Below is the complete list of Ken Follett books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Apples Carstairs Books
as Simon Myles
- The Big Black (1974)
The Big Black was published in 1974 and is listed as book #1 in the Apples Carstairs Booksas Simon Myles series. - The Big Needle (1975)
Published in 1975, The Big Needle is listed as book #2 in the Apples Carstairs Booksas Simon Myles series. - The Big Hit (1975)
The Big Hit is a 1975 release and appears as book #3 in the Apples Carstairs Booksas Simon Myles series.
Publication Order of Piers Roper Books
- Shakeout (1975)
Shakeout was published in 1975 and is listed as book #1 in the Piers Roper series. - The Bear Raid (1982)
Published in 1982, The Bear Raid is listed as book #2 in the Piers Roper series.
Publication Order of Kingsbridge Books
- The Pillars of the Earth (1989)
The Pillars of the Earth was published in 1989 and is listed as book #1 in the Kingsbridge series. - World Without End (2007)
Published in 2007, World Without End is listed as book #2 in the Kingsbridge series. - A Column of Fire (2017)
A Column of Fire is a 2017 release and appears as book #3 in the Kingsbridge series. - The Evening and the Morning (2020)
In the Kingsbridge series, The Evening and the Morning is book #4 and was published in 2020. - The Armor of Light (2023)
The Armor of Light was first published in 2023; within the Kingsbridge series, it is listed as book #5.
Publication Order of Century Trilogy Books
- Fall of Giants (2010)
Fall of Giants was published in 2010 and is listed as book #1 in the Century Trilogy series. - Winter of the World (2012)
Published in 2012, Winter of the World is listed as book #2 in the Century Trilogy series. - Edge of Eternity (2014)
Edge of Eternity is a 2014 release and appears as book #3 in the Century Trilogy series.
Publication Order of Standalone Novels Books
- Amok (1976)
(As: Bernard L. Ross)
Amok was published in 1976 and is listed as book #1 in the Standalone Novels series. - The Modigliani Scandal (1976)
Published in 1976, The Modigliani Scandal is listed as book #2 in the Standalone Novels series. - The Mystery Hideout (1976)
The Mystery Hideout is a 1976 release and appears as book #3 in the Standalone Novels series. - The Power Twins (1976)
In the Standalone Novels series, The Power Twins is book #4 and was published in 1976. - Paper Money (1977)
Paper Money was first published in 1977; within the Standalone Novels series, it is listed as book #5. - Capricorn One (1978)
(As: Bernard L. Ross)
Capricorn One was published in 1978 and is listed as book #6 in the Standalone Novels series. - Eye of the Needle / Storm Island (1978)
Published in 1978, Eye of the Needle / Storm Island is listed as book #7 in the Standalone Novels series. - Triple (1979)
Triple is a 1979 release and appears as book #8 in the Standalone Novels series. - The Key to Rebecca (1980)
In the Standalone Novels series, The Key to Rebecca is book #9 and was published in 1980. - The Man from St. Petersburg (1982)
The Man from St. Petersburg was first published in 1982; within the Standalone Novels series, it is listed as book #10. - Lie Down with Lions (1986)
Lie Down with Lions was published in 1986 and is listed as book #11 in the Standalone Novels series. - Night Over Water (1991)
Published in 1991, Night Over Water is listed as book #12 in the Standalone Novels series. - A Dangerous Fortune (1993)
A Dangerous Fortune is a 1993 release and appears as book #13 in the Standalone Novels series. - A Place Called Freedom (1995)
In the Standalone Novels series, A Place Called Freedom is book #14 and was published in 1995. - The Third Twin (1996)
The Third Twin was first published in 1996; within the Standalone Novels series, it is listed as book #15. - The Hammer of Eden (1998)
The Hammer of Eden was published in 1998 and is listed as book #16 in the Standalone Novels series. - Code to Zero (2000)
Published in 2000, Code to Zero is listed as book #17 in the Standalone Novels series. - Jackdaws (2001)
Jackdaws is a 2001 release and appears as book #18 in the Standalone Novels series. - Hornet Flight (2002)
In the Standalone Novels series, Hornet Flight is book #19 and was published in 2002. - Whiteout (2004)
Whiteout was first published in 2004; within the Standalone Novels series, it is listed as book #20. - Never (2021)
Never was published in 2021 and is listed as book #21 in the Standalone Novels series. - Circle of Days (2025)
Published in 2025, Circle of Days is listed as book #22 in the Standalone Novels series.
