Captain Coke Books in Order

The Captain Coke books begin with Plague and continue in Fire. These are Restoration thrillers, part murder mystery, part adventure, and part disaster novel. Their hero, William Coke, is a former soldier from the English Civil War who has slid into highway robbery, though he still keeps a conscience and tries not to kill.

That small moral line gets tested almost immediately.

In Plague, Coke stumbles across a slaughter on the road to London and becomes the obvious suspect. That throws him into an unwilling partnership with Pitman, a relentless thief-taker and former enemy from the war. Their relationship is one of the best things in the series. They do not naturally trust each other, but each man recognizes in the other a survivor who understands what violence leaves behind.

The books are set in London in 1665 and 1666, which means the city is under attack before the villains even step onto the page. First comes the plague, with shut-up houses, fear, rumor, and death everywhere. Then comes the fire. Humphreys uses both disasters well, not just as backdrop, but as forces that box the characters in and shape every decision they make. London feels cramped, filthy, theatrical, and alive, from court and playhouse to alley and prison.

Sarah Chalker, an actress, becomes the third key point of the triangle. She brings warmth, grit, and a theatre-world angle that fits the period perfectly. Together, Coke, Pitman, and Sarah are up against serial murder, apocalyptic religion, and plots that reach toward Charles II himself. The villains are not simple masterminds. They are zealots, wounded souls, and opportunists, which makes the danger feel both personal and political.

Nobody in these books gets to stand safely on the sidelines.

If you like historical mysteries with swordplay, chase scenes, and a lot of pressure from the world around the characters, this series delivers. It is darker and bloodier than a cozy, but it is not bleak for the sake of it. The real draw is the mix of crime story momentum and lived-in history, plus a hero who is trying, sometimes awkwardly, to become better than the man circumstance has made him.