Ellis Peters Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Inspector Felse Books
Fallen Into the Pit | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death and the Joyful Woman | (1961) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Flight of a Witch | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Piper on the Mountain | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Heart | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Grass Widow's Tale | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The House of Green Turf | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mourning Raga | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Knocker on Death's Door | (1970) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death to the Landlords | (1972) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
City of Gold and Shadows | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rainbow's End | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Heaven Tree Books
The Heaven Tree | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Green Branch | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Scarlet Seed | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Brothers of Gwynedd Books
Sunrise in the West | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dragon at Noonday | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hounds of Sunset | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Afterglow and Nightfall | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Chronicles of Brother Cadfael Books
A Morbid Taste for Bones | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
One Corpse Too Many | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Monk's Hood | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Saint Peter's Fair | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Leper Of St. Giles | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Virgin in the Ice | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Sanctuary Sparrow | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Devil's Novice | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dead Man's Ransom | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Pilgrim of Hate | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
An Excellent Mystery | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Raven in the Foregate | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Rose Rent | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hermit of Eyton Forest | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Confession of Brother Haluin | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Rare Benedictine | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Heretic's Apprentice | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Potter's Field | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Summer of the Danes | (1991) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Holy Thief | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Brother Cadfael's Penance | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Second World War Trilogy Books
The Eighth Champion of Christendom | (1945) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Reluctant Odyssey | (1946) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Warfare Accomplished | (1947) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Hortensius Friend of Nero | (1937) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Masters of the Parachute Mail | (1940) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ordinary People | (1941) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
She Goes to War | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The City Lies Foursquare | (1947) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Fair Young Phoenix | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
By Firelight | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lost Children | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Holiday with Violence | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Most Loving Mere Folly | (1953) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Soldier at the Door | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Means of Grace | (1956) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Aunt Helen | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death Mask | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Will and the Deed | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Funeral of Figaro | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury | (1972) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Horn of Roland | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Never Pick up Hitch-hikers! | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Marriage Of Meggotta | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Murder in the Dispensary | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fair Young Phoenix | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
The Assize of the Dying | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Lily Hand and Other Stories | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Feline Felonies | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Trinity Cat | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
The Coast of Bohemia | (1950) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Shropshire | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Strongholds and Sanctuaries | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Alfred Hitchcock Presents Books
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Go Bump in the Night | (1940) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents 13 More Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
12 Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night | (1961) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories for Late at Night [Unabridged] | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock's A Hangman's Dozen | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories Not for the Nervous | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Month Of Mystery | (1970) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Down by the Old Blood Stream | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Master's Choice. | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Stories That Go Bump In The Night: V. 1 | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Murderous Christmas Stories Books
Murder under the Christmas Tree: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Murder on Christmas Eve | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Anthology series. |
Publication Order of Anthologies
Edith Mary Pargeter popularly known by the pen name Ellis Peters was born just before the beginning of First World War on September 28, 1913, in Horsehay, Shropshire, England. She was daughter to Edmund Valentine, a clerk and timekeeper at a local ironworks and Edith Hordley Pargeter. Ellis was the last born in a family of three children. Her brother and eldest sibling was named Ellis, the name she later adopted as her pseudonym while her sister who preceded her was named Margaret.
The family lived in a small community dominated by the Horsehay works and situated a short distance from Dawley in the centre of the east Shropshire coalfield. The family loved music and the children had been encouraged to start reading from a tender age. The atmosphere at Peters’ home was sympathetic, encouraging and vibrant. Her mother happened to have influenced her life and that of her siblings greatly, as the novelist was quoted once saying.
Ellis attended Dawley Church of England elementary School in Shropshire and later Coalbrookdale High School for Girls. When in elementary, she had to walk four times a day, to and from school as there was no provision for lunch at the time. All through school she would show interest in composition and art. She participated in various contest and competitions where she scooped a number of wards and certificates. It was while in high school that her special interest and passion in writing was realized and encouraged and eventually turned out to be a great part of her life.
