Dean Koontz Books in Order

Below is the complete list of Dean Koontz books in order of publication. This is the recommended reading sequence for the series.

Odd Thomas Series

1. Odd Thomas (2003)
2. Forever Odd (2005)
3. Brother Odd (2006)
4. Odd Hours (2008)
5. Odd Interlude (2012)
6. Odd Apocalypse (2012)
7. Deeply Odd (2013)
8. You Are Destined To Be Together Forever (2014)
9. Saint Odd (2015)

Odd Thomas Graphic Novels Series

1. In Odd We Trust (2008)
2. Odd Is on Our Side (2010)
3. House of Odd (2012)

Jane Hawk Series

1. The Silent Corner (2017)
2. The Whispering Room (2017)
3. The Crooked Staircase (2018)
4. The Forbidden Door (2018)
5. The Night Window (2019)

Jane Hawk Short Stories/Novellas Series

1. The Bone Farm (2018)

Black Bat Mystery Series
as Brian Coffey

1. Blood Risk (1973)
2. Surrounded (1974)
3. The Wall of Masks (1975)

Moonlight Bay Series

1. Fear Nothing (1998)
2. Seize the Night (1998)

Santas Twin Series

1. Santa’s Twin (1995)
2. Robot Santa: The Further Adventures of Santa’s Twin (2004)

Nameless Series

1. In the Heart of the Fire (2019)
2. Photographing the Dead (2019)
3. The Praying Mantis Bride (2019)
4. Red Rain (2019)
5. The Mercy of Snakes (2019)
6. Memories of Tomorrow (2019)
7. The Lost Soul of the City (2021)
8. Gentle Is the Angel of Death (2021)
9. Kaleidoscope (2021)
10. Light Has Weight, but Darkness Does Not (2021)
11. Corkscrew (2021)
12. Zero In (2021)

What the Night Knows Series

1. What the Night Knows (2010)
2. Darkness Under the Sun (2010)

Innocence Series

1. Wilderness (2013)
2. Innocence (2013)

Ashley Bell Series

1. Last Light (2015)
2. Final Hour (2015)
3. Ashley Bell (2015)

The City Series

1. The City (2014)
2. The Neighbor (2014)

Trixie Koontz Series

1. Life Is Good: Lessons in Joyful Living (2004)
2. Christmas Is Good: Trixie’s Guide to a Happy Holiday (2005)
3. Bliss to You: Trixie’s Guide to a Happy Life (2008)
4. A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog (2009)
5. I, Trixie, Who is Dog (2009)
6. Trixie and Jinx (2010)

77 Shadow Street Series

1. The Moonlit Mind (2011)
2. 77 Shadow Street (2011)

Frankenstein Series

1. Prodigal Son (2005)
   (With Kevin J. Anderson)
2. City of Night (2005)
   (With Ed Gorman)
3. Dead and Alive (2009)
4. Lost Souls (2009)
5. The Dead Town (2011)

Standalone Novels Series

1. Star Quest / Doom of the Green Planet (1968)
2. The Fall of the Dream Machine / The Star Ventures (1969)
3. Fear That Man / Toyman (1969)
4. Dark Symphony (1970)
5. Hell’s Gate (1970)
6. Dark of the Woods / Soft Come the Dragons (1970)
7. Beastchild (1970)
8. Anti-Man (1970)
9. The Crimson Witch (1971)
10. Demon Child (1971)
    (As: Deanna Dwyer)
11. Legacy of Terror (1971)
    (As: Deanna Dwyer)
12. Warlock (1972)
13. Starblood (1972)
14. The Flesh in the Furnace (1972)
15. Children of the Storm (1972)
    (As: Deanna Dwyer)
16. Dance with the Devil (1972)
    (As: Deanna Dwyer)
17. The Dark of Summer (1972)
    (As: Deanna Dwyer)
18. A Darker Heritage (1972)
19. Darkness in My Soul (1972)
20. Time Thieves (1972)
21. Chase (1972)
22. Demon Seed (1973)
23. Shattered (1973)
24. A Werewolf Among Us (1973)
25. The Haunted Earth (1973)
26. Hanging on (1973)
27. Strike Deep (1974)
28. After the Last Race (1974)
29. Nightmare Journey (1975)
30. The Long Sleep (1975)
    (As: John Hill)
31. Invasion (1975)
    (As: Aaron Wolfe)
32. Dragonfly (1976)
33. Night Chills (1976)
34. Prison Of Ice (1976)
35. Icebound (1976)
36. The Vision (1977)
37. The Face of Fear (1977)
38. The Key to Midnight (1979)
39. Whispers (1980)
40. The Voice of the Night (1980)
41. The Funhouse (1980)
    (As: Owen West)
42. The Eyes of Darkness (1981)
    (As: Leigh Nichols)
43. The Mask (1981)
    (As: Owen West)
44. The House of Thunder (1982)
45. Phantoms (1983)
46. The Servants of Twilight (1984)
47. Darkfall / Darkness Comes (1984)
48. Twilight Eyes (1984)
49. The Door to December (1985)
50. Strangers (1986)
51. Watchers (1987)
52. Shadowfires (1987)
    (As: Leigh Nichols)
53. Lightning (1988)
54. Trapped (1989)
55. Midnight (1989)
56. The Bad Place (1990)
57. Cold Fire (1991)
58. Hideaway (1992)
59. Mr. Murder (1993)
60. Dragon Tears (1993)
61. Winter Moon (1993)
62. Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994)
63. Intensity (1995)
64. Tick Tock (1996)
65. Sole Survivor (1997)
66. False Memory (1999)
67. From the Corner of His Eye (2000)
68. One Door Away from Heaven (2001)
69. Watchers & Mr Murder (2001)
70. By the Light of the Moon (2002)
71. The Face (2003)
72. The Taking (2004)
73. Life Expectancy (2004)
74. Velocity (2005)
75. The Husband (2006)
76. The Darkest Evening of the Year (2007)
77. The Good Guy (2007)
78. Your Heart Belongs to Me (2008)
79. Relentless (2009)
80. Breathless (2009)
81. Devoted (2020)
82. Elsewhere (2020)
83. The Other Emily (2021)
84. Quicksilver (2022)
85. The Big Dark Sky (2022)
86. The House at the End of the World (2023)
87. After Death (2023)
88. The Bad Weather Friend (2024)
89. The Forest of Lost Souls (2024)
90. Going Home in the Dark (2025)
91. The Friend of the Family (2026)

