
Black Dagger Brotherhood
paranormal romance
Series · urban fantasy
The Hollows series by Kim Harrison has 20 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Dead Witch Walking (2004).
Start here: Dead Witch Walking (2004) — then read straight through in publication order.
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
The order the story's events happen in, novellas slotted where they belong.
A genetically engineered tomato virus wipes out a third of humanity in the 1960s, forcing vampires, witches, werewolves, and other Inderlanders out of hiding to help keep civilization running -- and reshaping Cincinnati around a supernatural underclass now living openly alongside humans. Rachel Morgan is a witch and bounty hunter who quits her job at a corrupt supernatural law-enforcement agency and goes independent, teaming up with a wisecracking vampire partner and a pixy family for backup as she takes on runs that routinely spiral into city-threatening trouble. Kim Harrison builds one of urban fantasy's most detailed alternate-history premises, then spends eighteen books letting Rachel's own power -- demon-touched magic she spends much of the series afraid of -- become as dangerous as anything she's hunting.
The series is known for a strong ensemble (vampire partner Ivy, pixy Jenks, and a rotating cast of witches, demons, and elves who become genuine found family) and for taking real risks with Rachel's arc, including a widely discussed choice partway through the series to change the nature of her magic entirely. It blends noir bounty-hunter plotting with heavy worldbuilding and a slow-burn central relationship, and unlike many long-running urban fantasy series it has an actual, deliberate structure -- the original 13-book arc has a clear endpoint before Harrison continued the world further. Readers who want dense alternate-history worldbuilding, a found-family ensemble, and a heroine whose power is genuinely a liability as often as an asset are the audience.
18 novels as of Demon's Bluff (2024): the original 13-book arc (Dead Witch Walking through The Witch With No Name), a continuation of 5 more starting with American Demon (2020), plus the prequel novel The Turn and the reference volume The Hollows Insider.
Publication order, starting with Dead Witch Walking. The Turn is a prequel and can be read first for chronology, but most readers save it for after the main series, since it's written with that reading order in mind.
The original 13-book arc has a definitive ending, but Kim Harrison has continued the world with further books through 2024's Demon's Bluff. No further title has been confirmed as of mid-2026.
The Witch With No Name (2014) closed out the original 13-book arc. Harrison returned to the world six years later with American Demon (2020), continuing Rachel's story.
No. It's a self-contained prequel about the outbreak that created Harrison's world, and works either as a first read or, more commonly, as a deep-lore bonus after the main series.
Reading order last verified .