As she neared the end of her time in Coalbrookdale, she took the Oxford local exam and passed and later in 1931 she did the Oxford Higher exam. After she left school she stayed at home to study for the executive division of the Civil Service. The contest for a place was great and even though she did great in written English exam, she couldn’t do as well in Mathematics. It was also in the 1930s that she worked as a pharmacist’s assistant and in the early 1940s she served in the Women’s Royal Navy Service. It was while at the Royal Naval Service that her writing career set off and her first books were published.
Her Writing Life
Edith Mary Pargeter had a Welsh ancestry and this influenced most of her writing. Many of her short stories and books happen to have been set in Wales and its borderlands, with others even having Welsh protagonist evidence.
Starting in the mid 1930’s, Edith Mary Pargeter would write historical fiction and crime novels. She would at times write using her real name and sometimes under several of her pseudonyms. She had written her fist book when she was only 15 years old and still in school. This she sent to Heinemann the publishers. Her first novel to ever be published was, Hortensius, Friend of Nero’ and this was before she had even reached the age of 20. The book had first been rejected but in 1936 it was published. It was this first stride of success that marked the start of her 60 year writing career in which she published more than 70 books. Between 1936 (when she made her first publication) and 1947, Edith is recorded to have written 14 books including a War time trilogy that boosted her profile to a national level.
Her first novel was published as she still worked as an assistant pharmacist. Between 1940 and 1945 while she served at the Naval Service where she even received the British Empire Medal (1944), Edith happened to develop an interest in Czechoslovakia. It was at the same time that World War II was still on. She felt haunted by the Western powers’ betrayal of that country at Munich.
In 1947 she and her brother visited Czechoslovakia in the brief period between the end of the war and political changes as a result of the nation’s incorporation within the Warsaw pact. Just like many other, Edith felt that the politicians in the country before the war had let the people down. In what apperaed like a simple interest and sympathy for the people of Czechoslovakia turned out to become a lifetime interest in their culture, language and stories of the country. She visited the area numerous times in her next 21 years. When the war ended, she translated numerous volumes of prose and poetry from Czech and Slovak and kept on writing on her own fiction.
In 1951, she published her first detective book, Fallen into the Pit’, which featured George Felse ( a policeman) and his family. The characters appeared in more books including Death and the Joyful Woman’ and Rainbow’s End (1979). She used the name Ellis Peters on all books written about Felse family mysteries. In these series the Felse family is caught up in the middle of serious crimes with George huddled up with the task to unravel the truth that will distinguish the culprits from the innocent.
In 1977 she started writing a series of detective novels set in and around the Benedictine abbey at Shrewsbury in the 12th C. The first book in the series was A Morbid Taste for Bones: A Medieval Whodunnit . In the book series’ she combined detailed depiction of medieval life with the investigation of a crime and a sub-romantic plot. The books enjoyed immense popularity. The sub-romantic sub- plot in some of her works gained lots of importance in the series she worked on. The main character who also happens to be the detective in the series is monk Cadfael, a former crusader that tends to the abbey’s garden. Some titles of the series books include Saint Peter’s Fair (1981), The Virgin in the Ice (1982), The Confession of Brother Haluin (1988), One Corpse Too Many (1979), The Raven in the Foregate (1987), The Devil’s Novice (1984), and The Heretic’s Apprentice (1989). Most of the Cadfael mystery books were adapted for Television with Derek Jacobi playing the main role.
Edith passed on at her home in Madeley, Shropshire after having returned from hospital following a stroke. She was 82 when she died on 14th October 1995. In 1997, in efforts to honor her memory, a stained glass window depicting St.Benedict was put up in Shrewsbury Abbey.
Book Series In Order » Authors » Ellis Peters
Thank you so much for this detailed post. I have read about a dozen Cadfael mysteries–twice. I had not realized until recently that Ellis Peters was a woman. I will be on the lookout for the rest of the series and for the other series I was not aware of before.