Canada book series in reading order

Janette Oke, born Janette Steeves on 18 February 1935, is a Canadian author of inspirational fiction, often set in pioneer times with women as the lead characters. Bethany House published Love Comes Softly, the first Oke novel, in 1979. When Calls the Heart (1983) opened the Canadian West series and became the basis for a television series with the same title. The catalogue holds 79 Oke books, with The Pharisee's Wife (2025) the newest. Series include Love Comes Softly, Prairie Legacy, Women of the West, Song of Acadia and Janette Oke's Animal Friends. Subjects include women pioneers, Canada and Christian fiction.

Farley Mowat

38 books• 1 series

Farley Mowat (1921-2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist whose work was translated into 52 languages and sold more than 17 million copies. People of the Deer (1950) opens a catalogue of 38 titles and begins Mowat's writing on the Canadian north, its Inuit peoples and the Arctic. Never Cry Wolf (1963), an account of life among Arctic wolves, was filmed in 1983. Mowat wrote for children as well, taking the Vicky Metcalf Award in 1970, and the catalogue closes at Eastern Passage (2010).

Mazo de la Roche

31 books• 2 series

Mazo de la Roche (1879–1961), born Maisie Louise Roche, was a Canadian writer. The Jalna novels, a chronicle of the Whiteoak family set at Jalna in Ontario, were among the most widely read series of their day, running from Jalna (1927) through Whiteoaks of Jalna (1929), Finch's Fortune (1931), The Master of Jalna (1933) and The Building of Jalna (1935). Thirty-one books are catalogued, plays among them, with family life and Canadian social history the standing subjects.

Robertson Davies

31 books• 4 series

Robertson Davies was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist and professor, and the founding Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. The fiction comes in trilogies: Salterton, opening with Tempest-Tost (1951); Deptford, opening with Fifth Business (1970) and continuing through The Manticore (1972) and World of Wonders (1975); Cornish; and Toronto. Thirty-one titles are catalogued, essays, criticism and diaries among them, ending with A Celtic Temperament: Robertson Davies as Diarist (2015).

Michael Slade writes police thrillers about serial killers, set in British Columbia and built around the Royal Canadian Mounted Police unit Special X. Robert DeClerq leads the investigations. Headhunter (1984) opens the catalogue, followed by Ghoul, Cutthroat, Ripper and Hangman, and 15 books run to Headhunter Reimagined in 2018, at a median of 404 pages.

Margaret Atwood

89 books• 8 series

Margaret Atwood, born November 18, 1939, is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic and inventor. The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian novel from 1985, is the best-known Atwood work. Atwood's output includes 18 poetry books, 18 novels, 11 non-fiction books, nine short fiction collections, eight children's books and two graphic novels. The catalogue opens with The Circle Game (1964) and runs to Book of Lives (2025), with The Edible Woman (1969) and Surfacing (1972) along the way. Series include MaddAddam, Handmaid's Tale and Angel Catbird. Awards include two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Franz Kafka Prize and the Order of Canada.

Alice Munro

28 books

Alice Munro (1931–2024) built a career on short fiction across five decades of publishing. The Canadian writer took the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 and the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 for her body of work. Her stories are set most often in Huron County in southwestern Ontario and move forward and backward in time within linked cycles, taking women, families and small-town manners as their material. 28 books are catalogued, from Dance of the Happy Shades (1968) onward, including Lives of Girls and Women (1971), The Beggar Maid (1977) and Open Secrets (1994).

Vicki Delany, born Victoria Ann Cargo in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1951, is a Canadian mystery novelist with nine mystery series. Delany belongs to Crime Writers of Canada and Capital Crime Writers and appears on panels at Bouchercon, Malice Domestic and Bloody Words. The catalogue lists 58 books, from Whiteout (2000) to Whose Body in the Library (2026). Series include Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery, Year-Round Christmas Mysteries, Constable Molly Smith, Tea By The Sea Mysteries, Klondike Mysteries and Catskill Summer Resort Mysteries.

