Stephen L. Carter Reading Order
6 series · 155 books · Born 1954
Stephen L. Carter is an accomplished American author and law professor known for his thought-provoking novels and essays. Primarily writing in the genres of fiction and non-fiction, he has produced an impressive body of work, including 155 titles across six series, such as the Elm Harbor series and the Akashic Noir collection. Renowned for his book "The Emperor of Ocean Park," Carter has been actively publishing from 1981 until 2025.
Akashic Noir Series
Ongoing121 books (2002–2025)
Start with San Francisco Noir, the first of 121 books in the Akashic Noir series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco Noir 2002Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 | Bronx Noir 2003Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 | Seattle Noir 2003Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 | Brooklyn Noir 2004Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 |  Hasidic Noir 2004Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 |  Brooklyn Noir 2 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 | Chicago Noir 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 |  Dublin Noir 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 | Baltimore Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 10 | D.C. Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 11 | London Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 12 |  Manhattan Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 13 | Miami Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 14 |  Twin Cities Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 15 |  Detroit Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 16 | Havana Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 17 |  Los Angeles Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 18 |  New Orleans Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 19 | Wall Street Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 20 |  Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing But the Truth 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 21 | D.C. Noir 2 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 22 | Istanbul Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 23 | Las Vegas Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 24 | Manhattan Noir 2 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 25 | Paris Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 26 | Queens Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 27 | Toronto Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 28 | Trinidad Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 29 |  Boston Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 30 | Delhi Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 31 |  Phoenix Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 32 | Portland Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 33 | Rome Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 34 | San Francisco Noir 2 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 35 | Copenhagen Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 36 | Haiti Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 37 | Indian Country Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 38 |  Lone Star Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 39 | Los Angeles Noir 2 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 40 | Mexico City Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 41 | Moscow Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 42 |  Orange County Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 43 | Philadelphia Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 44 | Richmond Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 45 | Barcelona Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 46 |  Cape Cod Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 47 | New Jersey Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 48 | Pittsburgh Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 49 | San Diego Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 50 |  Boston Noir 2 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 51 | Kansas City Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 52 | Kingston Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 53 | Long Island Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 54 | Mumbai Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 55 | St. Petersburg Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 56 |  Staten Island Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 57 |  Venice Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 58 | Buffalo Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 59 |  Dallas Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 60 | Haiti Noir 2 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 61 | Manila Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 62 |  USA Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 63 | Belfast Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 64 | Helsinki Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 65 |  Prison Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 66 | Rio Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 67 | Singapore Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 68 | Tehran Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 69 | Tel Aviv Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 70 | Beirut Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 71 | Chicago Noir: The Classics 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 72 | Marseille Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 73 | Memphis Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 74 | Providence Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 75 | Zagreb Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 76 | Brussels Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 77 |  Mississippi Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 78 | New Orleans Noir: The Classics 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 79 | Prague Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 80 | San Juan Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 81 | St. Louis Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 82 |  Stockholm Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 83 |  Atlanta Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 84 | Buenos Aires Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 85 | Montana Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 86 | Montreal Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 87 | New Haven Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 88 | Oakland Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 89 | Trinidad Noir: The Classics 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 90 | Baghdad Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 91 | Berlin Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 92 | Hong Kong Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 93 | Lagos Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 94 | Marrakech Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 95 | Santa Cruz Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 96 | Sydney Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 97 | São Paulo Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 98 | Vancouver Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 99 | Amsterdam Noir 2019Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 100 | Houston Noir 2019Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 101 | Milwaukee Noir 2019Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 102 | Accra Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 103 | Addis Ababa Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 104 | Alabama Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 105 | Belgrade Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 106 | Berkeley Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 107 | Columbus Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 108 | Miami Noir: The Classics 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 109 | Nairobi Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 110 | Santa Fe Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 111 | Tampa Bay Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 112 | Palm Springs Noir 2021Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 113 | Denver Noir 2022Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 114 | Paris Noir: The Suburbs 2022Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 115 |  South Central Noir 2022Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 116 | Cleveland Noir 2023Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 117 | East Jerusalem Noir 2023Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 118 | West Jerusalem Noir 2023Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 119 | Honolulu Noir 2024Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 120 |  Hamburg Noir 2025Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 121 | Sacramento Noir 2025Buy 🇺🇸 |
Anthologies Series
Complete1 book (2013–2013)
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 |  Inherit the Dead 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
Elm Harbor Series
Complete3 books (2002–2008)
Start with The Emperor of Ocean Park and read in order.
Non-Fiction Series
Complete9 books (1981–2017)
Start with The Confirmation Mess: Cleaning Up The Federal Appointments Process, the first of 9 books in the Non-Fiction series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 |  The Confirmation Mess: Cleaning Up The Federal Appointments Process 1981Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 |  Leadership and Succession in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China(With: Martin McCauley) 1986Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 |  Reflections Of An Affirmative Action Baby 1991Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 |  The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion 1993Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 |  Integrity 1996Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 |  Civility 1999Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 |  God's Name In Vain: The Wrongs And Rights Of Relgion In Politics 2000Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 |  The Violence of Peace: America's Wars in the Age of Obama 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 |  Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
Standalone Novels Series
Complete3 books (2009–2014)
Start with Jericho's Fall and read in order.
The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures Series
Complete18 books (1986–2017)
Start with The American Newness(By: Irving Howe), the first of 18 books in the The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 |  The American Newness(By: Irving Howe) 1986Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 | Highbrow/Lowbrow(By: Lawrence W. Levine) 1988Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 |  Revolutions(By: David Brion Davis) 1990Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 |  Playing in the Dark(By: Toni Morrison) 1992Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 |  The Southern Tradition(By: Eugene D. Genovese) 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 | The Dissent of the Governed 1998Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 | Writing Was Everything(By: Alfred Kazin) 1998Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 | Achieving Our Country(By: Richard M. Rorty) 1999Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 | The Real American Dream(By: Andrew Delbanco) 1999Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 10 | To Be the Poet(By: Maxine Hong Kingston) 2002Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 11 |  Reporting the Universe(By: E.L. Doctorow) 2003Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 12 |  Architecture as Signs and Systems(By: Robert Venturi) 2004Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 13 | Circles and Lines(By: John Putnam Demos) 2004Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 14 | Reshaping the Work-Family Debate(By: Joan C. Williams) 2010Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 15 |  Tiger Writing(By: Gish Jen) 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 16 | Tiger Writing(By: Gish Jen) 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 17 |  Three Songs, Three Singers, Three Nations(By: Greil Marcus) 2015Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 18 | Just a Journalist(By: Linda Greenhouse) 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many books has Stephen L. Carter written?
- Stephen L. Carter has written 155 books across 6 series. Their published works span from 1981 to 2025.
- What is the first book in each Stephen L. Carter series?
- Here are the first books in Stephen L. Carter's series: Akashic Noir: San Francisco Noir; Elm Harbor: The Emperor of Ocean Park; Non-Fiction: The Confirmation Mess: Cleaning Up The Federal Appointments Process; The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures: The American Newness(By: Irving Howe).
- What order should I read Stephen L. Carter's books?
- We recommend reading Stephen L. Carter's series in publication order. Each series can be read independently.
- Is Stephen L. Carter still writing new books?
- Yes, Stephen L. Carter has 1 ongoing series: Akashic Noir.