Hillary Greene Books in Order
Part ofFaith Martin Books in OrderSee the Hillary Greene books in order by Faith Martin, with quick summaries, series background, character notes, and easy help on where to start.
Last updated: June 11, 2026
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Publication Order
22 books
Murder on the Oxford Canal
by Faith Martin
2004
A body pulled from the Oxford Canal looks like an accident, but DI Hillary Greene is not convinced. As she investigates the boating community, she uncovers secrets that could destroy far more than one life.
Murder at the University
by Faith Martin
2005
A killing linked to Oxford University draws DI Hillary Greene into academic rivalries, personal grudges, and carefully polished lies. The dreaming spires make a fine backdrop, but the motive is anything but lofty.
Murder in the Village
by Faith Martin
2006
Village life looks peaceful from the outside, but Hillary soon finds old resentments and local loyalties simmering under the surface. To solve the case, she has to get past gossip, secrets, and stubborn silence.
Murder of the Bride
by Faith Martin
2006
A wedding turns into a crime scene, and DI Hillary Greene has to pick her way through family tensions, nerves, and half-truths. Everyone wanted the day to be perfect, which makes the murder even harder to untangle.
Murder at Home
by Faith Martin
2007
An elderly woman is stabbed in her own home, even though she was dying and widely liked. DI Hillary Greene has to work out why anyone would kill Flo Jenkins now, and what her neighbors are not saying.
Murder in the Family
by Faith Martin
2007
When murder hits close to home, Hillary has to sort real grief from convenient performances. Family ties, buried grudges, and old wounds make this investigation especially hard to read.
Murder in a Mansion
by Faith Martin
2008
A country house murder gives Hillary Greene a grand setting but no easy answers. Behind the polished rooms and old money, rivalries and hidden motives keep pushing the case in new directions.
Murder in the Meadow
by Faith Martin
2008
Artist Wayne Sutton is found brutally killed in a summer meadow, with a red paper heart left on the body. Hillary's search through his tangled love life reveals plenty of suspects and very little innocence.
Murder by Fire
by Faith Martin
2010
Fire destroys evidence as quickly as it reveals motive, leaving Hillary Greene to piece together a case from ash, lies, and damaged relationships. Someone thought flames would hide the truth. They were wrong.
Murder in the Garden
by Faith Martin
2010
A murder in a supposedly peaceful garden leads Hillary into another maze of secrets, envy, and local tensions. The closer she gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that appearances mean very little.
Murder at Work
by Faith Martin
2011
A workplace death sends Hillary into the politics, resentments, and petty alliances of everyday employment. What looks routine at first becomes far darker once she sees what people were willing to protect.
A Narrow Return
by Faith Martin
2012
Retired DI Hillary Greene is pulled back into police work when an old case refuses to stay buried. Civilian status changes little, because once Hillary starts asking questions, somebody wants her to stop.
A Narrow Margin of Error
by Faith Martin
2013
Now working as a civilian consultant, Hillary reopens the old murder of an Oxford student whose love life left plenty of enemies. At the same time, a stalker closes in and turns the case personal.
Walk a Narrow Mile
by Faith Martin
2013
Another difficult investigation lands on Hillary Greene's desk just as pressure mounts in her private life. The deeper she digs, the more she finds witnesses hiding the truth behind respectable faces.
A Narrow Victory
by Faith Martin
2015
Hillary reopens the death of an interior designer killed at a New Year's Eve party in 1999. The victim seemed widely liked, which only makes the hunt for a motive harder and more unsettling.
The Work of a Narrow Mind
by Faith Martin
2015
Hillary faces a case shaped by obsession, manipulation, and buried motives. Every new lead feels a little off, and solving it means understanding the dangerous mindset behind the crime.
A Narrow Trajectory
by Faith Martin
2018
What looks like a straightforward shooting becomes one last complicated case for Hillary Greene. To solve it, she has to untangle relationships, motives, and one crucial line of fire.
Hillary's Back!
by Faith Martin
2020
After what looked like a final farewell, Hillary Greene returns to investigate again. The old sharp instincts are still there, and so are the lies, grudges, and dangerous secrets standing in her way.
Murder Now and Then
by Faith Martin
2021
A new case with roots in the past forces Hillary Greene to work across two timelines at once. To solve the present-day mystery, she must understand what really happened years before.
Murder in the Parish
by Faith Martin
2023
A death in a close-knit parish sends Hillary Greene into a tangle of church politics, village loyalties, and simmering grudges. The setting is calm on the surface, but almost everyone has something to hide.
Murder on the Train
by Faith Martin
2024
A rail journey turns into a crime scene and leaves Hillary Greene sorting through passengers, staff, and conflicting stories. With suspects hemmed in together, every conversation becomes a clue.
Murder Under The Sun
by Faith Martin
2025
Bright summer weather does nothing to soften Hillary Greene's latest case. Beneath the sunlit surface she finds jealousies, secrets, and old resentments that make murder look anything but simple.
Series background & context
The Hillary Greene books are Faith Martin's long-running Oxfordshire police series, and they sit in a nice middle ground between classic procedural and very readable cozy crime. Hillary is an experienced detective with Thames Valley Police, sharp, stubborn, and not easily impressed. One of the details readers tend to remember is that she lives on a narrowboat, which gives the books a distinct canal-side thread and helps the series feel rooted in a real part of the county.
Place matters here.
These novels move comfortably between Oxford itself and the surrounding countryside. One case might take Hillary into the boating community, another into a university setting, a village, a manor house, a family garden, a workplace, or a parish. That variety keeps the series fresh, but the tone stays steady. The crimes are serious, the motives are usually personal, and the pleasure comes from watching Hillary and her team patiently work through suspects, lies, and bad alibis until the shape of the truth finally appears.
Hillary herself is the anchor. At the start of the series she is already carrying a lot, including damage to her career after her late husband's corruption taints her by association. That gives the early books extra bite. She is not an easy-going sleuth who breezes through murder scenes. She is tired, angry, highly competent, and determined to keep going. As the books continue, readers also follow the changes in her working life, her relationships, and eventually her move out of frontline policing and into retirement, consultancy, and return. That larger arc gives the series more continuity than the average case-of-the-book mystery.
The investigations usually feel grounded rather than flashy. Hillary interviews people, notices contradictions, leans on local knowledge, and keeps circling until someone slips. The books are not especially graphic, but they are not fluffy either. They care about motive, opportunity, and the ripple effect a violent death has on families, colleagues, and whole communities. If you like crime fiction where the puzzle is strong but the people still feel human, this series does that very well.
Another big part of the appeal is the Oxfordshire detail. Martin knows this world, and it shows. The canals, the river, the villages, the university atmosphere, and the farming edges of the county all help give the books texture without slowing them down. Even when the plot is tightly built, there is room for weather, landscape, and the everyday business of local life.
So if you want a series with a capable central detective, self-contained murder cases, and a setting that feels properly lived in, Hillary Greene is a very easy one to settle into. You can start at Murder on the Oxford Canal and watch the whole story build, or jump to a later entry like Hillary's Back! if you want to see how the series evolves over time.
Edited by
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