewell, My Lovely(By: Raymond Chandler) 1940Buy 🇺🇸
3	The High Window(By: Raymond Chandler) 1942Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Lady in the Lake(By: Raymond Chandler) 1943Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Little Sister(By: Raymond Chandler) 1949Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Long Goodbye(By: Raymond Chandler) 1953Buy 🇺🇸
7	Playback(By: Raymond Chandler) 1958Buy 🇺🇸
8	Poodle Springs(By: Robert B. Parker,Raymond Chandler) 1989Buy 🇺🇸
9	Perchance to Dream(By: Robert B. Parker) 1991Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Black-Eyed Blonde / Marlowe(As: Benjamin Black) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
11	Only to Sleep(By: Lawrence Osborne) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Goodbye Coast(By: Joe Ide) 2022Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Second Murderer(By: Denise Mina) 2023Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1994–2020)

Start with The Broken Jug and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Broken Jug 1994Buy 🇺🇸
2	Conversation in the Mountains 2020Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2024–2024)

9 books (2006–2023)

Start with Christine Falls, the first of 9 books in the Quirke series.

#	Title
1	Christine Falls 2006Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Silver Swan 2007Buy 🇺🇸
3	Elegy for April 2010Buy 🇺🇸
4	A Death in Summer 2011Buy 🇺🇸
5	Vengeance 2012Buy 🇺🇸
6	Holy Orders 2013Buy 🇺🇸
7	Even the Dead 2015Buy 🇺🇸
8	April in Spain 2021Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Lock-Up 2023Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2001–2001)

#	Title
1	God's Gift 2001Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1970–1999)

Start with Long Lankin and read in order.

#	Title
1	Long Lankin 1970Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Supreme Fictions of John Banville 1999Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (2020–2024)

Start with Snow, the first of 5 books in the St. John Strafford series.

#	Title
1	Snow 2020Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Secret Guests(As: Benjamin Black) 2020Buy 🇺🇸
3	April in Spain 2021Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Lock-Up 2023Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Drowned 2024Buy 🇺🇸

12 books (1971–2025)

Start with Nightspawn, the first of 12 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Nightspawn 1971Buy 🇺🇸
2	Birchwood 1973Buy 🇺🇸
3	Mefisto 1986Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Untouchable 1997Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Sea 2005Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Lemur(As:Benjamin Black) 2008Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Infinities 2009Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Blue Guitar 2015Buy 🇺🇸
9	Mrs. Osmond 2017Buy 🇺🇸
10	Wolf on a String / Prague Nights(As:Benjamin Black) 2017Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Singularities 2022Buy 🇺🇸
12	Venetian Vespers 2025Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (2000–2012)

Start with Eclipse and read in order.

#	Title
1	Eclipse 2000Buy 🇺🇸
2	Shroud 2002Buy 🇺🇸
3	Ancient Light 2012Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1976–1982)

Start with Doctor Copernicus and read in order.

#	Title
1	Doctor Copernicus 1976Buy 🇺🇸
2	Kepler 1981Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Newton Letter 1982Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (2001–2008)

Start with The Flaneur(By: Edmund White), the first of 5 books in the Writer and the City series.

#	Title
1	The Flaneur(By: Edmund White) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
2	Florence, a Delicate Case(By: David Leavitt) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
3	Prague Pictures 2003Buy 🇺🇸
4	Ghost Town: Tales of Manhattan Then and Now(By: Patrick McGrath) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
5	Oxford Revisited: A City Revisited(By: Justin Cartwright) 2008Buy 🇺🇸