The New Policeman
#7613.68 adjusted 3.75 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2005–2009 Reading commitment Medium Kate Thompson Last reviewed 2026-10-21
Overview
Kate Thompson's New Policeman trilogy is set in the village of Kinvara, on the west coast of Ireland, and in Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth of Irish myth, and is steeped in Irish traditional music, which the author, a fiddler, plays. In the first book the teenage J.J. Liddy, from a family of musicians, sets out to find out why there never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, and discovers that time is leaking from his world into Tír na nÓg; the sequels follow his family into the next generations, to a mysterious white goat on the hillside, the last of the high kings, and a far future of refugees and warlords. The first book won both the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Children's Book Award.
Mythic fantasy, Portal fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The New Policeman Kate Thompson
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The New Policeman | 2005 | 1 | core | 3.68 (2,589 ratings) |
 | The Last of the High Kings | 2007 | 2 | core | 3.70 (580 ratings) |
 | The White Horse Trick; First published in hardback in September 2009, per the British Council's author profile and the rating platform's record; the series' encyclopedic entry lists the Red Fox paperback of April 2010, whose ISBN is recorded. | 2009 | 3 | core | 3.67 (230 ratings) |
Kate Thompson's trilogy of the Liddy family of Kinvara and Tír na nÓg.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The New Policeman? The New Policeman's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for The New Policeman? Publication order, starting with The New Policeman. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The New Policeman finished? Complete (2005–2009).
- How much reading does The New Policeman take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is The New Policeman ranked? #761 in this site's official ranking, based on 3,399 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #761?
Ranked #761 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.68 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (3,399 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.03 of each other.
- 0.01 behind #760, King of Shadows.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 3 books · Complete · 3k ratings · Ranks #761 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length mythic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The New Policeman (2005)
- The Last of the High Kings (2007)
- The White Horse Trick (2009)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, 2005: won: The New Policeman
- Costa Book Awards (Children's Book (Whitbread)), 2005: won: The New Policeman; Then the Whitbread Children's Book Award.
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Suggestions computed from what The New Policeman and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Wildwood Chronicles Portal fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.80
- Nevermoor Portal fantasy / Cozy fantasy · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.39
- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Mythic fantasy / Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.30
- The Faraway Tree Portal fantasy / Cozy fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.28
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.68 across 3,399 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: The New Policeman (Kate Thompson) accepted 2026-10-21
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia (The New Policeman) Tier 2
- Author page on the rating platform (ratings and years with titles) Tier 2
- Bodley Head (publisher description, via Risingshadow) Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-21
Rule: Core Canon = The New Policeman (2005), The Last of the High Kings (2007) and The White Horse Trick (2010).