All 50+ Jeffrey Archer Books in Order | Ultimate Guide

Looking for a list of Jeffrey Archer books in order? We’re here to help.

Jeffrey Archer’s books tell the stories of people who have made bad choices in life and then must deal with the consequences. The main characters are often driven by passion, lust, greed, or ambition, and it’s always interesting to see how they deal with these emotions.

Before we dive into the list of Jeffrey Archer books in order, let’s learn a little bit more about the author himself.

Who is Jeffrey Archer?

Jeffrey Archer was born in 1940 at a London Hospital. His official name is Jeffrey Howard Archer.

He was a former Member of Parliament, and Deputy Chairman, of the Conservative Party. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment for perjury, perverting the course of justice. His scandal eventually ended his political career, but it awakened the author in him.

In 1974, he began to write Not A Penny More, Not a Penny Less to avoid bankruptcy. Although his critics are generally hostile, Jeffrey Archer is still a top-selling author, with more than 320 million copies sold worldwide.

Jeffrey Archer Books in Order

Below is a complete list of all Jeffrey Archer’s published titles. Reading the books by series will provide the most cohesive reading experience. 

Jeffrey Archer Books in Order of Series

Kane and Abel Series

  1. Shall We Tell the President? (1977) (Book 3)
  2. Kane and Abel (1979) (Book 1)
  3. The Prodigal Daughter (1982) (Book 2)

Clifton Chronicles Series

  1. Only Time Will Tell (2011)
  2. The Sins of the Father (2012)
  3. Best Kept Secret (2013)
  4. Be Careful What You Wish For (2014)
  5. Mightier Than the Sword (2015)
  6. Cometh the Hour (2016)
  7. This Was a Man (2016)

Detective William Warwick Series

  1. Nothing Ventured (2019)
  2. Hidden in Plain Sight (2020)
  3. Turn a Blind Eye (2021)
  4. Over My Dead Body (2021)
  5. Next in Line (2022)
  6. Traitors Gate (2023)
  7. An Eye for an Eye (Expected: September 24, 2024)

Standalone Novels

  1. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976)
  2. First Among Equals (1983)
  3. A Matter of Honor (1985)
  4. As the Crow Flies (1990)
  5. Honor Among Thieves (1993)
  6. The Fourth Estate (1996)
  7. The Eleventh Commandment (1998)
  8. The Accused (2000)
  9. Sons of Fortune (2002)
  10. False Impression (2005)
  11. A Prisoner of Birth (2008)
  12. Paths of Glory (2009)
  13. Heads You Win (2019)

Short Stories and Novellas

  1. Old Love (1990)
  2. The Grass is Always Greener (2000)
  3. Cheap at Half the Price (2011)
  4. Never Stop on the Motorway (2011)
  5. In the Eye of the Beholder (2011)
  6. It Can’t be October Already (2017)
  7. A Wasted Hour (2017)

Short Story Collections

  1. A Quiver Full of Arrows (1980)
  2. Fools, Knaves, and Heroes (1989)
  3. Twelve Red Herrings (1994)
  4. To Cut a Long Story Short (1997)
  5. The Collected Short Stories (1997)
  6. A Twist in the Tale (2000)
  7. Cat O’Nine Tales and Other Stories (2006)
  8. And Thereby Hangs a Tale (2010)
  9. The New Collected Short Stories (2011)
  10. Tell Tale (2017)
  11. The Short, The Long and the Tall (2020)

Children’s Books

  1. By Royal Appointment (1980)
  2. Willy And The Killer Kipper (1981)
  3. The First Miracle (1994)
  4. Willy Visits The Square World (1995)

A Prison Diary Memoir

  1. A Prison Diary (2002)
  2. Purgatory (2005)
  3. Heaven (2006)

Non-Fiction

  1. The Gospel According to Judas (2007)

Summary of Jeffrey Archer Books in Order

These brief summaries will give you a good understanding of what to expect in each of the Jeffrey Archer books in order.


Kane and Abel Series

Kane and Abel Jeffrey Archer Books in Order

1. Kane and Abel

Abel Rosnovski and William Lowell Kane were born on the same day, just before the century’s turn. Kane is the son of millionaire in Boston and Abel is a poor Polish immigrant; however, they are joined by fate and the pursuit of a dream.


The Prodigal Daughter Jeffrey Archer

2. The Prodigal Daughter

Florentyna Rosnovski, a woman with a strong will, is Abel’s child. Her father, a Polish immigrant from Poland, shares her love for America, his ideals, and his dreams for the future. She wants to be the first woman president.


Shall We Tell the President?

3. Shall We Tell the President?

Only six days, 13 hours, and 37 minutes are left.

Florentyna Kane, the first female President of the United States, is elected at the end of The Prodigal Daughter. After decades of struggle and sacrifice, she has achieved her goal. But those who oppose her want to silence her forever, even as she is delivering her inaugural speech.


Clifton Chronicles

Only Time Will Tell Clifton Chronicles

1. Only Time Will Tell

Harry’s story begins in 1920 against the backdrop of a war-ravaged world. His father’s death defines Harry’s life. He seems set for life at the docks until a remarkable gift grants him a scholarship to a boy’s school and entry to a world he never imagined.


