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Standalone Books in Order
Below you'll find the complete list of Standalone books in publication order. This is generally the recommended reading order for the series.
Reading order verified: April 2026
Quick Answer
What order should I read the Standalone series? Start with "Cover Charge" (1926) and follow publication order through all 70 books.
The complete Standalone reading order is listed below in publication sequence.
Publication Order

Cover Charge
1926

Children of the Ritz
1927

Times Square
1929

A Young Man's Heart
1930

The Time of Her Life
1931

Manhattan Love Song
1932

The Bride Wore Black / Beware the Lady (As: William Irish)
1940

The Black Curtain
1941

Black Alibi
1942

Phantom Lady (As: William Irish)
1942

The Black Angel
1943

And So to Death (As: William Irish)
1943

Deadline at Dawn (As: William Irish)
1944

Night Has a Thousand Eyes
1945

The Black Path of Fear
1946

Borrowed Crime (As: William Irish)
1946

The Dancing Detective (As: William Irish)
1946

Waltz Into Darkness
1947

Rendezvous in Black
1948

I Married a Dead Man (As: William Irish)
1948

The Blue Ribbon (As: William Irish)
1949

Fright
1950

Savage Bride
1950

You'll Never See Me Again
1951

Strangler's Serenade (As: William Irish)
1951

Marijuana
1951

Bluebeard's Seventh Wife (As: William Irish)
1952

Hotel Room
1958

Into the Night (With: Lawrence Block)
1959

The Doom Stone
1960

Irish Trophy (As: William Irish)
1978

Dilemma of the Dead Lady
1950

Rear Window
1991

Mystery in Room 913
2013

Too Nice a Day to Die
2014

Guns, Gentlemen
2015

Hot Water
2015
The Dark Oblivion
2021

Rear Window and Other Stories
1942

Violence
1958

Beyond the Night
1959

Nightmare
1964

The Ten Faces of Cornell Woolrich
1965

The Dark Side of Love
1965

Nightwebs
1971

Angels of Darkness
1978

The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich
1981

Darkness at Dawn
1985

Vampire's Honeymoon
1985

Blind Date with Death
1985

Night and Fear (With: Francis M. Nevins Jr.)
1990

Tonight, Somewhere in New York (With: Francis M. Nevins Jr.)
2005

Love and Night
2007

Literary Noir
2018

An Obsession with Death and Dying
2018

If I Should Die Before I Wake
1946

Dead Man Blues
1947

Six Nights of Mystery
1950

Deadly Night Call
1951

Eyes That Watch You
1952

Daring Detectives
1969

Tantalizing Locked Room Mysteries
1982

Tales of Mystery
1986

Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels
1986

Kill or Cure
1989

Tales of the Occult
1989
Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories
1996

Murder to Music
1997
The Vintage Book of Amnesia
2000

Murder On The Railways
2003
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