Anthologies Series

1. Strange Highways (1995)
2. The Book Of Counted Sorrows (2003)

Non-Fiction Series

1. Writing Popular Fiction (1972)
2. How to Write Best Selling Fiction (1981)
3. Beautiful Death: The Art of the Cemetery (1996)
4. Ask Anna (2014)

Childrens Series

1. Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages (1988)
2. The Paper Doorway: Funny Verse and Nothing Worse (2001)
3. Every Day’s a Holiday: Amusing Rhymes for Happy Times (2003)

Short Stories/Novellas Series

1. Ricochet Joe [Kindle in Motion] (2017)

Short Story Collections Series

1. Strange Highways and Other Stories (2022)

Graphic Novels Series
with Keith Champagne

1. Nevermore (2009)
   (With Keith Champagne)

About Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz has spent decades writing suspense fiction that resists being boxed into a single shelf. He is usually described as a thriller writer, and that is broadly true, but his books have always moved freely among horror, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, satire, and psychological suspense. That hybrid quality is one of the reasons his bibliography can feel so distinctive. A Dean Koontz novel is often built like a thriller, but the emotional and imaginative range inside it is usually much wider. He writes about danger, certainly, but also about faith, grace, evil, innocence, absurdity, and the strange resilience of ordinary people when confronted by forces far larger than themselves.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Koontz graduated from Shippensburg State College and worked early on with the Appalachian Poverty Program before turning fully to writing. He has often spoken about a difficult childhood and an abusive father, and that background helps explain something central in his fiction: the repeated contrast between cruelty and kindness. For all the menace, grotesquerie, and conspiracy in his novels, they are rarely nihilistic. Koontz is deeply interested in goodness under pressure. His heroes are often damaged, isolated, or frightened, but they are also capable of loyalty, tenderness, humor, and moral courage. That balance is one of the clearest signatures across his work.

His bibliography is best understood in broad phases rather than as one neat progression. He began in science fiction and published under his own name as well as numerous pseudonyms, including K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Brian Coffey, and Deanna Dwyer. That early period was prolific and sometimes deliberately flexible, with Koontz writing across genres and markets while developing the control and speed that later defined his bestselling career. The pseudonym-heavy years matter because they show how much of his eventual success rested on craft built over time rather than on one sudden breakthrough.

The larger commercial breakthrough came when he found the voice and tonal blend that readers now immediately recognize as “Dean Koontz”: suspense stories driven by momentum but shot through with weirdness, dread, heart, and sudden wonder. Books such as Whispers, Phantoms, Lightning, Midnight, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Intensity, and Watchers helped establish that identity. He became a writer whose premises could be wild but whose storytelling remained lucid and emotionally direct. Even at his most high-concept, he tends to keep one foot in ordinary human attachment: a marriage, a child, a dog, a friendship, a stranger who chooses decency.

That last point matters more than it may seem. Koontz’s fiction is full of dogs, and in his case that is not incidental decoration. Animals, especially golden retrievers, became part of both his public persona and his fictional worldview. They embody the loyalty and innocence that many of his novels place under threat but also defend fiercely. His attachment to dogs is not separate from his writing; it is part of the emotional grammar of it.

His bibliography is also best read in clusters. Some readers come to him through the standalones, which remain the backbone of his reputation. Others know him through recurring sequences such as Odd Thomas or the modern Jane Hawk books. Still others trace the early pseudonymous work to see how the later voice emerged. What ties all of it together is a strong authorial conviction that suspense should do more than frighten. It should reveal character, test belief, and uncover the thin line between the monstrous and the merciful.

Koontz’s shelf is enormous, but it holds together because the same sensibility runs through it. He writes fast-moving novels, yet they are rarely empty of soul. He likes menace, but not hopelessness. He likes dark forces, but also comic relief, companionship, and moments of genuine transcendence. That is the best way to understand Dean Koontz as a writer. Not just a master of suspense, but a novelist who turned popular thriller machinery into a vehicle for wonder, terror, and an unexpectedly stubborn faith in human goodness.