Book Series Guide
Ken Follett

Author guide

Ken Follett Books in Order

Ken Follett (born 1949 in Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh author of thriller and historical fiction. He began as a journalist and publisher before becoming a full-time writer. His breakthrough novel, Eye of the Needle, was published in 1978. His major works include the Kingsbridge saga, the Century Trilogy, standalone thrillers, early novels published under pseudonyms, and nonfiction books. He has also written children's fiction, including The Mystery Hideout, The Power Twins, and The 99th Wife.

thrillerespionagehistorical fictionnonfictionchildren's fiction

Catalog record updated .

Ken Follett's Newest Book

Cover of Circle of Days

Circle of Days

novel · First published 2025

From a bestselling author of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world’s greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge. A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers within their herder community. A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain. A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders—and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare . . . Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle

A landmark espionage thriller and Follett's breakthrough novel.

Cover of The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth

Follett's signature historical epic and the foundation of the Kingsbridge saga.

Cover of Fall of Giants

Fall of Giants

The opening volume of the Century Trilogy.

Read in order

Books by series

trilogy · complete

Apples Carstairs

A trilogy of early thrillers featuring Apples Carstairs, originally published under the pseudonym Symon Myles.

Series guide →
  1. 1
    The Big Needle

    Book 1 · novel · 1974

    Success came easily to Chad Carstairs. Then, without warning, evil invaded his pleasure-filled life...a chilling evil that sent him racing from an elegant English country estate to the sleazy clubs of London's West End, from the…

  2. 2
    The Big Black

    Book 2 · novel · 1974

  3. 3
    The Big Hit

    Book 3 · novel · 1975

duology · complete

Piers Roper

Two early thrillers featuring industrial spy Piers Roper.

Series guide →
  1. 1
    The Shakeout

    Book 1 · novel · 1975

    Ruthless industrial spy Piers Roper joins Holmes Motor Corporation to help another company engineer a takeover, but a beautiful Holmes' executive gets under his skin and weakens his formidable powers of manipulation

  2. 2
    The Bear Raid

    Book 2 · novel · 1976

    When Piers Roper--a top executive for one of England's largest automakers, but actually a spy for MAC, its rival--learns of a plan to sabotage MAC, he travels to Detroit in an attempt to track down the spy

series · complete

Kingsbridge

An epic historical fiction saga spanning roughly a thousand years and centered on the fictional English town of Kingsbridge.

Series guide →
  1. 4
    The Evening and the Morning

    Book 1 · novel · 2020

    It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the…

  2. 1
    The Pillars of the Earth

    Book 2 · novel · 1989

    The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in…

  3. 2
    World Without End

    Book 3 · novel · 2007

    World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again…

  4. 3
    A Column of Fire

    Book 4 · novel · 2017

    In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship,…

  5. 5
    The Armour of Light

    Book 5 · novel · 2023

    The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1770, and with that, a new era of manufacturing and industry changed lives everywhere within a generation. A world filled with unrest wrestles for control over this new world order: A mother’s husband is…

trilogy · complete

The Century Trilogy

A historical fiction trilogy following interconnected families through the major political and social upheavals of the twentieth century.

Series guide →
  1. 1
    Fall of Giants

    Book 1 · novel · 2010

    It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a…

  2. 2
    Winter of the World

    Book 2 · novel · 2012

    Continuing the story of five interrelated families as they become entangled in events from the beginning of the twentieth century, from the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, up to…

  3. 3
    Edge of Eternity

    Book 3 · novel · 2014

    Ken Follett's extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion. In Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, Ken Follett followed the fortunes of five international families—American, German,…

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (22)
  1. The Modigliani Scandal

    novel · 1976

  2. Amok: King of Legend

    novel · 1976

  3. Paper Money

    novel · 1977

    Originally published under the pseudonym Zachary Stone, this is a happily rediscovered suspense thriller written in the mid-'70s by Follett, the bestselling author of Lie Down with Lions. Its plot, set in London, and intended to show that…

  4. Capricorn One

    novel · 1978

  5. Eye of the Needle

    novel · 1978

    The worldwide phenomenon from the bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Evening and the Morning His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary…

  6. Triple

    novel · 1979

    It was never determined what had actually happened to the 200 tons of uranium,” but three countries know the truth. Three young men met decades ago and now world events have cast them as adversaries. Nat, Israel’s hero, known as ‘The…

  7. The Key to Rebecca

    novel · 1980

    He is known to the Germans as 'Sphinx', to others as Alex Wolff, a European businessman. He arrives suddenly in Cairo from out of the desert, armed with a radio set, a lethal blade and a copy of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca-a ruthless man…

  8. The Man from St. Petersburg

    novel · 1982

    Feliks came to London to commit a murder that would change history. He had many weapons at his command, but his most dangerous were the love of a innocent woman, and the passion of a lady demanding satisfaction. Against him were ranged…