Charles de Lint, a Canadian writer born December 22, 1951, works mainly in fantasy, covering urban fantasy, contemporary magical realism and mythic fiction. During the 1980s de Lint, together with Terri Windling, Emma Bull and John Crowley, helped establish urban fantasy as a subgenre. The output includes novels, novellas, short stories, poetry and song lyrics. The catalogue records 95 books from Moonheart (1984) to Juniper Wiles Does Not Want to Be Queen (2025), with Mulengro (1985), Yarrow (1986), Greenmantle (1988) and Wolf Moon (1988) among the early titles. Newford, an imaginary place in the subject headings, names a series, alongside Moonheart, Cerin Songweaver, Jack of Kinrowan and Juniper Wiles.

Gary Paulsen

181 books• 17 series

Survival and outdoor adventure run through Gary Paulsen's writing for young readers. The catalogue holds 181 books, from Some Birds Don't Fly (1968) to Northwind (2022), at a median length of 105 pages. Brian Robeson, Francis Tucket, Duncan Culpepper, Murphy and the World of Adventure books head the series lines, with non-fiction and picture books alongside. No new Paulsen title has appeared since 2022.

Luanne Rice, born 25 September 1955, is an American novelist whose books frequently turn to nature, the sea, love and family. The catalogue lists 42 Rice titles, from Angels All Over Town (1985) to Until Midnight (2026), including Crazy in Love, Firefly Beach, The Lemon Orchard and Beach Girls. Subjects on file include sisters, mothers and daughters, Connecticut, suspense and missing persons. Series include Hubbard's Point/Black Hall, Newport, Rhode Island and Detective Conor Reid, and Rice's work has been translated into 26 languages.

L.M. Montgomery

57 books• 9 series

Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 to April 24, 1942) was a Canadian author who published as L. M. Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables (1908) began the body of work Montgomery is known for, and the orphan Anne Shirley brought Montgomery fame and an international readership. The career produced 20 novels plus more than a thousand short stories and poems, alongside essays. The catalogue lists 57 books, from Anne of Green Gables to editions dated 2025, and holds the Anne Shirley, Emily and Silver Bush series and the published journals.

Romantic suspense is Loreth Anne White's field. Sixty-six titles run from Melting the Ice (2003) to The Black Orchid (2026), across the Shadow Soldiers, Sahara Kings, Angie Pallorino, Wild Country, Dark Lure, Snowy Creek and Bellona Channel series. Horse racing, Canada, widows and women journalists appear in the subject tags.

Tanya Huff

67 books• 13 series

Tanya Huff, born in 1957, is a Canadian fantasy author published since the late 1980s. The Blood Books, whose detective is Vicki Nelson, were adapted for television as Blood Ties. The catalogue records 67 books from Child of the Grove (1988) to Saved by the Spell (2026), with Vicki Nelson, Confederation, Quarters, Peacekeeper, Smoke Trilogy, Gale Women and Wizard of the Grove among the series listed. Vampires, wizards, witches and life on other planets appear in the recorded subjects, and Doctor Who and Valdemar are also logged against the listing.

Gail Bowen was a Canadian novelist, playwright and educator who died in 2026. The Joanne Kilbourn mysteries are her principal sequence, featuring a woman college teacher as sleuth and catalogued under Saskatchewan. Bowen's 34 books span 1987 to 2025, from 1919, The Love Letters Of George & Adelaide to The Solitary Friend, and take in the Charlie D books, stage plays and non-fiction.

Susan Page Davis writes Christian romance, romantic suspense and mystery, with 111 books in the catalogue from Protecting Amy (2004) to Dumpsters and Dragons (2026). Breaking News (2005), The Oregon Escort (2006), The Prisoner's Wife (2006) and Frasier Island (2007) are among the earlier titles. Davis series include Maine Justice, True Blue Mysteries, Ladies' Shooting Club, Mainely Romance, Mainely Mysteries, Maine Brides, White Mountain Brides, Alaska Wedding, Homeward Trails, Skirmish Cove Mysteries and Prairie Dreams. Subjects include historical fiction, murder, Maine and inspirational fiction.

