Katherine Webb Books in Order
Explore Katherine Webb's books in order, with quick summaries, series guides for her historical and crime novels, and simple advice on where to start.
Last updated: July 12, 2026
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Katherine Webb books in publication order
14 books
The Legacy
by Katherine Webb
2010
After their grandmother's death, sisters Erica and Beth Calcott return to the house where childhood summers once seemed perfect. Sorting through the past, they uncover a vanished cousin, an older betrayal, and a family history that refuses to stay quiet.
The Unseen
by Katherine Webb
2011
When spirited maid Cat Morley arrives at a Berkshire rectory in 1911, she disturbs a household already straining under desire, belief, and ambition. Spiritualism, jealousy, and old secrets build toward a devastating crime.
A Half-Forgotten Song
by Katherine Webb
2012
On the Dorset coast in the late 1930s, lonely teenager Mitzy Hatcher is captivated by charismatic artist Charles Aubrey and the world he brings with him. Years later, a portrait draws a stranger toward the truth of those summers.
The Misbegotten
by Katherine Webb
2013
In Bath in 1821, newly married Rachel Crofton becomes companion to the troubled Jonathan Alleyn, whose childhood sweetheart vanished years ago. As Rachel and servant Starling start asking questions, they uncover lies powerful people want kept buried.
The Night Falling
by Katherine Webb
2014
In 1921 Puglia, Leandro Cardetta returns from America rich and feared, while an English architect and his wife arrive to remake his palazzo. Around them, hunger, class tension, and a reckless love drive the story toward violence.
The English Girl
by Katherine Webb
2016
Joan Seabrook reaches Muscat hoping work and adventure will help her outrun grief. Drawn into the orbit of explorer Maude Vickery, she finds friendship, desire, and a dangerous plan that could change everything.
The Hiding Places
by Katherine Webb
2017
In a Wiltshire village in 1922, a shocking murder leaves Pudding Cartwright trying to clear her brother's name. With the help of outsider Irene, she uncovers long-hidden secrets and a crime rooted far deeper than anyone guessed.
The Disappearance
by Katherine Webb
2019
During a night of bombing in Bath in 1942, six-year-old Davy Noyle vanishes. When another child's body is uncovered, Frances Parry is forced back into a twenty-year-old mystery and a promise she has never been able to forget.
Stay Buried
by Katherine Webb
2022
Demoted to Wiltshire's cold case unit, DI Matt Lockyer reopens a fourteen-year-old murder after the convicted woman claims the supposed victim is alive. The case cuts uncomfortably close, and every answer raises fresh doubts.
Laying Out the Bones
by Katherine Webb
2023
Flash floods uncover a skeleton on Salisbury Plain, sending Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad into a nine-year-old case tied to a murdered young woman. What looks simple soon opens into a web of neglect, lies, and missing people.
Hollow Grave
by Katherine Webb
2025
When new evidence surfaces in the twenty-year-old disappearance of archaeology student Nazma Kirmani, Lockyer and Broad revisit a dig site full of old loyalties and buried resentments. The deeper they dig, the more unsettling the truth becomes.
The Echo of Loss
by Katherine Webb
2026
Years after a wrongful accusation shattered their futures, Theodora Hallewell and Toby Meriwether are drawn back toward the old case. As buried truths resurface, they must face broken promises, damaged lives, and the possibility of justice.
The Promise of Wonder
by Katherine Webb
2026
In Dorset in 1889, teenage Theodora Hallewell plans one last midsummer gathering to win Toby Meriwether's notice. By morning, a tragic mistake changes several lives, and the shadow of that night follows them for decades.
Vital Signs
by Katherine Webb
2026
A survivor of a notorious family massacre remembers something new eleven years later, and Lockyer's cold case unit is drawn back into a supposedly solved crime. The question is simple and chilling: why would a loving father kill almost everyone he loved?
Where to start with Katherine Webb
If you want the classic starting point: The Legacy
If you like village secrets and historical mystery: The Unseen → The Hiding Places
If you want bigger historical drama in vivid settings: The Night Falling → The English Girl
If you want her crime novels as Kate Webb: Stay Buried → Laying Out the Bones → Hollow Grave → Vital Signs
If you want a sweeping new family saga: The Promise of Wonder → The Echo of Loss
Katherine Webb sub-series and character series
DI Lockyer books in order
Explore this seriesHallewell Trilogy books in order
Explore this seriesStandalone Katherine Webb books
Author bio
Katherine Webb grew up in a village on the edge of Salisbury Plain in the south of England, and she started writing young. As a child she was always making up stories, and by her teens she was already trying to write novels, along with what she has cheerfully described as terrible poems.
History was the other early obsession.
She read History at Durham University, and after graduating in 1998 she started another novel and realised she didn't want any other kind of working life. It still took time. She completed that early book while living in Venice and working as an au pair, then spent years writing steadily in Venice, London, and Newbury while taking whatever jobs paid the bills, including library assistant, housekeeper, and even seller of fairy costumes.
Publishing did not happen quickly.
The breakthrough came with The Legacy, the seventh novel she had written, published in 2010. It won the popular vote for the TV Book Club Summer Read and was shortlisted in the Best New Writer category at the Galaxy British Book Awards. That debut set the pattern readers still know her for: family secrets, old injuries, layered timelines, and a strong sense that the past is never really done with the present.
From there she built a body of historical fiction that moves easily between mystery, romance, and family drama. Books like The Unseen, A Half-Forgotten Song, The Hiding Places, The English Girl, and The Disappearance are all different on the surface, but they share vivid settings, emotionally messy people, and a fascination with hidden histories. Readers who like a secret uncovered piece by piece tend to do well with her.
She also likes shifting the scenery. One novel heads to Oman, another to southern Italy, but even when she leaves England behind the feeling is similar: strong atmosphere, pressure building under the surface, and characters trying to live with choices they can't undo. In 2022 she opened a new lane in her work by publishing Stay Buried as Kate Webb, the first of her DI Matt Lockyer crime novels, later followed by Laying Out the Bones, Hollow Grave, and Vital Signs.
These books make it pretty clear what draws her in as a writer. She has said she loves hidden histories, old buildings, the English countryside, the change of seasons, folklore, and mysteries with endings readers won't easily guess. That helps explain why her novels so often feel rooted in place, even when the plot is moving fast.
She now lives in Devon with her partner in a farmhouse they are slowly renovating. She has two cats and some chickens, and when she isn't writing she's usually reading, painting a wall, or poking around a junk shop for treasure. It sounds, honestly, like exactly the right life for someone who keeps finding stories in old places.
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