How to Read the Max & Angela Series
The Max & Angela series, co-authored by Irish noir pioneer Ken Bruen and American thriller novelist Jason Starr, is a cult-classic neo-noir crime saga. Combining gritty street-level violence with pitch-black comedy, the series follows the disastrous, greed-fueled exploits of Max Fisher and his secretary-turned-accomplice, Angela Petrakos. To experience their descent into the criminal underworld properly, you must follow the chronological publication order, as each book directly continues the chaotic narrative of the previous entry.
Max & Angela Books in Recommended Reading Order
Whether you are reading the original individual paperbacks or the consolidated trilogy release, this is the definitive order to follow:
- Bust (2006) – The series kicks off when Max Fisher, a wealthy and incredibly sleazy New York businessman, decides to hire a hitman to murder his wife so he can be with his secretary, Angela Petrakos. Predictably, the scheme goes spectacularly and hilariously wrong.
- Slide (2007) – In the aftermath of the first book's disaster, Max attempts to reinvent himself as a small-time crack cocaine dealer in New York. Meanwhile, Angela heads to Dublin, Ireland, where she becomes involved with a dangerous serial killer.
- The Max (2008) – The consequences of their lifestyle catch up to them: Max finds himself locked up in the notorious Attica Correctional Facility trying to survive prison gangs, while Angela is detained in a gritty Greek jail.
- Pimp (2016) – Released nearly a decade after the original trilogy, this meta-fictional finale finds Max on the run, trying to rebuild his empire using a bizarre new designer drug called PIMP (peyote, insulin, mescaline, and psychosis). Angela is in Hollywood, trying to sell the movie rights to their chaotic life story.
Publication Order vs. Chronological Order
Unlike some sprawling crime franchises, there is no divergence between the publication order and the internal chronology of the Max & Angela series. The events of Slide flow directly from the wreckage of Bust, and The Max deals with the direct legal and physical aftermath of their dual escapades. Pimp serves as a decade-later epilogue that checks back in on the characters, carrying their timeline into the mid-2010s. For this reason, readers should strictly avoid starting with later books like The Max or Pimp, as they contain major spoilers for the previous installments and assume full familiarity with the characters' history.
The "Supermax" Omnibus Collection
In November 2025, Hard Case Crime published Supermax: The Max and Angela Trilogy, which collects the first three novels (Bust, Slide, and The Max) into a single omnibus edition. If you are looking to get into the series, purchasing Supermax is highly recommended as it contains the complete original narrative arc. However, please note that the fourth book, Pimp, is not included in this collection and must be acquired separately to finish the series.
What to Know Before You Start
Before diving in, readers should know that the Max & Angela books are not standard, serious detective procedurals. Instead, they are high-energy, pulp-inspired dark comedies. The prose is lightning-fast, written in a sparse, snappy style that blends Ken Bruen's signature poetic, stream-of-consciousness formatting with Jason Starr's psychological suspense. The characters are unapologetically morally bankrupt, self-deluded, and chaotic, making the series read like a cross between classic 1950s pulp fiction and a modern satire of greed.
Co-Authored Context and Spin-Offs
While Max & Angela represents the primary collaboration between Ken Bruen and Jason Starr, both authors have extensive solo bibliographies that fans of the series will enjoy:
- Ken Bruen's Solo Work: Best known for his Jack Taylor series set in Galway, Ireland, which features a similarly gritty, hardboiled detective dealing with personal demons and Irish crime.
- Jason Starr's Solo Work: Renowned for his Brooklyn-based psychological thrillers such as Cold Caller and Tough Luck, which focus on ordinary people sliding into crime due to financial desperation or bad decisions.