California book series in reading order

by Elizabeth Linington / Dell Shannon

by Marcia Muller

by Ross Macdonald

by Stuart M. Kaminsky

by Stephen Greenleaf

by Sue Grafton

by William Harrington

by Susan Dunlap

by Robyn Carr

by Susan Mallery

by Zuri Day

by Robert Crais

by Laurie R. King

by Elizabeth Linington / Dell Shannon

by Ken Kuhlken

by Michael R. Phillips

by Walter Mosley

by Alex Morgan

by Earlene Fowler

by Kate Carlisle

by John Lescroart

by Tara Taylor Quinn

by Maureen Child

by Jerry Kennealy

by David Putnam

by John Morgan Wilson

by Guillermo Del Toro

by Rob Thomas

by Ted Thackrey Jr.

Erle Stanley Gardner

152 books• 8 series

Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 to March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author of the Perry Mason legal detective stories. The catalogue opens in 1933 with The Case of the Velvet Claws and The Case of the Sulky Girl, followed by The Case of the Curious Bride and The Case of the Howling Dog in 1934, and lists 152 books in all. Other Gardner series include Donald Lam & Bertha Cool, Doug Selby, Gramp Wiggens and Terry Clane. Gardner also wrote non-fiction, mostly accounts of travels through Baja California and elsewhere in Mexico. Pseudonyms included A. A. Fair and Carleton Kendrake, and at the time of death Gardner was the best-selling American author of the 20th century.

Police procedurals set in Los Angeles fill this catalogue, published under Elizabeth Linington and the pen name Dell Shannon, with at least one title as Anne Blaisdell. Lieutenant Luis Mendoza is the central detective; Vic Varallo, Ivor Maddox and the lawyer Jesse Falkenstein head three further series. The run holds 82 books, from Case Pending (1960) to Sorrow to the Grave (1992), at a median of 224 pages.

Marcia Muller, born September 28, 1944 in Detroit, is an American mystery and thriller author who created the female private detective Sharon McCone. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel after four earlier nominations, and Mystery Writers of America named Muller a Grand Master in 2005. Muller studied English at the University of Michigan and worked at Sunset magazine. Muller is married to Bill Pronzini, a collaborator on several novels. The catalogue lists 74 books, including Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977) and Circle in the Water (2024).

Sue Grafton

33 books• 4 series

Sue Grafton is known for the alphabet mysteries, a California series starring the private investigator Kinsey Millhone that runs from A is for Alibi (1982) to Y is for Yesterday (2017). Grafton's catalogue holds 33 books in total, beginning with the novel Keziah Dane in 1967 and taking in standalones and non-fiction. The catalogue is listed as complete.

Ross Macdonald

31 books• 2 series

Lew Archer, a private investigator working in California, is the character Ross Macdonald is catalogued for. The Moving Target (1949), The Drowning Pool (1950) and The Way Some People Die (1951) sit early in that series, and the listing runs to 31 titles from The Dark Tunnel (1944) to Midnight Blue (2010). Some early books carry the name Kenneth Millar. Hard-boiled detection, murder and revenge fill the subject tags.

Ann M. Martin

446 books• 24 series

Ann Matthews Martin, born August 12, 1955, is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction and a Smith College graduate. The Baby-Sitters Club, first published in 1986, is the series Martin is known best for, and Martin remains involved with the series and its spin-offs. The catalogue lists 446 books, beginning with Inside Out and Bummer Summer in 1983. Related lines include Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, California Diaries, Kids in Ms. Colman's Class, Main Street and Doll People. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel (2025) is the newest listed title.

Robyn Carr is the American author of the Virgin River books, and an executive producer on the television versions of Virgin River and Sullivan's Crossing. The catalogue records 70 Carr books, from Chelynne (1980) to The Friendship Club (2024). Thunder Point, Sullivan's Crossing and the Grace Valley Trilogy are Carr's other series. Several novels, The Hero among them, reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Subject tags on the books include contemporary romance, California, single mothers, veterans and city and town life.

