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mystery
Series · crime fiction
Lindsay Gordon
The Lindsay Gordon series by Val McDermid has 6 known books (6 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Report for Murder (1987).
- Books
- 6 known books (6 novels)
- Published
- 6
- First published
- 1987
- Status
- hiatus
- Shelved under
- Mystery & Crime
- Last checked
Start here: Report for Murder (1987) — 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:
Report for Murder
Report for Murder (1987) is Val McDermid's series debut, introducing freelance Scottish journalist Lindsay Gordon -- one of the earliest British crime novels to put a lesbian protagonist at its center rather than its margins. At 216 pages, it launches a series McDermid would track in something close to real time across the following sixteen years.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Report for Murder - Book 2:
Common Murder
Common Murder followed in 1989, the second Lindsay Gordon novel at 250 pages, continuing to track journalist Lindsay's life and politics as they shift book to book -- part of McDermid's early work toward the amateur-sleuth-with-a-day-job structure she'd refine across her career.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Common Murder - Book 3:
Final Edition
Final Edition, published in 1991 at 224 pages, is the third Lindsay Gordon novel, following Lindsay's freelance journalism into new territory as McDermid's ongoing, real-time portrait of her life continues.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Final Edition - Book 4:
Union Jack
Union Jack arrived in 1993 as the fourth entry, 307 pages, with Lindsay's circumstances -- and the settings that move with her, from Glasgow and Fleet Street toward the wider world -- continuing to evolve as the series tracks her life close to real time.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Union Jack - Book 5:
Booked for Murder
Booked for Murder, published in 1996 at 273 pages, is the fifth Lindsay Gordon novel, arriving as McDermid's freelance-journalist detective series moves toward its final entry, Hostage to Murder, seven years later.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Booked for Murder - Book 6:
Hostage to Murder
Hostage to Murder didn't appear until 2003 — seven years after Booked for Murder — and at 371 pages is the longest book in the series, its sixth and most recent installment.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Hostage to Murder
About the Lindsay Gordon series
Lindsay Gordon is Val McDermid's debut series and one of the earliest British crime series to put a lesbian protagonist at its center rather than at its margins. Lindsay is a freelance Scottish journalist -- broke, sharp-tongued, and instinctively unable to leave a story alone -- who keeps stumbling into murder investigations that intersect with her professional beat: student politics, trade union conferences, the world of women's football, publishing, and eventually the war-reporting circuit. McDermid started the series in 1987, several years before Kate Brannigan or Tony Hill and Carol Jordan existed, and it shows her working out the amateur-sleuth-with-a-day-job structure she'd return to and refine across her career.
The books track Lindsay's life in something close to real time across a sixteen-year span -- her politics, her relationships, and her circumstances shift novel to novel -- and the settings move with her, from Glasgow and Fleet Street to California and the Balkans. The series was notable on publication for treating its protagonist's sexuality as simply a fact of her life rather than the book's subject, and it remains a touchstone for readers looking for early, unapologetic lesbian detective fiction. McDermid has not returned to Lindsay Gordon since 2003, by which point her career had shifted decisively toward the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan and Karen Pirie series.
Frequently asked questions
How many Lindsay Gordon books are there?
Six, published between 1987 and 2003: Report for Murder, Common Murder, Final Edition, Union Jack, Booked for Murder, and Hostage to Murder.
Is the Lindsay Gordon series finished?
No new installment has appeared since Hostage to Murder (2003) and McDermid has not announced plans to continue it, but she has never formally declared the series ended.
Do I need to read Lindsay Gordon before McDermid's other series?
No -- it shares no characters or setting with Kate Brannigan, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, Karen Pirie, or Allie Burns. It can be read independently, in any order relative to those.
If you like the Lindsay Gordon series
Reading order last verified .