Matthew Hawkwood Books in Order

The Matthew Hawkwood novels are historical thrillers set during the Napoleonic Wars. Their hero is Matthew Hawkwood, a former soldier who now works as a Bow Street Runner, one of London's early professional investigators. He is tough, observant, and willing to go where respectable people would rather not look.

The series begins with Ratcatcher / Hawkwood in 1811. What appears to be a highway robbery and the murder of a naval courier leads Hawkwood from the St Giles Rookery into the polished world of the British establishment. The case brings together crime, espionage, and the threat of a French plot against Britain.

Nothing stays small for long when Hawkwood is involved.

Each book gives him a different world to navigate. In Resurrectionist, he enters the grisly trade that supplies London's anatomy schools, following murders connected to body snatchers and Bedlam. Rapscallion moves to prison hulks holding French captives, where Hawkwood goes undercover after Royal Navy officers disappear. The stories have mysteries at their center, but they also make room for fights, escapes, surveillance, and the practical dangers of working without much backup.

The later novels widen the map. In Rebellion, Hawkwood is drawn into a British intelligence operation in Paris, where a possible attempt to overthrow Napoleon could either open a path to peace or end at the guillotine. The Blooding leaves Europe for North America, with Hawkwood stranded in a country at war with Britain and racing through winter wilderness after uncovering a threat to Canada. In The Reckoning, he returns to London, where the murder of a young woman points toward secrets powerful people want kept hidden.

Regency London matters as much as any individual case. McGee's version of the city contains crowded streets, criminal networks, graveyards, brothels, government offices, and sharp divisions between wealth and poverty. Beyond it, the French prison ships, Parisian intrigues, and American frontier all keep the series from feeling locked into one setting.

The books work best in publication order because Hawkwood's past, his loyalties, and his working relationships gain weight over time. Start with Ratcatcher / Hawkwood for the clearest introduction, then continue through the cases in order. Expect fast-moving historical crime stories with a hard-edged investigator, real pressures from the wider war, and mysteries that regularly turn into matters of national security.