Stuart M. Kaminsky (29 September 1934 to 9 October 2009) was an American mystery novelist who also taught film. Four mystery series carry the name: Toby Peters, a private eye in 1940s Hollywood; Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector; Abe Lieberman, a Chicago police officer; and Lew Fonesca, a process server in Sarasota, Florida. A Cold Red Sunrise, a Rostnikov novel, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1989. The catalogue holds 85 books from 1974 to 2011, and its earliest entries are American Film Genres (1974) and Don Siegel: Director (1974).

Four sleuths carry the mysteries of Susan Dunlap: Vejay Haskell, Jill Smith, Kiernan O'Shaughnessy and Darcy Lott, each heading a series. Born in 1943, Dunlap has also edited crime fiction and written short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Checkout took both the Macavity and the Anthony Award in 1994. The catalogue lists 30 books from Karma (1981) to Out of Nowhere (2016), at a median of 247 pages, with California policing and San Francisco among the standing subjects.

Shirley Rousseau Murphy wrote mysteries and children's fantasy across 48 books between 1967 and 2018. The Joe Grey mysteries, set in California, are the longest run, with Dulcie tagged alongside Joe Grey and cats threaded through the subjects; Cat Chase the Moon (2018) is the last title listed. Murphy's earlier work is fantasy for younger readers, including the Children of Ynell and Dragonbards sequences and picture books such as The Pig Who Could Conjure The Wind (1978). The Sand Ponies (1967) opens the catalogue.

Susan Mallery is an American romance novelist born in 1970, whose books are set in small, tight-knit communities and give pets a prominent role. The catalogue counts 201 books from Tender Loving Care (1991) onward, including early titles published as Susan Macias. Series include Fool's Gold, Desert Rogues, Hometown Heartbreakers, Happily Inc., Marcelli, Buchanans, Blackberry Island and Mischief Bay. The Bookstore Diaries (2026) is the newest release, and Friend Request is due in 2027.

Dean Koontz, born on July 9, 1945, is an American novelist of suspense thrillers that mix in horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery and satire. Koontz published early work under pen names including Deanna Dwyer, K. R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, David Axton and Brian Coffey. The catalogue holds 164 books, from Star Quest / Doom of the Green Planet (1968) to The Friend of the Family (2026), with A Storm So Bright and Beautiful set for 2027. Jane Hawk, Nameless and Dean Koontz's Frankenstein are Koontz series, and Odd Thomas appears among the characters. Fourteen Koontz hardcovers and sixteen paperbacks reached number one on The New York Times list, and sales top 500 million copies.

T. Jefferson Parker

136 books• 7 series

Laguna Heat (1985) is the first catalogued novel by T. Jefferson Parker, an American writer born in 1953 whose police procedurals take place in Southern California. Little Saigon (1988), Pacific Beat (1991), Summer of Fear (1993), The Triggerman's Dance (1996) and Silent Joe (2001) follow in the listing, and Gone at First Light is scheduled for 2027. Charlie Hood, Roland Ford and Merci Rayborn are Parker's series characters. California, police work and American noir fiction appear among the subjects.

Bill Pronzini, born April 13, 1943, is an American detective fiction writer and the creator of the Nameless Detective, a San Francisco private investigator who appeared in over 40 books from the early 1970s into the 2000s. Pronzini has also compiled more than 100 anthologies of mystery, western and science fiction stories. The catalogue lists 115 books, from The Stalker (1971) and The Snatch (1971) to The Hanging Man & Other Western Stories (2024). Other series include Carpenter and Quincannon and Academy Mystery.

Irene Kelly, a California journalist, carries Jan Burke's mystery series, which opens with Goodnight, Irene (1993). Burke has won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Agatha Award for Best Short Story, the Macavity Award and the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award. Serial murder, police work and women detectives fill the subject tags. The catalogue holds 23 titles and ends with Tried (2014).

Stephen Greenleaf is the author of the John Marshall Tanner series. The catalogue lists 18 books from 1979 to 2012, with hard-boiled mystery, private investigators, San Francisco and trials among the subjects. Grave Error (1979) opens the list, with Death Bed (1980), State's Evidence (1982) and Fatal Obsession (1983) next. Beyond Blame and The Ditto List arrived in 1985, and Toll Call in 1987. R&R (2012) is the final listed title, and the catalogue is likely complete.

