J Sydney Jones Books in Order
This page lists J. Sydney Jones books in order, with concise summaries, series background, and clear guidance on where new readers should begin.
Last updated: July 15, 2026
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J Sydney Jones books in publication order
19 books
Bike and Hike
by J Sydney Jones
1977
A travel guide featuring 60 bicycle and walking tours around Great Britain and Ireland. It is designed for active travelers who want routes that combine outdoor exercise with a closer look at the landscape and local places.
Tramping in Europe
by J Sydney Jones
1984
This travel guide suggests walking tours across Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also offers practical help with equipment, maps, camping, hostels, and safety.
Viennawalks
by J Sydney Jones
1985
A practical guide to exploring Vienna on foot, built around four walking tours. It covers historic sights, restaurants, and local points of interest, with advice on lodging, dining, entertainment, shopping, and navigating the city.
Hitler the Turning Point
by J Sydney Jones
1987
This historical account explores Hitler's years in Vienna, tracing the experiences and ideas that shaped him between 1907 and 1913. It places his early life against the city’s turbulent political and cultural setting.
Time of the Wolf
by J Sydney Jones
1990
In World War II Austria, police inspector Gunther Radok inherits proof of Hitler's Final Solution from a dead general. With the Nazis closing in, Radok and underground fighter Frieda Lassen race to get the documents to the Allies.
The Hero Game
by J Sydney Jones
1992
Irish hero Jack Kavanaugh is jailed after fighting fascism in Spain. Offered freedom in exchange for working with the Nazis, he becomes a pawn in a dangerous assassination plot with no easy way out.
Frankie
by J Sydney Jones
1997
Adventure, mystery, and first love unfold against the labor unrest in southern Colorado in 1913 and 1914. The story brings readers close to the events that led to the tragic Ludlow Massacre.
The Empty Mirror
by J Sydney Jones
2008
In 1898 Vienna, a series of murders puts painter Gustav Klimt under suspicion after one of his models is killed. Klimt's lawyer, Karl Werthen, and criminologist Hanns Gross uncover a conspiracy that reaches the ruling class.
Requiem in Vienna
by J Sydney Jones
2010
A death at Vienna's Court Opera suggests someone is targeting conductor Gustav Mahler. Lawyer Karl Werthen, aided by Berthe and criminologist Hanns Gross, enters the city's competitive music world to stop a killer.
The Silence
by J Sydney Jones
2011
Karl Werthen investigates the unlikely suicide of a Vienna councilman while searching for industrialist Karl Wittgenstein's missing son. What appears to be a simple assignment opens into a dangerous web of corruption, violence, and political power.
Hitler in Vienna, 1907-1913
by J Sydney Jones
2012
This historical study examines Adolf Hitler's years in Vienna, from 1907 to 1913. It follows his struggles as a young man while exploring the city’s culture, politics, antisemitism, and influence on his later worldview.
Ruin Value
by J Sydney Jones
2013
In ruined Nuremberg just before the Nazi war-crimes trials, Captain Nathan Morgan investigates murders targeting occupying forces. To solve the case, the former New York detective must work with Werner Beck, a jailed German police inspector.
The Keeper of Hands
by J Sydney Jones
2013
When a young prostitute is murdered in 1901 Vienna, Karl Werthen is hired to find her killer. A separate attack on playwright Arthur Schnitzler leads Werthen and Dr. Gross into espionage and high-level political intrigue.
A Matter of Breeding
by J Sydney Jones
2014
Karl Werthen and Dr. Hanns Gross investigate brutal killings in Styria amid rumors of ritual murder and vampirism. Meanwhile, Berthe Werthen examines a scandal involving the Habsburgs' prized Lipizzaner horses, and the cases connect.
Basic Law
by J Sydney Jones
2015
Burned-out Vienna journalist Sam Kramer learns that his estranged former lover has died by suicide. Made executor of her estate, he searches for her missing memoir and is pulled back into the secrets of the Cold War.
The German Agent
by J Sydney Jones
2015
In 1917, German agent Max Volkman is sent to Washington to stop the Zimmermann Telegram from reaching President Wilson. His mission becomes far more personal when it leads him to the woman he loves.
The Third Place
by J Sydney Jones
2015
In 1902 Vienna, Karl Werthen investigates the suspicious death of a café head waiter while searching for a missing letter from Emperor Franz Josef. The two cases begin to converge, with dangerous consequences for the empire.
