Antique dealers book series in reading order

by Jonathan Gash

John Creasey (17 September 1908 to 9 June 1973) was an English novelist of detective and crime fiction who also wrote science fiction, romance and westerns, producing more than six hundred novels under twenty-eight pseudonyms. Creasey characters include The Toff (Richard Rollison), Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, Inspector Roger West, The Baron (John Mannering), Dr Emmanuel Cellini and Dr Stanislaus Alexander Palfrey. Gideon, introduced in Gideon's Day (1955), was the basis for the 1958 John Ford film Gideon's Day and the television series Gideon's Way (1964 to 1966). The catalogue lists 497 books from Seven Times Seven (1932), with early titles as M.E. Cooke and Margaret Cooke.

Jonathan Gash is the pen name of John Grant, born 1933, an English doctor and writer. His Lovejoy novels follow an antiques dealer through crime in England, and the series reached television in an adaptation by Ian La Frenais. A second series features Dr Clare Burtonall, a woman physician. Gash has also written as Graham Gaunt and Jonathan Grant. The catalogue holds 34 books from The Judas Pair (1977) to Preddy Boy (2013), at a median of 266 pages.

Barbara Allan writes the Trash 'n' Treasures Mysteries, a cozy series whose amateur sleuths are a mother and daughter dealing in antiques. The 24 catalogued books open with Antiques Roadkill (2006) and reach Antiques Web (2026), every title beginning with the word Antiques. Vivian Borne is the recurring character named in the catalogue. Murder, small-town dealing and a dog recur throughout, and the series is ongoing.

Cozy mystery is Tamar Myers's form, and 49 catalogued books carry her name across three series: Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, Den of Antiquity and Amanda Brown. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (1993) opens the catalogue and Cousins From a Distant Sun (2026) is the newest entry. The recurring sleuths are Magdalena Yoder and Abigail Timberlake, and the books' subjects take in Mennonites, hotelkeepers, antique dealers, women detectives and cooking.

Lara McClintoch is an antique dealer who investigates thefts of antiquities, and Lyn Hamilton wrote 11 books about her. Hamilton (1944-2009) was Canadian, worked in communications in the public service, directed the Cultural Programs Branch for Ontario, and published a first novel at 50. Each title names a place or an object: The Xibalba Murders (1997), The Maltese Goddess, The Celtic Riddle, The Moai Murders. The series closed with The Chinese Alchemist in 2007.

Sujata Massey

23 books• 3 series

Sujata Massey writes mystery and historical fiction. The Salaryman's Wife (1997) opened her Rei Shimura novels, whose Japanese-American antiques dealer works as an amateur sleuth in Tokyo, and the debut took an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. The Flower Master won a Macavity for Best Mystery Novel in 2000. Massey later began the Perveen Mistry series. Her 23 catalogued books reach The Star from Calcutta in 2026.

Lea Wait (1946-2019) wrote mysteries for adults and historical fiction for readers aged 7 and up, much of it set in Maine. The Antique Print Mysteries open with Shadows at the Fair (2002) and name Maggie Summer among their characters; the Mainely Needlepoint Mysteries are her other adult series, and Seaward Born and the Maine Murder Mysteries complete the catalogue. Thirty books close with Thread and Buried (2019).

Judith Cutler writes crime fiction almost entirely in series, most of it set in and around Birmingham in the present day. Sophie Rivers, a lecturer who investigates as an amateur, carries ten books; Detective Sergeant Kate Power six; the antique restorer Lina Townend six; and Detective Superintendent Fran Harman five. Further sequences follow Harriet & Matthew Rowsley, Tobias Campion and Josie Welford. Fifty-five titles are catalogued, from Dying Fall (1995) to The Mystery of the Seaside Treasure (2026).

Mollie Hardwick (1916–2003), also known as Mary Atkinson, was an English author best known for the books accompanying the television series Upstairs, Downstairs. Hardwick started as a BBC radio announcer in the 1940s and worked in the BBC drama department until 1962. Other work includes Thomas & Sarah, The Duchess of Duke Street, three Juliet Bravo books and the Doran Fairweather novels. The catalogue lists 51 books from The Sherlock Holmes Companion (1962) to Come Away, Death (1995), including Charles Dickens Encyclopedia (1973).