Savannah Reid, a private investigator in California, leads G.A. McKevett's mystery series, and a Granny Reid line runs beside it. McKevett's catalogue holds 41 books, from Legacy of the Wolf (1986) to Murder Most Grave (2022), with standalone novels and non-fiction among them. Women sleuths, murder and crime recur as subjects. No new McKevett title has appeared since 2022.

Joanne Pence writes culinary mysteries. The amateur sleuth is Angie Amalfi, an underemployed food writer and gourmet chef in San Francisco, and Amalfi's romance with homicide inspector Paavo Smith runs alongside the cases; the flavour is humorous, screwball adventure. Born Joanne Lopez in San Francisco, Pence attended the University of California, Berkeley and managed operations analysis at the Social Security administration from 1970 to 1998. The catalogue lists 58 titles, opening with Dangerous Journey (1987) and Something's Cooking (1993) and reaching Deadly Ever After in 2025. Series include Cook and Inspector Mysteries, Inspector Rebecca Mayfield Mystery, Angie & Friends Food & Spirits Mysteries and Donnelly Cabin Inn.

Legal thrillers were Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's field, populated by women prosecutors, judges and probation officers working in California. Born in Dallas in 1946 and died in Las Vegas in 2017, Rosenberg published her first novel, Mitigating Circumstances, in 1993; Jonathan Demme took the film rights, most of her novels reached the New York Times bestseller list, and her work was translated widely. Rosenberg founded Voice of Tomorrow, a writing programme for inner-city young people, and Orange County's Board of Supervisors named her A Woman of Excellence, Learning for Life in 1994. Fourteen books span 1993 to 2010, including the Lily Forrester and Carolyn Sullivan series.

Contemporary romance is the territory of Jill Shalvis, an American novelist whose work includes the Lucky Harbor books. The catalogue records 140 books, opening with Summer of Fire in 1996 and extending to Falling into You in 2026. Heartbreaker Bay, Wildstone, Animal Magnetism, Sunrise Cove, Cedar Ridge and Sky High Air are among the series. Firefighters, bush pilots, sisters, California and Washington state appear in the subject tags, and Shalvis is still publishing.

Timothy Hallinan

25 books• 3 series

Timothy Hallinan is an American thriller writer based in Southern California and Southeast Asia. The 1990s work centres on Simeon Grist, an erudite private eye in six Los Angeles novels that drew strong reviews and Ten Best listings without wide sales; a seventh Grist book followed in 2017. Hallinan returned to publication in 2007 with a Bangkok series, the Poke Rafferty mysteries, and later added the Junior Bender books. Thieves and private investigators sit in the subject record. Twenty-five books are catalogued, from 1985 to Rock of Ages (2022).

Joseph Hansen (1923-2004) was an American crime writer and poet. Dave Brandstetter, a private investigator, is Hansen's central character, in a series running from Fadeout (1970) and Death Claims (1973) through a long line of California cases. Gay men and gay life in Los Angeles are the subjects that set the work apart from the crime writing around it. Early titles appeared as James Colton and two as Rose Brock. Thirty-seven books are catalogued between 1964 and 2002, and the Joseph Hansen Awards carry his name.

Karen Kijewski is an American mystery writer, born in 1943, known for the Kat Colorado series. Katwalk (1988) opens 9 books that end with Stray Kat Waltz (1998), every title a play on the detective's name: Copy Kat (1990), Kat's Cradle (1992), Wild Kat (1994), Honky Tonk Kat (1996). Kat Colorado is a private investigator working in Sacramento, and country music, hard-boiled crime and abused wives run through the subjects.

Zuri Day writes contemporary romance featuring African American characters, with California and New Orleans among the recorded settings. The catalogue holds 35 books from Lies Lovers Tell (2008) to Champagne Taste on a Bad Boy Budget (2025), all credited to Zuri Day. Series recorded under the name are Drakes of California, Morgan Men, Eddington Heirs, Sin City Secrets, Blue-Collar Lover and Love in the Big Easy. Wine and wine making, family life and African American women singers appear among the subjects.