The Sins of the Father Jeffrey Archer Books in Order

2. The Sins of the Father

Harry is forced to join the Merchant Navy just days before Britain declares war against Germany. However, he cannot face his family’s long-held secrets and that he will never marry Emma Barrington. So Harry seizes the opportunity to take one a new identity and start a new life.


3. Best Kept Secret

It’s 1945, and the House of Lords vote on the Barrington estate heirs ends in a tie. This casts a long shadow over the lives of all involved.


Be Careful What You Wish For Clifton Chronicles

4. Be Careful What You Wish For

Harry and Emma Clifton rush to the hospital in an attempt to find out the fate of Sebastian, their son, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno?


Mightier Than the Sword Clifton Chronicles

5. Mightier Than the Sword

Emma Clifton must face the consequences of the explosion of an IRA bomb aboard the Barrington’s flagship MV Buckingham. While Lady Virginia Fenwick, her old foe, plots her downfall.


Cometh The Hour Jeffrey Archer Books in Order

6. Cometh The Hour

Lady Virginia Fenwick is facing bankruptcy and cannot see a way out of her financial troubles until she is introduced as a wealthy but unhappy American.

Unfortunately, Sebastian Clifton, Harry and Emma’s son and Chief Executive at Farthings Bank, falls for the wrong girl while his rivals plot against him.

His father, who is an author, continues to fight for the release of a Siberian fellow author after the success of their book, Uncle Joe.


This Was a Man Jeffrey Archer

7. This Was a Man

Harry Clifton is about to finish his magnum opus. As he looks back on his life, his family’s lives continue to unravel, intertwine, and unfold in ways that no one could have predicted.


William Warwick Series

Nothing Ventured William Warwick Series

1. Nothing Ventured

William Warwick always wanted to become a detective. It is to his father’s horror that he decides to join the Metropolitan Police Force in London instead of becoming a barrister, like his father, Sir Julian Warwick.


Hidden in Plain Sight William Warwick Series

2. Hidden in Plain Sight

Detective Sergeant William Warwick gets a new assignment to work with the drugs squad. His first case was to investigate the Viper, a notorious drug lord in South London.


Turn a Blind Eye Jeffrey Archer Books in Order

3. Turn a Blind Eye

William Warwick is now a Detective Inspector and has been assigned a new dangerous line of work: To go undercover and expose corruption in the Metropolitan Police Force.


Over My Dead Body Jeffrey Archer

4. Over My Dead Body

The battle for power in a wealthy dynasty on a luxury cruise ship en route to New York is about to escalate into murder. At the heart of all three investigations is Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick and Ross Hogan, an ex-undercover agent, brought in from the cold.


Short Story Collections

1. A Quiver Full of Arrows

Jeffrey Archer takes you on tour from London to China and New York to Nigeria. He also shows you how to live in the realms of power and freedom. Fortunes are made and lost; honor is betrayed and redeemed; love is lost and rediscovered.


2. A Twist in the Tale

Meet the husband who believes he has committed the perfect murder; the self-confident chess champion who plays beautiful women for stakes much higher than cash; and the finance minister who must crack the secrets of a Swiss banking bank.

Jeffrey Archer’s twelve stories are a spellbinding collection that will take you on an unforgettable journey of unremitting passion, stubbornness, and undying honor.


3. Twelve Red Herrings

A wrongly convicted killer plots his revenge.

A rear-view mirror shows a female traveler along a lonely stretch.

A serial bride secures the future of her family by marrying only wealthy men.

An exiled Iraqi with a price on him pays an involuntary trip to his homeland.


4. To Cut a Long Story Short

These stories are a masterful collection of fourteen riveting tales of elaborate confidence tricks, political chicanery, immoral behaviour, and dangerously illicit affairs. All are rendered with the classic narrative twists that have become Jeffrey Archer’s signature.


5. Cat O’Nine Tales

This collection contains 12 stories. Some are inspired by Jeffrey Archer’s two years in prison. For example, the story of a husband who tries to poison his wife while on vacation to St. Petersburg with unexpected consequences.


6. And Thereby Hangs A Tale

“High Heels” is a story about a woman who must explain to her husband why a pair of designer shoes couldn’t have gone up in flames.

In “Caste-Off” a couple falls in love while waiting for the traffic light to change the green in Delhi.

A priceless Renaissance oil painting from “A Good Eye” is preserved in the same family through generations until the current owner has to make a difficult decision.


7. Tell Tale

Read about the young detective who goes to Italy to solve a crime. Also, there is a pompous schoolboy, whose discovery about his father’s wealth will change his life.

Finally, follow the adventures of the young woman who challenges the men at her Ivy League college in the 1930s and the other young woman who takes a lift and has the encounter of a lifetime.


8. The Short, The Long, and The Tall

This collection includes twenty of Jeffrey Archer’s most beloved and celebrated short stories, along with beautifully rendered watercolor illustrations from Paul Cox.