The Edit
by J Sydney Jones
2016
American journalist Kate O'Brien finds an aging ex-Nazi hiding on the Central American coast and discovers pages detailing his wartime crimes. When he imprisons her to protect his secret, Kate must find a way to survive and expose him.
Bigot List: A Reckoning
by J Sydney Jones
2024
Former CIA officer Jake Jacobs, now a history professor, finds his name on an online revenge list tied to a failed Cold War operation in Vienna. As former colleagues are killed, Jake must become the hunter to stay alive.
Where to start with J Sydney Jones
For a turn-of-the-century historical mystery: The Empty Mirror → Requiem in Vienna → The Silence → The Keeper of Hands.
For World War II suspense: Time of the Wolf → Ruin Value → The German Agent.
For Cold War intrigue: Basic Law → Bigot List: A Reckoning.
For a darker psychological thriller: The Edit.
J Sydney Jones sub-series and character series
Viennese Mystery books in order
Explore this series
The Empty Mirror
by J Sydney Jones
2008Viennese Mystery, Book 1
Requiem in Vienna
by J Sydney Jones
2010Viennese Mystery, Book 2
The Silence
by J Sydney Jones
2011Viennese Mystery, Book 3
The Keeper of Hands
by J Sydney Jones
2013Viennese Mystery, Book 4
A Matter of Breeding
by J Sydney Jones
2014Viennese Mystery, Book 5
The Third Place
by J Sydney Jones
2015Viennese Mystery, Book 6
Viennese Mystery books in chronological order

The Empty Mirror
by J Sydney Jones
2008Viennese Mystery, Book 1
Requiem in Vienna
by J Sydney Jones
2010Viennese Mystery, Book 2
The Silence
by J Sydney Jones
2011Viennese Mystery, Book 3
The Keeper of Hands
by J Sydney Jones
2013Viennese Mystery, Book 4
A Matter of Breeding
by J Sydney Jones
2014Viennese Mystery, Book 5
The Third Place
by J Sydney Jones
2015Viennese Mystery, Book 6
J Sydney Jones collections, short stories, and related book types
Standalone J Sydney Jones books
Author bio
J. Sydney Jones grew up in a small coastal town in Oregon, far from the old European cities that would later fill so much of his work. Born in 1948, he began by sending travel pieces to his local newspaper, learning the practical basics of reporting, observation, and getting a story told.
In 1968, he studied in Vienna. It was his first big city, and it stuck with him. Jones later spent roughly two decades living in Vienna and other parts of Europe, including Paris, Florence, Molyvos, and Donegal, working as a freelance writer and correspondent.
That long stay gave him more than material. It gave him an eye for the everyday side of history: cafés, streets, local habits, old arguments, and the pressure of politics just beneath ordinary life. His early nonfiction included travel books such as Bike and Hike, Tramping in Europe, and Viennawalks, all built around the practical pleasures of seeing a place on foot or by bicycle.
Vienna became his second home.
Jones also wrote nonfiction about the city’s past. Hitler in Vienna, 1907-1913 looks at Hitler’s formative years in the Austrian capital and places them alongside the cultural and political world around him. That period, with its artists, composers, journalists, national tensions, and growing antisemitism, would later become the setting for his best-known fiction.
His first thriller, Time of the Wolf, arrived in 1990. It is a World War II chase story set in Austria, with a police inspector trying to get proof of Hitler’s Final Solution to the Allies. Later standalones, including The Hero Game, Ruin Value, The German Agent, Basic Law, and The Edit, move through war, espionage, postwar Germany, and the uneasy afterlife of political violence.
Then came Karl Werthen.
Beginning with The Empty Mirror, Jones launched the Viennese Mystery series, set in Vienna from 1898 into the early 1900s. Werthen is a lawyer who becomes a private inquiries agent, working with the real-life criminologist Hanns Gross. Their cases bring historical figures such as Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Schnitzler, and the Wittgenstein family into mysteries shaped by art, music, power, prejudice, and state secrets.
Readers who like historical mysteries often come to these books for the cases, then stay for the city. Jones makes room for the social divides of imperial Vienna without losing sight of the people caught inside them. His more recent thriller Bigot List: A Reckoning returns to Cold War shadows, following a former CIA officer who discovers he is on a revenge hit list connected to a failed Vienna operation.
Jones now lives on California’s central coast. Across fiction, history, and travel writing, he keeps returning to the same big question: what does a city remember, and what do people try to bury?
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