David Penny Books in Order
Explore David Penny's books in order, from Thomas Berrington to Unit-13 and DC Izzy Wilde, with reading guides, summaries, series background and where to start.
Last updated: January 16, 2026
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Publication Order
16 books
The Beasts of the City
by David Penny
2024
In London in 1503, rumours of demon killings stalk the streets just as Thomas Berrington is summoned by King Henry. Drawn into the hunt for a dangerous alchemical book and a series of grotesque murders, he must navigate printers, courtiers and prophecy to uncover the truth.
The Murder Trail
by David Penny
2023
A year after joining CID, DC Izzy Wilde is first on scene at a remote farm where a woman lies dead, a baby is missing and an unknown girl has been drugged. Seconded to the Murder Team, Izzy and DS Jack Ward race to stop a calculating serial killer.
The Hidden Dead
by David Penny
2023
Settling near Ludlow, Thomas Berrington plans only to move his ancestors’ bones to new land. When he and his children uncover extra skeletons, including those of children, his search for answers brings him into conflict with the local coroner and the power of the Church.
A Death of Promise
by David Penny
2022
In Ludlow Castle, Thomas Berrington wakes to find a severed human hand left in his chamber. When the man he suspects is found murdered and mercenaries threaten his family, Thomas must unmask an old enemy before violence reaches everyone under his roof.
Men of Bone
by David Penny
2021
Returning to England in 1501, Thomas Berrington crosses a brutal thieves’ guild known as the bonemen while escorting Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Hunted for killing one of their number, he must keep his charges safe and survive the guild’s revenge.
An Imperfect Future
by David Penny
2021
In 1944, Lancaster bombardier Calum Auger can see a few seconds ahead, a talent that has kept him alive over Germany. Recruited into secret Unit-13, he joins other psychics to track stolen atomic secrets before the Nazis can turn them into a superweapon.
The Message of Blood
by David Penny
2020
Sent to Cordoba on the orders of a man he despises, Thomas Berrington welcomes the distraction of a new murder case until the clues all point to his closest friend Jorge. With Jorge imprisoned, Thomas must untangle old secrets to save him from execution.
A Tear for the Dead
by David Penny
2020
As Granada burns in the final years of the war, Thomas Berrington serves Queen Isabel while trying to protect those he loves. An attempt on the queen’s life sends him and Jorge hunting an assassin whose plot could change the fate of the entire campaign.
A Death of Innocence
by David Penny
2020
In 1453, thirteen year old Thomas Berrington is accused of killing one of the boys who routinely bully him in the border town of Lemster. Working with quick witted Bel Brickenden, he uncovers lies, fear and a darker sickness stalking his community.
The Promise of Pain
by David Penny
2019
Broken by loss, Thomas Berrington retreats to the high Sierra Nevada hoping to abandon the world. When Jorge tracks him down with news of a new threat led by their old enemy, Thomas is dragged into one last, brutal confrontation over the future of al Andalus.
The Inquisitor
by David Penny
2018
Summoned to plague ridden Sevilla, English surgeon Thomas Berrington finds the Inquisition sweeping up both innocents and heretics. Amid this terror he must investigate paired murders, decide whether to trust a former enemy and risk the life of the woman he loves to trap a killer.
The Fortunate Dead
by David Penny
2018
Relocating his family to the bustling port of Malaka, Thomas Berrington hopes for respite from war. Instead a stolen body and rumours of hidden treasure lead him and Jorge into a hunt for a murderer while Spanish forces gather to crush the city.
The Incubus
by David Penny
2017
In the mountain stronghold of Ronda, Thomas Berrington accompanies Prince al Zagal just as Spanish troops mass below the cliffs. When women begin dying so quietly their deaths are almost missed, Thomas and Jorge must expose a killer the locals whisper about as the Incubus.
The Sin Eater
by David Penny
2016
Moorish Spain in 1484 is a place where every alliance is fragile. In Granada, Thomas Berrington and Jorge investigate a string of deaths that point toward a shadowy figure called the Sin Eater, while the city’s rulers would rather hide the truth than face scandal.
Breaker of Bones
by David Penny
2015
Ordered to Qurtuba to operate on a Spanish prince, Thomas Berrington expects a quick journey. Instead he confronts a deranged killer who butchers young women and rearranges their bodies, all while Jorge searches for long lost family and fear grips a city on the brink of war.
The Red Hill
by David Penny
2014
In 1482, English physician Thomas Berrington serves the Sultan in Granada’s Alhambra palace. When women from the royal household are found savagely murdered, he and the eunuch Jorge must navigate harem rivalries and court politics to catch a killer before they become the next victims.
Where should I start?
If you want to start in Moorish Spain: The Red Hill → Breaker of Bones → The Sin Eater.
If Tudor courts and politics appeal: Men of Bone → A Death of Promise → The Hidden Dead → The Beasts of the City.
If you prefer a modern police procedural: The Murder Trail.
If World War II with a paranormal twist sounds fun: An Imperfect Future.
Author bio
David Penny writes the kind of stories that drop you into another time and let you smell the dust on the road. Best known for his Thomas Berrington historical mysteries, he blends murder investigations with the shifting politics and faiths of late medieval Spain and early Tudor England.
Born in London in 1950, he moved as a child to Mid Wales, where books and rain were both in good supply. There he fell hard for science fiction, devouring paperbacks and then trying to outdo them with stories of his own. By seventeen he was seeing those stories in print in tiny fan magazines.
In his early twenties a short story sale to a major magazine brought the first real cheque with his name on it. Not long after, a small London publisher accepted his debut novel The Sunset People, and three more science fiction novels followed. For a while his life was simple: write, grow his hair, talk about ideas late into the night.
Eventually real life insisted on a different script. Penny took on a string of jobs, from working in a print works to spending long shifts in a frozen food warehouse, before training as a science laboratory technician. Later he would run his own software company, trading long days at a desk for the freedom to keep a roof over his family.
As the years went by, the writing habit never quite left. He kept reading widely and carried half-formed stories around in his head, even while work and study claimed most of his energy. After more than three decades away from publishing, the pull of fiction grew too strong to ignore.
When he did come back, he did it by jumping centuries into the past. Fascinated by the final years of Moorish rule in Spain, he began to imagine an English surgeon caught at the edge of a collapsing world. That character became Thomas Berrington, hero of The Red Hill, Breaker of Bones, The Sin Eater and the rest of the Thomas Berrington Historical Mysteries.
Through Thomas and his companion Jorge, a palace eunuch with a sharp tongue and a long memory, Penny explores murder investigations that unfold against sieges, plagues and the looming power of the Inquisition. The books mix medical detail, court politics and everyday lives, aiming to make a distant time feel familiar rather than exotic.
Not content to stay in one century, he later followed Thomas into Tudor England in Men of Bone and its sequels, and stepped into a very different kind of war with An Imperfect Future, the opening novel in his Unit-13 World War II paranormal spy thrillers. Under the name D. G. Penny he has also introduced DC Izzy Wilde in The Murder Trail, a contemporary police thriller set much closer to home.
Across these different series there are clear threads. His stories tend to circle loyalty, compromise and what it costs to do the right thing when the rules are stacked against you. His leads are skilled at what they do, but often haunted, stubborn and slow to trust, which gives plenty of friction when bodies start to fall.
These days Penny lives near the village of Dymock on the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire border, and spends part of each year in southern Spain. The split suits his work. Time in England gives him quiet hours at the desk, while months in the hills east of Malaga let him walk the same landscapes he writes about. When he is not working on the next book, he enjoys fly fishing, sailing and long walks, all of which have a way of nudging new stories into life.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
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