  9. On Wings of Eagles

    nonfiction · 1983

    When two of his American employees were held hostage in a heavily guarded prison fortress in Iran, one man took matters into his own hands: American businessman H. Ross Perot. His team consisted of a group of volunteers from the executive…

  10. Lie Down with Lions

    novel · 1986

    Ellis, the American. Jean-Pierre, the Frenchman. They were two men on opposite sides of the cold war, with a woman torn between them. Together, they formed a triangle of passion and deception, racing from terrorist bombs in Paris to the…

  11. Night Over Water

    novel · 1991

    On a bright September morning in 1939, two days after Britain declares war on Germany, a group of privileged but desperate people gather in Southhampton to board the largest, most luxurious airliner ever built, the Pan American Clipper…

  12. A Dangerous Fortune

    novel · 1993

    Ondanks tegenslagen en duidelijke tegenwerking slaagt een jonge telg uit een Londense bankiersfamilie er ruim een eeuw geleden in door te dringen tot de top van het bedrijf.

  13. A Place Called Freedom

    novel · 1995

    Hidden in the shadows of a Scottish river bank in the winter of 1767, a young woman watches a figure emerging from the icy water. Lizzie Hallim has never seen a naked man before; but her excitement is tinged with fear. The man is a slave,…

  14. The Third Twin

    novel · 1996

    Young scientist Jeannie Ferrami discovers a baffling mystery. Two young men, law student Steve and convicted murderer Dan, appear to be identical twins. Yet they were born on different days, to different mothers. Jeannie investigates, but…

  15. The Hammer of Eden

    novel · 1998

    Judy's boss has a grudge against her, so he gives her a dumb assignment: to investigate an anonymous threat from a group that claims that it can trigger earthquakes. Judy's research leads her to maverick seismologist Michael Quercus, who…

  16. Code to Zero

    novel · 2000

    Un hombre se despierta aterrorizado: sufre una especie de resaca y no tiene la menor idea ni de quién es ni de cómo ha llegado hasta estos inmundos baños públicos. Cuando encuentra un periódico descubre que es el 29 de enero de 1958, y la…

  17. Jackdaws

    novel · 2001

    D-Day is approaching. They don’t know where or when, but the Germans know it’ll be soon, and for Felicity “Flick” Clariet, the stakes have never been higher. A senior agent in the ranks of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)…

  18. Hornet Flight

    novel · 2002

    'Hornet Flight' is the startling new thriller set amidst the Danish Resistance of 1941 from best-selling author Ken Follett.

  19. Whiteout

    novel · 2004

    A missing canister containing a deadly virus forms the center of a storm that traps Stanley Oxenford, director of a medical research firm, and a violent trio of thugs in a remote house during a Christmas Eve blizzard.

  20. Notre-Dame

    nonfiction · 2019

  21. Never

    novel · 2021

    New York Times Bestseller The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it’s an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day. “A compelling story, and only too realistic.” —Lawrence H.…

  22. Circle of Days

    novel · 2025

    From a bestselling author of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world’s greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge. A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer…

Children's books (3)
  1. The Mystery Hideout

    children's novel · 1976

    Exploring in an old unused film studio, two boys run across clues to a series of unsolved bank robberies.

  2. The Power Twins

    children's novel · 1976

    Uncle Grigorian, who turns out to be an alien, takes the Price twins and their cousin Tubs to the capital of the Galactic Empire, where they serve as unbiased arbitrators in the Worm War.

  3. The 99th Wife

    children's book · 2019

Frequently asked questions about Ken Follett

Where and when was Ken Follett born?

Ken Follett was born on June 5, 1949, in Cardiff, Wales.

Source: ken-follett.com (opens in a new tab)

What did Ken Follett do before becoming a novelist?

He worked as a reporter for the South Wales Echo and the London Evening News, then joined Everest Books, where he became deputy managing director.

Sources: ken-follett.com (opens in a new tab)ken-follett.com (opens in a new tab)

What influenced Ken Follett’s writing?

He has said that reading Ian Fleming’s Live and Let Die at age 12 shaped his sense of suspense. He later turned toward historical fiction by using real military history to heighten dramatic stories.

Source: panmacmillan.com (opens in a new tab)

What major awards and honors has Ken Follett received?

His breakthrough novel won the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel, and he was named an Edgar Grand Master in 2013. He was appointed a CBE and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.

Sources: ken-follett.com (opens in a new tab)edgarawards.com (opens in a new tab)ken-follett.com (opens in a new tab)

What is Ken Follett’s legacy as an author?

His books have sold more than 198 million copies across over 80 countries and 40 languages. He has also supported literacy charities and served as president of Dyslexia Action for ten years.

Source: ken-follett.com (opens in a new tab)