Baking book series in reading order

by Jenn McKinlay

Livia J. Washburn writes mysteries and westerns, with 57 books in the catalogue from The Emerald Land (1983) to Tourist Trap (2024). Some titles appeared under other names: Ghost River (1990) and Red River Ruse (1991) as L.J. Washburn, Crusade: Lyron's Lament (1995) as Livia Reasoner with James Reasoner, and Rivers of Gold (1995) as J.L. Reasoner. Washburn series include Fresh-Baked Mysteries, Lucas Hallam, Delilah Dickinson, Kingfisher P.I., Evans Novel of the West, Palmetto, Tongue-Tied Witch and Our Town. Subjects include baking, murder, women sleuths, Texas, South Carolina and Phyllis Newsom.

Mary Berry is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter, born on 24 March 1935. Berry trained in catering at college and went to France at 22 to attend Le Cordon Bleu. The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook (1970) was the first Mary Berry book, and the Baking Bible followed in 2009 among more than 75 cookery titles. Berry has presented television series for the BBC and Thames Television. The catalogue opens with Mary Berry's Cookbook (1970) and covers baking, cakes, desserts, freezer cooking and make-ahead cooking, with titles such as Popular Freezer Cookery (1972) and Family Cooking (1978).

Virginia Lowell wrote the Cookie Cutter Shop Mysteries, a six-book cozy series published between 2011 and 2015. A Cookie Before Dying (2011) opens it and Dead Men Don't Eat Cookies (2015) ends it. Baking, gingerbread, a town bakery and a friendship surround the murders, and every title turns on a cookie. No book has followed since 2015.

Cozy mysteries with a trade attached are Jenn McKinlay's speciality: a library, a cupcake bakery, a hat shop and a resale business each anchor a series. The catalogue reaches 69 titles between 2002 and 2026, including contemporary romance in the Bluff Point and Museum of Literature books and the Decoupage mysteries written as Lucy Lawrence. Stuck on Murder (2009) and Sprinkle with Murder (2010) start the main cozy runs, and Booking for Trouble is the most recent title.