Columbo Books in Order

William Harrington's Columbo novels bring Lieutenant Columbo from television to the page without changing the thing that makes him work. He is still the rumpled LAPD homicide detective with the raincoat, cigar, battered Peugeot, and a habit of seeming less sharp than he really is.

That act is the point.

Like the television stories, these books usually let readers see the crime or the people behind it early on. The question is not simply who did it. It is how Columbo will find the weak spot in a careful plan, keep asking harmless-sounding questions, and make a suspect realize that the case is much less settled than it first appeared.

The series begins with The Grassy Knoll, where the murder of a talk-show host pulls Columbo toward a long-buried Kennedy assassination mystery. The Helter Skelter Murders follows a copycat crime connected to the lingering shadow of the Manson case. In The Hoffa Connection, a murdered rock star leads the lieutenant into organized-crime history and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. These early books use famous real-world events as background, but the immediate problem is always the homicide in front of Columbo.

Later entries turn toward the entertainment business and the people who thrive around it. The Game Show Killer puts him up against a murder scheme built around celebrity, legal maneuvering, and a television personality. The Glitter Murders moves into Hollywood when a difficult film director is killed. The final book, The Hoover Files, begins with a journalist preparing to expose secrets tied to J. Edgar Hoover, then sends Columbo after a killer who thinks an explosive solution will keep the past safely buried.

Los Angeles matters throughout. Harrington fills it with studios, wealthy homes, lawyers, producers, performers, and people who assume status can protect them. Columbo is comfortable making those people underestimate him. He is polite, patient, and often distracted by some small practical concern, but he does not stop working the problem.

Each novel can be read on its own.

Still, reading in publication order is the best way to go. It lets you see Harrington settle into the Columbo rhythm while the cases move from political history to show-business murder and private scandal. Fans of the screen version will recognize the detective's habits, while mystery readers can enjoy the steady pressure of watching a supposedly perfect crime come apart one detail at a time.