T. Davis Bunn, born in 1952 and raised in North Carolina, is an American writer of historical fiction and legal thrillers in which Christian faith plays a major part. After a 1974 BA in psychology and economics from Wake Forest University and graduate study in international finance and economics at Gresham College in London, Bunn worked as a consultant and lecturer in international finance in Switzerland and Germany. Bunn is Novelist in Residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford, and divides time between Oxford and Florida. The catalogue holds 108 books from The Presence (1990) to The Sapphire Sea (2026), including Florian's Gate (1992), The Amber Room (1992) and Rhineland Inheritance (1993); some books carry the name Davis Bunn, and Marc Royce and Acts Of Faith are among the series.

Deborah Morgan is the author of the Antique Lover series. Catalogue subjects for the name include mystery and detective fiction, antique dealers, antique collecting, art collections and the fictitious character Jeff Talbot. Titles from this part of the catalogue include Death is a Cabaret (2001), The Weedless Widow (2002), The Marriage Casket (2003), Four on the Floor (2004) and The Majolica Murders (2006).

Antiques appraiser Josie Prescott is the detective Jane K. Cleland is known for. The Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries are traditional mysteries set in New Hampshire, beginning with Consigned to Death in 2006 and continuing through Deadly Appraisal (2007), Antiques to Die For (2008) and a strand of short stories and novellas. The American author also writes non-fiction on the craft of writing, and earlier titles handled business communication, among them How to Create High-Impact Newsletters in 1996. Cleland has won and been nominated for numerous awards, the Josie Prescott series has been optioned for film and television, and the catalogue reaches Beat the Bots in 2025.

Mary Kay Andrews writes women's fiction and mysteries set in Georgia. Every Crooked Nanny (1992) opens the catalogue and introduces Callahan Garrity, an Atlanta woman sleuth. Andrews wrote the Truman Kicklighter mysteries as Kathy Hogan Trocheck, and later work turns to contemporary romance and beach-town novels, with the Weezie & Bebe mysteries in between. The catalogue holds 39 titles through Road Trip (2026).

Jack McDevitt

35 books• 4 series

Jack McDevitt, born April 14, 1935, is an American science fiction author whose novels often turn on contact with alien races and on archaeology, including xenoarchaeology. Two sets of characters carry most of the books: the relic hunters Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath, and the faster-than-light pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins. Seeker took the 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and McDevitt has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell awards many times. The catalogue lists 35 books from The Hercules Text (1986) to Doorway to the Stars (2024), including A Talent for War (1989), The Engines of God (1994), Eternity Road (1997) and Moonfall (1998). The first published McDevitt story was "The Emerson Effect" in The Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981.

Sheri S. Tepper (1929-2016) wrote science fiction, horror and mystery. Feminist science fiction is what she is chiefly known for, working through sociology, gender and equality as well as theology and ecology; often called an eco-feminist of the genre, Tepper preferred the label eco-humanist. Her 53 catalogued titles run from King's Blood Four (1983) to Fish Tails (2014), across the Land of the True Game, End of the Game, Chronicles of Mavin Manyshaped, Awakeners, Arbai, Marianne, Ettison, Plague of Angels, Shirley McClintock and Jason Lynx sequences. Three Mavin Manyshaped books appeared in 1985, alongside Jinian Footseer and Marianne, the Magus, and the Manticore.

James Patrick Hunt wrote 17 catalogued books between 2005 and 2017, in the police procedural and crime field. Series under the Hunt name are Lieutenant George Hastings, Evan Maitland and Dan Bridger. Before They Make You Run (2005) is the first title, and Maitland came out the same year, followed by Maitland Under Siege (2006) and Maitland's Reply (2009). Recorded subjects include police, St. Louis, judges, bounty hunters, fugitives, organized crime and antique dealers. Bridger (2010), The Silent Places (2010) and Bullet Beth (2011) are also listed, and The German (2017) is the last.

Beth Hoffman has two catalogued novels. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (2010) opens the pair and Looking for Me (2013) closes it. Families and family secrets, teenage girls, memory and missing persons are the subjects both books record, with antique dealing and eccentric characters alongside. The Hoffman catalogue stands at two titles and is listed as complete.