Maggie K. Black has 37 catalogued books, from Killer Assignment (2013) to Uncovering Explosive Secrets (2026). Unsolved Case Files, True North Heroes, Protected Identities and True North Bodyguards are the listed series. Romantic suspense, Christian suspense, women journalists, Canada, kidnapping and blizzards appear among the subjects. Deadline (2014), Headline: Murder (2015), Kidnapped at Christmas (2016), Tactical Rescue (2016) and Rescue at Cedar Lake (2017) are other titles.

Ron Corbett writes Canadian crime fiction and non-fiction. The Frank Yakabuski novels, Ragged Lake (2017), Cape Diamond (2018), Mission Road (2020), and the Danny Barrett books are his two series, while other titles are travel and photographic works on Canada, among them The Gatineau (1994) and The Rideau Canal Then and Now (2020). The catalogue holds 14 books, reaching Back Channel (2025). Murder, police procedure and logging fill the subject tags.

James Oliver Curwood

45 books• 2 series

James Oliver Curwood (June 12, 1878 - August 13, 1927) was an American action-adventure writer and conservationist. Curwood set many books in the Hudson Bay region, the Yukon or Alaska, and Publishers Weekly placed them among the top-ten US best sellers in the early and mid 1920s. At least 180 films draw on Curwood's novels and short stories. At death, Curwood was the world's highest-paid author per word. The catalogue holds 45 titles, beginning with The Wolf Hunters and The Courage of Captain Plum in 1908, and includes the Kazan and Baree series. Subjects include wolves, dogs, bears, mounted police and gold mining in Canada.

Thomas King

28 books• 3 series

Thomas King, born April 24, 1943, is an American-born Canadian writer and broadcast presenter whose work most often concerns First Nations. King previously claimed partial Cherokee descent and in 2025 accepted genealogists' findings that King has no Indigenous ancestry. The catalogue lists 28 books from All My Relations (1988) to Aliens on the Moon (2025), including Medicine River (1990), Green Grass, Running Water (1993) and The Truth About Stories (2003). King's series include DreadfulWater and Minerva Chronicles, and Coyote (Legendary character) and children's fiction are among the subjects.

Mary Jane Maffini is a Canadian mystery writer, credited with three mystery series and 12 novels. Short stories by Maffini have appeared in Chatelaine, Storyteller and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and in the Ladies Killing Circle and RendezVous Crime anthologies, and two of those stories won Arthur Ellis Awards. The catalogue records 26 books from Menopause Is Murder (1999) to You Light Up My Death (2022). Series include Camilla MacPhee Mystery, Charlotte Adams Mystery, Fiona Silk Mystery and the Book Collector Mystery Series, published as Victoria Abbott. Subjects include women sleuths, women lawyers and book collectors.

Michael Ondaatje

22 books

Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist. The poetry came first, with The Dainty Monsters (1967) and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970). The English Patient (1992) took the Booker Prize, reached film in 1996, and later won the Golden Man Booker Prize as the best of the first 51 Booker winners. Ondaatje spent two decades at Coach House Press fostering new Canadian writing. Twenty-two titles are catalogued, through Running in the Family (1982) and In the Skin of a Lion (1987) to A Year of Last Things (2024).

William Deverell

22 books• 1 series

Arthur Beauchamp, a lawyer, carries William Deverell's legal mysteries. Deverell, born in 1937, is a Canadian criminal lawyer and civil liberties activist, and the debut novel Needles (1979) drew on that legal work and won the Seal First Novel Award. Trial of Passion took the Hammett Prize and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1998, and April Fool won the Arthur Ellis again in 2003. Twenty-two catalogued books reach The Long-Shot Trial in 2024, with British Columbia and murder trials as recurring ground.

Inger Ash Wolfe is the name Michael Redhill publishes crime fiction under. Hazel Micallef, a policewoman in Canada, carries that series, which holds The Calling (2008) and The Taken (2009). The 15 catalogued books span 1990 to 2019 and take in work credited to Redhill directly: the novel Martin Sloane (2001), the play Building Jerusalem (2001), the poetry of Impromptu Feats of Balance (1990) and Light-Crossing (2001), and the stories of Fidelity (2003). Twitch Force (2019) is the most recent title.