Non-Fiction

1. A Prison Diary: Hell, Volume I

After a seven-week perjury trial, Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years imprisonment on Thursday, 19 July 2001. The first twenty-two days and fourteen hours of Archer’s sentence were to be spent in HMP Belmarsh. This double-A-Category prison in South London houses some of Britain’s most violent criminals.

Here is his view of prison life.


2. A Prison Diary: Purgatory, Volume II

Twenty-two days after Jeffrey Archer had been sentenced to four years imprisonment for perjury on 9 August 2001, he was transferred to HMP Wayland in Norfolk, a Category A establishment.

He spent sixty-seven consecutive days in Wayland. He also experienced the daily degrading effects of a severely overworked prison system. However, he was able to witness the courage and spirit of his fellow inmates during this time.


3. A Prison Diary: Heaven, Volume III

Jeffrey Archer’s final prison diary volume, Heaven, documents his period from Wayland to his release on parole in July 2003. It contains a disturbing account of his time in a Lincoln jail and the events that led him there. This volume also sheds light on a system that is nearing breaking point.


4. The Gospel According To Judas

The Gospel According To Judas resulted from a close collaboration between a storyteller and a scholar: Francis J. Moloney and Jeffrey Archer. Their bold and simple work is a captivating story for twenty-first-century readers. Yet, it also maintains an authenticity that would be credible to first-century Christians or Jews.


Standalone Novels

1. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

The conned: An Oxford don, a respected society physician, an elegant French art dealer, and a charming English Lord. They all have one thing in common. Each novice investor lost their fortune overnight to one man.

Harvey Metcalfe is the conman. A brilliant, self-made guru in deceit. Once a very dangerous man, now he is the hunted.


2. First Among Equals

Charles Seymour is the second-born son of Simon Kerslake. Although he will never be an earl like his father, he will inherit the strength and determination of his mother. Simon now has the chance to reach the heights of his dreams.

Ray Gould was born in the back streets but was raised with pride and a sharp intellect. Andrew Fraser was raised by a soccer star who became a politician. It’s now his turn to be heroic, no matter what the cost.


3. A Matter of Honour

It appears innocent enough. It seems innocent enough. Adam Scott opens the yellowing envelope and begins a dangerous chain of events that threatens the foundations of the free world.


4. As The Crow Flies

Charlie Trumper grew up in East End London’s slums and dreams of running his grandfather’s vegetable and fruit barrow one day. The day arrives suddenly when his grandfather passes away, leaving behind a struggling business.

Charlie sets out to become “The Honest Trader” with the help of Becky Salmon, a young, enterprising woman. Unfortunately, Charlie is forced to leave home by the beginning of World War I. He finds himself in the path of an evil enemy who will continue to haunt Charlie’s family for many generations.


5. Honour Among Thieves

Set in the spring of 1994 in Washington, D.C., the Clinton Administration struggles with domestic policy as a sinister plot six thousand miles away is being executed in Baghdad.


6. The Fourth Estate

Richard Armstrong managed to escape Hitler’s atrocities throughout Eastern Europe with his courage and wits: Skills that would prove invaluable in times of peace. Armstrong transformed a struggling Berlin newspaper into an overnight success story, making a name for him and making a lot of enemies along the way.

Meanwhile, Keith Townsend, a young man with a world-class education, enters the international arena with a sense that he has the right to succeed. But, unfortunately, he and Armstrong will be sworn enemies as they try to grow their father’s newspaper into a major global media company.


7. The Eleventh Commandment

Connor Fitzgerald’s resume is impressive: Military hero, family man, assassin, and servant of his country.

He is about to end his 28-year-old career with the CIA, but he runs into the most dangerous enemy he has ever faced: Helen Dexter, his boss.


8. Sons of Fortune

In the late 1940s a desperate nurse in Hartford, Connecticut separates a pair of twins at birth.

Nat Cartwright returns home to his parents, an educator and an insurance salesman. But his twin brother, Fletcher Andrew Davenport becomes the son of a wealthy CEO and his society woman.


9. False Impression

The story begins in New York, where Anna Petrescu, presumed to be dead after the 9/11 attacks, is missing. She uses her new status to flee from America, but she is pursued around the globe from Toronto to Hong Kong to Bucharest.


10. The Prisoner of Birth

If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend.

The prosecution witnesses are from the upper crust – a barrister, an actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in a firm’s history – so who will believe Danny’s side?


11. Paths of Glory

Some people dream of dreams so great that they would have a place in history if they could achieve them. Among these people are Robert Scott, Charles Lindbergh, and Amy Johnson. What if one man had a similar dream, and there was no evidence that he had fulfilled his ambition once he achieved it?


12. Heads You Win

Alexander Karpenko was born to lead his countrymen from a young age.

However, Alexander and his mother will need to flee Russia after their father’s assassination in Moscow by the KGB. They have a tough decision to make: Either board a container vessel bound for America or one bound to Great Britain. Alexander decides by tossing a coin.


Conclusion

After reading this, you should better understand how to read the Jeffrey Archer books in order. We hope that our list has helped you find your next favorite book series!

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