John Dickson Carr

John Dickson Carr was an American author. He was born on November 30, 1906, and died on February 27, 1977, at the age of 70. He wrote in the mystery, detective novel, murder and historical mystery genre.

The best place to start is the Henri Bencolin series, the earliest of John Dickson Carr's multi-book series: it opens with It Walks by Night (1930) and runs to 5 books across 1930–1937, ending with The Four False Weapons (1937). John Dickson Carr's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

John Dickson Carr has 216 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1862 and 2025. 166 of them belong to 7 named series — the largest being the Dr. Gideon Fell series with 24 books — and 50 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. John Dickson Carr's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Henri Bencolin (1930–1937, 5 books), Dr. Gideon Fell (1932–1967, 24 books) and Sir Henry Merrivale (1934–1991, 23 books), plus 2 more.

This guide splits John Dickson Carr's 216 books into 7 named series and 50 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Dr. Gideon Fell (24 books, 1932–1967); Sir Henry Merrivale (23 books, 1934–1991); Henri Bencolin (5 books, 1930–1937); Adrian Conan Doyle Collections (4 books, 1954–1964); Department D-3 (1 book, 1940), plus 2 further series.