Order of Ruth Rendell Books
Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) was an English author of crime fiction, psychological thrillers and mystery novels. She is credited alongside P.D. James for developing the whodunit subgenre into more of a whydunit. She is best known for her Inspector Wexford series. She also writes under the pen name Barbara Vine.
Ruth Rendell made her literary debut in From Doon With Death in 1964, which began her Inspector Wexford series. Below is a list of Ruth Rendell’s books in order of when they were originally released (and in chronological order):
Publication Order of Inspector Wexford Books
| From Doon With Death | (1964) |    |
| Sins of the Fathers / A New Lease of Death | (1967) | |
| Wolf to the Slaughter | (1967) | |
| The Best Man to Die | (1969) | |
| A Guilty Thing Surprised | (1970) | |
| No More Dying Then | (1971) | |
| Murder Being Once Done | (1972) | |
| Some Lie and Some Die | (1973) | |
| Shake Hands Forever | (1975) | |
| A Sleeping Life | (1978) | |
| Death Notes / Put On By Cunning | (1981) | |
| Speaker of Mandarin | (1983) | |
| An Unkindness of Ravens | (1985) | |
| The Veiled One | (1988) | |
| Kissing the Gunner's Daughter | (1992) | |
| Simisola | (1994) | |
| Road Rage | (1997) | |
| Harm Done | (1999) | |
| The Babes in the Wood | (2002) | |
| End in Tears | (2005) | |
| Not in the Flesh | (2007) | |
| The Monster in the Box | (2009) | |
| The Vault | (2011) | |
| No Man's Nightingale | (2013) | |
Publication Order of Inspector Wexford Collections Books
| Means of Evil | (1979) | |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| To Fear a Painted Devil | (1965) | |
| Vanity Dies Hard | (1966) | |
| The Secret House Of Death | (1968) | |
| One Across, Two Down | (1971) | |
| The Face of Trespass | (1974) | |
| A Demon in My View | (1976) | |
| A Judgement in Stone | (1977) | |
| Make Death Love Me | (1979) | |
| The Lake of Darkness | (1980) | |
| Master of the Moor | (1982) | |
| The Killing Doll | (1984) | |
| The Tree of Hands | (1984) | |
| Live Flesh | (1986) | |
| A Dark-Adapted Eye | (1986) | |
| Talking to Strange Men | (1987) | |
| A Fatal Inversion | (1987) | |
| The House of Stairs | (1988) | |
| The Bridesmaid | (1989) | |
| Going Wrong | (1990) | |
| Gallowglass | (1990) | |
| King Solomon's Carpet | (1991) | |
| The Crocodile Bird | (1993) | |
| Asta's Book / Anna's Book | (1993) | |
| No Night Is Too Long | (1994) | |
| In the Time of His Prosperity | (1995) | |
| The Brimstone Wedding | (1995) | |
| The Keys to the Street | (1996) | |
| A Sight for Sore Eyes | (1998) | |
| The Chimney Sweeper's Boy | (1998) | |
| Grasshopper | (2000) | |
| Adam and Eve and Pinch Me | (2001) | |
| The Blood Doctor | (2002) | |
| The Rottweiler | (2003) | |
| 13 Steps Down | (2004) | |
| Minotaur | (2005) | |
| The Water's Lovely | (2006) | |
| Portobello | (2008) | |
| Birthday Present | (2008) | |
| Tigerlily's Orchids | (2010) | |
| The Saint Zita Society | (2012) | |
| The Child's Child | (2012) | |
| The Girl Next Door | (2014) | |
| Dark Corners | (2015) | |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
| The Convolvulus Clock | (1985) | |
| Heartstones | (1987) | |
| Long Live The Queen | (1991) | |
| Thornapple | (2000) | |
| The Thief | (2005) | |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
| The Fallen Curtain | (1976) | |
| The Fever Tree | (1982) | |
| The New Girlfriend | (1985) | |
| Collected Short Stories | (1989) | |
| The Copper Peacock and Other Stories | (1991) | |
| Blood Lines | (1995) | |
| Piranha to Scurfy | (2000) | |
| Ruth Rendell: Short Stories | (2006) | |
| Collected Stories Vol 1 | (2006) | |
| A Spot of Folly | (2017) | |
Publication Order of Children's Books
| Archie and Archie | (2013) | |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| Ruth Rendell's Suffolk | (1992) | |
| The Reason Why | (1995) | |
Publication Order of Pan Book of Horror Stories Books
| The Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1959) | |
| The First Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1959) | |
| The Second Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1960) | |
| The Third Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1962) | |
| The Fourth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1963) | |
| The Fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1964) | |
| The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1965) | |
