Time Police books in order

How many Time Police books are there?

There are six published Time Police novels, beginning with Doing Time and continuing through Out of Time. Short stories are separate from that numbered novel sequence. Follow the six novels in order for the central team’s adventures, then use the shorter-story guide to decide where to add the companion pieces.

Source: Author’s guidance

When is the next Time Police book?

The next listed Time Police release is Who’s There?, a Halloween short story scheduled for 29 October 2026. It is a shorter adventure rather than a seventh numbered novel. Publisher-listed date; may change. Its book page links the announcement and available editions, so you can distinguish this story from the main novel sequence.

Who’s There? release details

Source: Headline

Do I need to read St Mary’s before the Time Police?

No. Our suggested starting point is Doing Time, which introduces Jane, Luke and Matthew as new recruits and begins the Time Police’s own sequence. Follow that series in numbered order. St Mary’s gives extra background to the shared world and its returning characters, so readers who want that context can begin with Just One Damned Thing After Another instead.

Source: Headline

Where does the Time Police fit with St Mary’s?

The Time Police is a spin-off set in the same world as The Chronicles of St Mary’s. It follows the organisation that protects the timeline, while St Mary’s centres on its historians. Our combined guide groups each series into its own reading sequence; the publication-year option shows how their releases developed alongside one another. That is a suggested reading route, rather than an official combined chronology.

Source: Headline

Is the Time Police part of the St Mary’s world?

Yes. Headline describes the Time Police as a spin-off set in the same world as St Mary’s. It has its own central team and numbered novels, beginning with Doing Time.

Source: Headline

What it is

The Time Police begins after the spread of time travel has almost destroyed the world. An international organisation now protects the timeline, and the Time Wars are over. That apparent success leaves the organisation facing a different question about its own future.

Doing Time introduces Jane, Luke and Matthew, three exceptionally unpromising recruits who may have more to offer than their reputation suggests.

The series looks at Taylor’s time-travel world through an institution charged with controlling it. Its opening focus is on people entering that institution, not on historians choosing a research assignment.

Hard Time develops their training into a problem involving illegal temporal tourism, undercover work and historical destinations including Versailles and ancient Egypt. The organisation’s responsibilities give the adventures a framework; the young team makes that framework personal.

Who it suits

Our view is that this is a particularly inviting choice if you like a team learning how to work together under pressure. Three recruits give the reader a manageable group to follow, while the institution around them supplies rules, expectations and opportunities for things to go wrong.

The attraction is not simply visiting another century: it is watching people find their place in a demanding organisation.

We would recommend it to readers who enjoy adventurous comedy with a continuing emotional thread. The premise allows official confidence and individual uncertainty to sit side by side.

If you prefer a fresh central group to joining a long-established ensemble, Doing Time offers that change of focus within the wider world.

Where to start

Begin with Doing Time, then continue to Hard Time. The second novel’s publisher description already places Jane, Luke and Matthew near graduation, so the opening book provides the useful earlier stage. The subsequent route continues through Saving Time, About Time, Killing Time and Out of Time.

Follow that order for the team’s developing circumstances.

The site’s recommendation is to read the novels consecutively before treating the separate shorter adventures as essential stops. A short recording can be an appealing introduction to an author’s voice, but a continuing team is easier to understand when you first meet its members at the beginning.

The individual book pages keep the next step visible without asking you to remember the whole list.

How it connects

Headline explicitly describes the Time Police as a St Mary’s spinoff and places the two series in the same world. The shared setting means that readers can approach time travel through different organisations with different purposes.

Smallhope and Pennyroyal provide another strand in that setting, centred on their work as recovery agents.

In our view, the most useful reason to switch between these books is curiosity about a different viewpoint. Choose St Mary’s when the historical researchers appeal; choose the Time Police when the recruits and their institution do.

Starting with Doing Time is our suggested route for readers attracted primarily to this team. You can explore the other strand afterwards, with the connection guide as a companion rather than a timetable imposed on every reading session.

Listening

Headline’s audiobook editions of Doing Time and Hard Time credit Zara Ramm. Those editions offer a starting point for listening to the series.

The book pages contain the edition details for later titles; consult those when continuing rather than relying on a retailer’s search results to put the series in order.

Our practical suggestion is to save the next numbered novel before finishing the current one. Similar titles are easy to confuse when browsing quickly, especially alongside collections and short works. If you alternate audio with text, continue from the next story position rather than restarting in another format.

Shorter recordings can make useful breaks between novels, provided you check where their returning characters are in the sequence.