They call Jessie Keane the Queen of the Underworld, and if you’ve read Annie Carter you know she’s earned the crown. So what do you read when you’ve finished every single one?
You want East End families with more enemies than Christmas cards. Sisters who’d sooner kill each other than say sorry. Women who start with nothing, get told no at every turn, and end up running the manor anyway. And bodies that have a funny habit of not staying buried. With Dead To Me bringing the Carters back this year, a lot of Keane fans are hungry for more. These are my picks for books like Jessie Keane. Five gangland London thrillers, all on Kindle, all written by someone who’s just as obsessed with the East End as you are.
Why Jessie Keane readers are so loyal
Part of it is her story. She was twice divorced and living in a freezing council flat when she sold her wedding dress to buy a typewriter and wrote Dirty Game, the first Annie Carter book. It went on to become a whole series of Sunday Times bestsellers. You can feel that grit on the page. Her women are fighters because they have to be, her men are dangerous because they mean it, and nobody in the East End ever really lets anything go.
I write in the same streets. If you like your London crime with a matriarch at the top of the table, you’ll also love my lists of books like Kimberley Chambers and books like Martina Cole.
The best books like Jessie Keane
01If you loved Annie Carter
Who Killed Lenny Gunn?
Whoever finds her husband’s killer inherits the Gunn empire.
Annie Carter married into East End royalty and spent the rest of her life fighting to keep it. Queenie Gunn did too, and now she wants to know who killed her husband before she goes.
Queenie Gunn has called the whole family round to tell them she’s dying. Cue the vultures. The Gunns have run their corner of Islington and Hackney for decades, and every single one of them reckons the crown should be theirs. Lenny Gunn was murdered in 1996, and somebody at that table knows a lot more about it than they’ve ever let on.
Perfect if you love: crime family sagasa queen at the head of the tablea killer in the room
Side effects: you’ll start a family WhatsApp group just to see who leaves first.
02If you loved Dead To Me
The Ghosted Wife
Till death do us part.
In Dead To Me, Annie can’t tell if she’s being haunted or hounded. Maria has the same problem, in her own home, with her own family.
Maria’s husband walks straight past her as if she isn’t there. Her children don’t answer when she speaks to them. Night after night, she watches the family she loves carry on without her, like she never existed. Something in that house doesn’t add up, and the very last line will stay with you long after you’ve switched the light off.
Perfect if you love: haunting family dramais it in her head?a last line that floors you
Side effects: you’ll say goodnight to your family twice, just to make sure they answer.
03If you loved Ruby Darke
I Am Queenie Gunn
Before they feared her, they underestimated her.
Ruby Darke was rejected by her own family and refused to stay down. Queenie started out with even less, a market stall girl with a mouth on her and nothing to lose.
Before the money, the big house and the reputation, Queenie was a mouthy girl off Chapel Market with nothing to lose and a tongue that could strip paint. Then she met Lenny Gunn. This is how a nobody became the woman nobody in London was stupid enough to cross. Plenty of people underestimated her. Most of them only did it once.
Perfect if you love: rise to power storieswomen nobody believed inold East End
Side effects: you’ll stop asking for permission. For anything.
04If you loved Playing Dead and Stay Dead
Carol Gunn Returns
She was dead for twenty-one years.
Annie Carter has learned the hard way that dead doesn’t always mean gone in the East End. The Gunns are about to learn the same lesson.
The final book in the Gunn Family Trilogy, and we’re not saying a word. Not because we can’t. Because the Gunns would have our kneecaps. All you need to know is this: she was dead for twenty-one years. Read Who Killed Lenny Gunn? first, then come back here and try to act surprised.
Perfect if you love: people who won’t stay deadseries finalesfamily reckonings
Side effects: you’ll ask to see the body. Every time.
05If you loved her East End feuds
Dead by 06:00
They all knew he was innocent.
Nobody holds a grudge like a Keane character. Danny has been holding his for thirty-two years, and tonight he’s collecting.
Two in the morning. One phone call. Danny grew up on the Packington estate. Theo grew up in a big house on Thornhill Square. Best mates, right up until Danny went to prison for something he didn’t do. Thirty-two years later, they’ve got four hours to settle it, and by six this morning, somebody is going to pay.
Perfect if you love: old scoresloyalty and betrayalone long night
Side effects: you’ll remember every single person who ever owed you a tenner.
Three more for a Keane night in
Got through all five? Course you have. These three will see you through to the weekend, if you don’t read them all in one sitting.
Little Apples Grow
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Rosie Hart moves into a crumbling Highgate house to care for the dying matriarch of the most feared family in the East End. The Driscolls think they’ve hired some help. They haven’t. Out 1 December.
Pre-order on Amazon →
My Name Is Not Evie Marsh
Her name was the first lie.
New name, new look, and a job inside the company run by the man who destroyed her family. Revenge was the plan. Nobody planned for what she’d dig up along the way.
Buy on Amazon →
One of Us Dies on Saturday
Two texts. One weekend away.
Lauren gets a text saying her husband is going to kill her on Saturday. At the exact same moment, Mark gets one saying his wife is going to kill him. Which one would you believe?
Buy on Amazon →Jessie Keane books in order
New to Keane, or trying to work out which ones you’ve missed? Here’s where everything fits.
- Annie Carter: Dirty Game, Black Widow, Scarlet Women, Playing Dead, Ruthless, Stay Dead, Dead Heat and Dead To Me. Read these in order. You’ll thank me.
- Ruby Darke: starts with Nameless, followed by Lawless and The Edge. You can track the series on Goodreads.
- Standalones: Jail Bird, The Make, Dangerous, Fearless, The Knock and The Manor. Pick any of them up whenever you like.
Your questions answered
What books are like Jessie Keane?
If you love Annie Carter, start the Gunn Family Trilogy with Who Killed Lenny Gunn?. If Ruby Darke is your favourite, read I Am Queenie Gunn. If Dead To Me got under your skin, try The Ghosted Wife.
What is Jessie Keane’s newest book?
Dead To Me, published in February 2026. The Carter family is back, and Annie Carter is burying her estranged sister Ruthie, whose death might not have been suicide.
What order are the Annie Carter books in?
Dirty Game, Black Widow, Scarlet Women, Playing Dead, Ruthless, Stay Dead, Dead Heat and Dead To Me.
Who is Ruby Darke?
Ruby Darke is the heroine of Jessie Keane’s second series, which starts with Nameless. It’s a gangland family saga set in London’s East End.
Are these books on Kindle?
Yes. Every book on this list is out now on Kindle apart from Little Apples Grow, which is out on 1 December 2026 and available to pre-order now.
Kadie x
P.S. Annie Carter or Queenie Gunn in a room together? Tell me who walks out on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook.