Jack Laidlaw
crime fiction
Series · mystery
Jacqueline Kirby
The Jacqueline Kirby series by Elizabeth Peters has 4 known books (4 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with The Seventh Sinner (1972).
- Books
- 4 known books (4 novels)
- Published
- 4
- First published
- 1972
- Status
- completed
- Shelved under
- Mystery & Crime
- Last checked
Start here: The Seventh Sinner (1972) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Seventh Sinner
The Seventh Sinner is the novel that opens Elizabeth Peters's Jacqueline Kirby series, published in 1972. It's followed here by The Murders of Richard III. It's the natural place to begin the series, which ran to completion between 1972 and 1989 across 4 books.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Seventh Sinner - Book 2:
The Murders of Richard III
The Murders of Richard III is by Elizabeth Peters, the second novel in the Jacqueline Kirby series, published in 1974. In the reading order it follows The Seventh Sinner and precedes Die for Love.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Murders of Richard III - Book 3:
Die for Love
Die for Love is the Jacqueline Kirby series' third entry, a novel by Elizabeth Peters, published in 1984, at 357 pages. In the reading order it follows The Murders of Richard III and precedes Naked Once More.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Die for Love - Book 4:
Naked Once More
Naked Once More is the fourth book in Jacqueline Kirby, by Elizabeth Peters, published in 1989. It follows Die for Love as the most recent entry in the series so far. It's the last Jacqueline Kirby novel Peters wrote; she never returned to the character afterward.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Naked Once More
About the Jacqueline Kirby series
Jacqueline Kirby is a sharp, unglamorous, chain-smoking American librarian -- later a bestselling romance novelist -- who keeps stumbling into murders wherever her career and curiosity take her. Elizabeth Peters (the pen name of Egyptologist Barbara Mertz) built the series as something closer to a classic fair-play whodunit than her archaeological Amelia Peabody novels: closed casts, a confined setting, and a detective who solves things through close reading of people rather than physical action or romance. Jacqueline first appears working a library conference in Rome, and returns across the series at a historical-fiction convention shadowed by the ghost of Richard III's reputation, at a Harlequin-style romance writers' gathering skewering her own new profession, and finally investigating a reclusive literary legend's mysterious unfinished sequel in Appalachia.
What holds the four books together is Jacqueline's voice: dry, self-aware, entirely unbothered by not being conventionally pretty or conventionally nice, and quick to see through the vanities of the academics, writers, and literary hangers-on who populate each mystery. The settings change with her career -- library conference, historical society, romance-writing circuit, small-town publishing scandal -- but each book keeps the same tight, talky, character-driven puzzle structure.
At just four books published over seventeen years, it's Peters' smallest series, and a good pick for readers who want her plotting and wit without the decades-long commitment of Amelia Peabody.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Jacqueline Kirby series?
Four: The Seventh Sinner (1972), The Murders of Richard III (1974), Die for Love (1984), and Naked Once More (1989).
What order should I read the Jacqueline Kirby books in?
Publication order. Jacqueline's own career and life advance across the four books, so reading them in order follows her personal timeline as well as the books' original release sequence.
Is the Jacqueline Kirby series connected to Amelia Peabody?
No direct crossover. Both are by Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz), but Jacqueline Kirby is a contemporary-set, character-driven whodunit series distinct from the historical Amelia Peabody novels.
Is the Jacqueline Kirby series finished?
Yes. Only four books were ever published, the last in 1989, and Elizabeth Peters (who died in 2013) never returned to the character.
Who is Jacqueline Kirby?
A witty, unglamorous American librarian who later becomes a bestselling romance novelist, solving murders in academic, historical, and publishing-world settings across the series' four books.
If you like the Jacqueline Kirby series
Reading order last verified .