Dublin Murder Squad Books in Order
Part ofTana French Books in OrderFind the Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French in order, with short summaries and an easy guide to reading the connected Dublin crime novels.
Last updated: January 13, 2026
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Publication Order
6 books
The Trespasser
by Tana French
2016
Detective Antoinette Conway, already fighting harassment on the Dublin Murder Squad, catches a supposed lovers' quarrel gone wrong when Aislinn Murray is found dead, but small inconsistencies and squad politics make her suspect a setup that could end her career.
The Secret Place
by Tana French
2014
At a Dublin girls' boarding school, a postcard appears on a student confessions board declaring 'I know who killed him', sending Detective Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway back into a year old murder and the furious loyalties of teenage cliques.
Broken Harbor
by Tana French
2012
In Broken Harbor, star detective Mick Scorcher Kennedy and his rookie partner investigate the brutal attack on the Spain family in a half built coastal housing estate, where eerie details and Scorcher's own past slowly unravel the official story.
Faithful Place
by Tana French
2010
When builders uncover a suitcase and a body in his old neighborhood, undercover cop Frank Mackey is dragged back to the Liberties, forced to face his violent family and the vanished girlfriend he once planned to run away with.
The Likeness
by Tana French
2008
After a young woman who looks exactly like Cassie Maddox is found murdered, the Dublin detective is persuaded to go undercover as the victim, moving into her strange, close knit household to catch a killer without losing herself to the role.
In the Woods
by Tana French
2007
Detective Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox investigate the murder of a twelve year old girl at a woodland dig site near Dublin, a case that eerily echoes Ryan's own childhood trauma in the same woods and threatens his career.
Series background & context
The Dublin Murder Squad novels follow different detectives working in the same Dublin homicide unit, each telling a self contained crime story that also digs into the narrator's past and the pressures of modern Ireland.
The series begins with In the Woods, where Detective Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox investigate the murder of a twelve year old girl at a Knocknaree dig site, a case that echoes Ryan's own unresolved childhood disappearance in the same woods.
In The Likeness, Cassie takes the lead, going undercover as a murdered woman who looks just like her and living with the victim's tight knit group of housemates. Faithful Place then shifts to undercover detective Frank Mackey, who is dragged back to his rough Liberties childhood home when the suitcase and body of his first love are discovered.
Broken Harbor follows Mick Scorcher Kennedy through a baffling family massacre in a half finished coastal housing estate, tying personal history to the fallout from Ireland's property crash. The Secret Place moves into an elite girls' school, where Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway reopen the case of a murdered boy after a student posts a card claiming to know who killed him.
The sixth book, The Trespasser, puts Conway at the center as she and Moran investigate the apparently domestic killing of Aislinn Murray while battling harassment and office politics inside the squad room, blurring the line between professional danger and workplace bullying.
Read together, the books trace a loose web of connections between detectives who move from lead roles to the margins of other stories, showing friendships, rivalries, and family lives that often matter as much as the crimes themselves. The tone is grounded, talkative, and slow burning, with long interview scenes that let characters reveal who they are in what they do and do not say.
The first two novels, In the Woods and The Likeness, were later adapted as the television series Dublin Murders, bringing Rob and Cassie's early cases to the screen.
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