| The 7th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1966) | |
| The Eighth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1967) | |
| The Ninth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1968) | |
| The Tenth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1969) | |
| The Eleventh Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1970) | |
| The Twelfth Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1971) | |
| The 13th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1972) | |
| The 14th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1973) | |
| The 15th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1974) | |
| The 16th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1975) | |
| The 17th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1976) | |
| The 18th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1977) | |
| The 19th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1978) | |
| The 20th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1979) | |
| The 21st Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1980) | |
| The 22nd Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1981) | |
| The 24th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1983) | |
| The 25th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1984) | |
| The 28th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1987) | |
| The 30th Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1989) | |
Publication Order of Anthologies
| The 23rd Pan Book of Horror Stories | (1982) | |
| The Web She Weaves | (1983) | |
| English Country House Murders | (1988) | |
| The Picador Book of the New Gothic | (1991) | |
| Mystery Cats | (1991) | |
| 1st Culprit | (1992) | |
| Women of Mystery | (1992) | |
| The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1992 | (1993) | |
| Fifty Best Mysteries | (1993) | |
| 3rd Culprit | (1994) | |
| Tales of Obsession | (1994) | |
| The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1993 | (1994) | |
| Murder by the Book | (1996) | |
| Win, Lose or Die | (1996) | |
| Crime After Crime | (1999) | |
| Crime Never Pays | (2001) | |
| The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 | (2002) | |
| Murder On The Railways | (2003) | |
| Unforgettable Ghost Stories by Women Writers | (2008) | |
| Midsummer Nights | (2009) | |
| The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime Volume 10. | (2013) | |
| Murder in Midsummer: Classic Mysteries for the Holidays | (2019) | |
| Murder Takes a Holiday: Classic Crime Stories for Summer | (2021) | |
If You Like Ruth Rendell Books, You’ll Love…
Notes: A New Lease of Death was also published as The Sins of the Fathers. Put on by Cunning was also published as Death Notes. Asta’s Book was also published as Anna’s Book.
A Dark Adapted Eye, A Fatal Inversion, The House of Stairs, Gallowglass, King Solomon’s Carpet, Asta’s Book, No Night is Too Long, The Brimstone Wedding, The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy, Grasshopper, The Blood Doctor, The Minotaur, The Birthday Present and The Child’s Child were published under the nom de plume of Barbara Vine.
Discovered Ruth Rendell by accident now she is my favorite author. A Sight for Sore Eyes was my first novel and it was so creepy i was blown away by the innocence of the characters. The Minotaur has me totally enthralled.
http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/rendell.htm
I have just finished The Girl Next Door. In my opinion this work confirms her, if confirmation is needed, as a literary great and places her in that pantheon of people who are capable, simultaneously, of genius and immense popularity. In this novel she explores the lives of a group of elderly people who were children together in war time Britain. And something awful happened then but they were children and did not understand what was under their collective nose. Their lives, their relationships, their hopes, fears, losses, are all explored with unflinching acuity. As are the changes in the English language. She is herself but if I were asked who she might be a natural partner with then Graham Greene comes to mind. She charts suburbia as well as Greene knew Greeneland.
I have started to re-read them. The earlier ones, which were written when I was a teenager, seem to be set in a different world and Ruth Rendell certainly developed the characters and home lives of the detectives in her later books.