This is the growing list--both in the sense that authors are occasionally added to it and that many of the authors are still providing us with more adventures of their detectives. I have attempted to list them according to the following pattern:
Author
Mystery category
Name of featured detective
Usual location for the series
Time of the novel
Prequel, if any
First novel in the series
Ingrid Black (husband and wife collab)
Former Law-enforcement Officer
Saxon, ex-FBI profiler
Dublin, Ireland
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
The Dead (2003)
May move this to a different list as there hasn't been a new novel since 2008
Giles Blunt
Police Procedural
Detective John Cardinal
Algonquin Bay, fictional town near Toronto, Canada
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
Forty Words for Sorrow (2000)
Karin Fossum,
Police Procedural
Inspector Konrad Sejer
Elvestad, Norway
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
In the Darkness aka
Eva's Eye (1995)
Michael Gregorio (wife and husband collab)
Judicial Detective
Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis
Konigsberg, Prussia
Historical mystery set in Prussia during the Napoleonic wars in 1804.
First Book in Series
Critique of Criminal Reason (2006)
They may have ended the series as there hasn't been a new one since 2010.
Eliot Pattison
Former Law-enforcement Officer
Shan Tao Yun,
Tibet: Former police officer in Beijing, China, whose duty was to investigate
corruption in the party and ends up in a work camp in Tibet for
being too diligent in his duties.
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
The Skull Mantra (1999)
Peter Robinson
Police Procedural
Chief Inspector Alan Banks
Yorkshire, England
Contemporary
First novel in series:
Gallows View (1987)
C. J. Sansom
Judicial detective
Matthew Shardlake, lawyer
London, England
Historical mystery, 16th century, during the reign of King Henry VIII,
First novel in the series:
Dissolution (2003)
Steven Saylor
Private Professional
Gordianus the Finder
Rome
Historical mystery, 1st century BC
Prequel:
The Seven Wonders.
Second Prequel:
Raiders of the Nile
First novel in the series:
Roman Blood (1991)
Charles Todd (mother and son collab)
Police Procedural
Inspector Ian Rutledge
London, England and countryside
Historical mystery, just after WWI
Prequel:
A Fine Summer's Day, set in 1914.
First novel in the series:
A Test of Wills, (1996)
Fred Vargas
Police Procedural
Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg
Paris, France
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
The Chalk Circle Man (1991)
The following is the sad list--those favorite series that have ended, usually because of the author's death but sometimes because of the author's decision to end the series.
Agatha Christie
Talented amateur
Miss Jane Marple
St. Mary Mead, England
Contemporary when written in 1930
First novel in the series:
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
Colin Dexter
Police Procedural
Inspector Morse
Oxford, England
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
Last Bus to Woodstock (1975)
Colin Dexter ended the series
Batya Gur
Police procedural
Inspector Michael Ohayon,
Jerusalem, Israel
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
The Saturday Morning Murder: a psychoanalytic case (1992)
P. D. James
Police Procedural
Commander Adam Dalgliesh
London, England
Contemporary
First novel in the series:
Cover Her Face (1962)
Bernard Knight
Technical professionals
Sir John de Wolfe (coroner)
County of Devon, England
Historical mystery, 1196 AD
First novel in the series:
The Sanctuary Seeker (19980
Bernard Knight ended the series and now has two other series
Ellis Peters
Talented Amateur
Brother Cadfael (a Benedictine monk)
Shrewsbury Abbey, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Historical mystery set in mid 12th century
Prequel:
A Rare Benedictine
First novel in the series:
A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977)
Dorothy Sayers
Talented Amateur
Lord Peter Wimsey
London, England
Contemporary when written
First novel in the series:
Whose Body (1923)
Arthur Upfield
Police procedural
Inspector Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte
Australia, various fictional locations
Contemporary when written
First novel in the series:
The Barrakee Mystery (1928)