SeriesStack

Chief Inspector Barnaby Books in Order

7 books from The Killings at Badger’s Drift (2022) to A Ghost in the Machine (2004). Rated 4.5 across 3,770 listener reviews.

Reading order

  1. The Killings at Badger’s Drift

    Book 1 2022 4.5 (1.8k)

    The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to…

  2. Death of a Hollow Man

    Book 2 1989 4.5 (640)

    Backstage nerves are fraying, and revenge is on its way. As Causton Amateur Dramatic Society prepares for the opening night of Amadeus, in the wings Esslyn Carmichael suspects his wife is having an affair with the leading man....

  3. Death in Disguise

    Book 3 1992 4.4 (365)

    To the distaste of the Compton Dando villagers, the big house has been taken over by a group of New Age eccentrics. And when the first death is reported, no one is surprised. The coroner rules it an accident.

  4. Written in Blood

    Book 4 1994 4.7 (313)

    Despite the fierce, and seemingly personal, objections of secretary Gerald Hadleigh, members of the Midsomer Worthy Writers' Circle press ahead and invite bestselling author Max Jennings to talk to their group.

  5. Faithful Unto Death

    Book 5 1996 4.6 (231)

    The Fawcett Green bell-ringers don’t bat an eyelid when Simone Hollingsworth fails to turn up to practice. They merely assume that bell-ringing has become the latest in a long list of her abandoned hobbies....

  6. A Place of Safety

    Book 6 1999 4.6 (196)

    Everyone deserves a second chance – or at least that's what ex-vicar Lionel Lawrence believes when he decides to open up the old rectory to a stream of young offenders.

  7. A Ghost in the Machine

    Book 7 2004 4.5 (192)

    Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby has encountered many intriguing cases in his years on the force, but soon he will discover that the incident of the ghost in the machine is the most challenging of them all....

Adapted for screen

About this reading order

Books are listed in the series' own numbering, which for Chief Inspector Barnaby is also the best order to read them in. Years are first publication where we could confirm it, and otherwise the first audiobook release.