Wild Hunt Books in Order

The Wild Hunt sequence is a linked set of novels that follow one Marcher family across the dangerous borderlands between England and Wales in the decades after the Norman Conquest. The books blend castle politics, raids and skirmishes with arranged marriages, growing friendships and everyday domestic life.

The Coming of the Wolf works as a natural starting point. Set in 1069, it opens with Christen, an Englishwoman whose home is attacked by Norman soldiers. When her husband is killed and her brother taken captive, she is forced to marry Miles le Gallois, the Norman captain who calls off the slaughter. What begins as a bargain for survival slowly becomes a difficult partnership as both try to bridge the gulf between conqueror and conquered.

By the time The Wild Hunt begins, the landscape has shifted again. In the turbulent reign of William Rufus, Guyon FitzMiles rides home to threatened estates on the Welsh marches and an arranged marriage with Judith of Ravenstow. Judith is young and traumatised by her brutal father; Guyon is a seasoned lord who needs her lands to secure the frontier. Their wary alliance is tested by family secrets, court intrigue and the constant threat of war.

The Running Vixen moves the story on to the next generation. Heulwen, Guyon and Judith’s headstrong daughter, has grown up alongside Adam de Lacey, her father’s ward, and their attraction has always simmered below the surface. Marriage, bereavement and her father’s plans to marry her again drag Heulwen into a web of loyalties where choosing the wrong man could cost more than her happiness, especially with rival warlords watching the border.

In The Leopard Unleashed the focus shifts to Renard, heir to Ravenstow, returning from the eastern crusader states to a family in crisis. He brings home a charismatic dancer, Olwen, even though he is already betrothed to the local heiress Elene. As rival claimants jostle for England’s crown and baronial feuds ignite, Renard’s divided loyalties put not just his marriage but the whole estate at risk.

Across the series readers see how the same stretch of contested countryside reshapes itself over three generations, and how one family’s choices ripple outward through time. The tone mixes battlefields and bedchambers, with plenty of attention to horses, armour, household work and the quiet moments between conflicts.

You can read these novels as standalones, but they reward being taken in order. Starting with The Coming of the Wolf gives you the full sweep from first invasion to the mature Ravenstow lordship; beginning with The Wild Hunt drops you straight into the love story that first brought Chadwick to a wide audience.