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
- The Heist of the Century / Under the Streets of Nice / The Gentleman of 16 July (1978)
(With Rene L. Maurice)
The Heist of the Century / Under the Streets of Nice / The Gentleman of 16 July was published in 1978 and is listed as book #1 in the Non-Fiction series. - On Wings of Eagles (1984)
Published in 1984, On Wings of Eagles is listed as book #2 in the Non-Fiction series. - Bad Faith (2017)
Bad Faith is a 2017 release and appears as book #3 in the Non-Fiction series. - Notre-Dame (2019)
In the Non-Fiction series, Notre-Dame is book #4 and was published in 2019.
About Ken Follett
Ken Follett is one of the few modern popular novelists whose bibliography falls into two equally recognizable halves. One is the world of high-velocity thrillers: spies, double agents, political conspiracies, stolen secrets, and people forced to think their way through danger under pressure. The other is the world of epic historical fiction: cathedrals, revolutions, wars, dynasties, social upheaval, and ordinary lives caught inside vast historical change. What makes Follett unusual is that he succeeded at the highest level in both forms. He did not leave one behind because the first failed. He mastered one kind of commercial fiction, then expanded into another on an enormous scale.
Born in Cardiff in 1949 and educated at University College London, Follett came to fiction by way of journalism and publishing. That professional background helps explain the discipline of his novels. Even at their most sprawling, they are built with a reporter’s instinct for clarity and momentum. He understands how to move information, how to stage revelations, and how to keep a reader turning pages without losing structural control. His breakthrough came with Eye of the Needle, the wartime spy novel that made him an international name and established the first major phase of his career. Those early thrillers remain important because they reveal his core technical strengths very clearly: pace, tension, espionage mechanics, and characters forced into impossible choices by larger political forces.
But Follett’s bibliography is best understood not just through the thrillers, but through the moment he widened his ambitions with The Pillars of the Earth. That novel changed the shape of his career. It proved he could take the same compulsive storytelling energy that powered the thrillers and apply it to historical fiction on a much larger canvas. The result was not a stately literary historical novel in the quiet sense, but an epic with architectural, religious, political, and personal stakes all working at once. From there, the Kingsbridge books became one of the central pillars of his reputation, joined later by World Without End, A Column of Fire, The Evening and the Morning, and The Armour of Light. These novels show Follett at his most expansive, but also at his most characteristic: he is always interested in systems of power and in how ordinary people survive inside them.
That same instinct also drives the Century Trilogy, beginning with Fall of Giants. In those books, Follett moves away from one town or one institution and instead tracks families across the great convulsions of the twentieth century. The trilogy is a good reminder that his historical fiction is not only about the distant past. He is just as interested in modernity under pressure: war, ideology, class conflict, technological change, and the way history reshapes private life.
Even with the huge success of the historical novels, the thriller side of his bibliography never fully vanished. Books such as The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, The Third Twin, Code to Zero, Whiteout, and Never show the same pleasure in momentum and peril, even when the settings and political frameworks change. Follett’s novels nearly always depend on pressure. He writes best when people are up against time, secrecy, hierarchy, and forces larger than themselves.
His bibliography is therefore best grouped by mode rather than read as a single undifferentiated shelf. There are the early and middle thrillers, the Kingsbridge historical novels, the Century books, and later standalones that move between suspense and epic history. More recently, he has continued to enlarge that historical side with books such as Circle of Days, showing that he is still drawn to grand civilizational subjects rather than narrowing his scale with age.
What holds the whole career together is not genre, but method. Follett writes large stories with popular clarity. He likes institutions, crises, and turning points, but he keeps them human by anchoring them in ambition, love, betrayal, fear, and endurance. That is why his bibliography feels so coherent across different kinds of novels. Whether he is writing a spy crossing enemy lines or a builder raising a cathedral, he is always writing about people trying to act decisively inside systems powerful enough to crush them.