Catholics book series in reading order

by Peter Tremayne

by William X. Kienzle

by Carol Ann O’Marie

by G.K. Chesterton

Ralph McInerny (February 24, 1929 to January 29, 2010) was an American novelist and a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Father Dowling is the priest at the centre of the most popular McInerny mysteries, which were adapted as the Father Dowling Mysteries television series from 1987 to 1991. The catalogue holds 110 books from Jolly Rogerson (1967) to A Student's Guide to Philosophy (2014), including philosophy titles such as Thomism in an Age of Renewal (1968). Other series include Sister Mary Teresa, Andrew Broom and Notre Dame. McInerny also used the pen names Monica Quill, Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey and Edward Mackin.

Peter Tremayne

67 books• 3 series

Peter Tremayne is a pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a British historian, literary biographer and novelist born on 10 March 1943. Ellis has published more than 98 books under that name and as Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan, along with 100 short stories, and the work has appeared in 25 languages. As Tremayne, Ellis writes the Sister Fidelma historical mysteries, an international bestseller. The catalogue lists 67 titles from 1974 to 2026, opening with The Cornish Language and its Literature, issued under the Ellis name. Dracula Unborn and Hound of Frankenstein (both 1977) follow, and Blood on the Wind (2026) is the newest. Nuns, the Celtic Church, Ireland and horror appear in the subject tags.

Andrew M. Greeley's catalogue spans fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and runs to 82 books published between 1967 and 2010. Subjects settle on the Catholic Church, its clergy, Irish Americans and Chicago. Blackie Ryan and Nuala Anne McGrail are the recurring detectives; other groupings include the O'Malley's family saga, Time Between The Stars, Passover and the World Of Maggie Ward. The listing opens with Letters to Nancy (1967) and ends with Chicago Catholics and the Struggles Within Their Church (2010).

Father Robert Koesler, a Catholic priest in Detroit, Michigan, is the detective in the mystery series by William X. Kienzle. The catalogue lists 24 books from The Rosary Murders (1979) to The Gathering (2002), and the Father Koesler series makes up the whole run. Death Wears a Red Hat (1980) and Mind Over Murder (1981) came next. Clergy and the Catholic Church are the dominant subjects. The Kienzle catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Carol Ann O'Marie is the author of the Sister Mary Helen mysteries, which feature a nun as detective. The catalogue lists 12 books from A Novena for Murder (1984) to Like a Swarm of Bees (2020). Subjects include Catholics, women sleuths, murder and California. Other titles are Advent of Dying (1986), The Missing Madonna (1988), Murder Makes a Pilgrimage (1993) and Death Takes Up a Collection (1998).

Veronica Black is a pseudonym used by Maureen Peters, a writer of historical novels. The Veronica Black catalogue holds 27 books from Portrait of Sarah (1969) to Vow Of Evil (2004). Sister Joan Mystery is the listed series, and nuns, the character Sister Joan, Cornwall, women sleuths and romance all appear among the subjects. Earlier titles include A Footfall in the Mist (1971), Moonflete (1972) and Master of Malcarew (1973).

G.K. Chesterton

114 books• 6 series

G.K. Chesterton (Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 29 May 1874 to 14 June 1936) was an English writer of Christian apologetics, noted for wit, paradox and a defence of tradition. Chesterton created the priest-detective Father Brown and wrote the apologetic works Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism. The catalogue lists 114 books, opening with The Defendant (1901) and Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Carlyle (1902), and including The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), Heretics (1905) and The Club of Queer Trades (1905). Biographers place Chesterton as a successor to Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Newman and John Ruskin.

Graham Greene

80 books• 3 series

Graham Greene (Henry Graham Greene, 2 October 1904 to 3 April 1991) was an English novelist and journalist. Greene gained an early reputation for two kinds of book: serious Catholic novels and thrillers, which Greene called entertainments. Across 67 years of writing, including more than 25 novels, the work examined the conflicting moral and political questions of the modern world. The catalogue begins with Babbling April (1925), then The Man Within (1929), Stamboul Train (1932), It's a Battlefield (1934) and A Gun for Sale (1936). Greene was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Subjects include travel, drama, England and Catholics.

David Thurlo's mystery fiction is set in New Mexico. Ella Clah and Sister Agatha are the recurring characters named in the subject headings, which also list Navajo Indians, policewomen, nuns, Catholics and women sleuths. The catalogue holds 34 books from Second Shadow (1990) to Kill the Heroes (2017), across the Ella Clah, Sister Agatha, Lee Nez, Charlie Henry and Navajo Rez series. Vampires appear among the subjects as well.

Brian Moore was a Northern Irish and Canadian writer who lived from 1921 to 1999, recognised for novels of life in Northern Ireland during and after the Second World War and for writing about the divisions of The Troubles. The James Tait Black Memorial Prize came in 1975 and the first Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, with Booker Prize shortlistings in 1976, 1987 and 1990. Moore wrote screenplays as well, and several of the novels were filmed. Of the 28 titles listed, Wreath for a Redhead (1951) and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955) head the run, early crime novels appear as Michael Bryan, and a 2025 title, One of The Unguided, sits at the far end.

Margaret Frazer was the pen name of Gail Lynn Brown (26 November 1946 to 4 February 2013), an American writer of more than twenty historical mystery novels plus short stories. The name was first shared with Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld for The Novice's Tale (1992), which introduced the Benedictine nun Dame Frevisse, and the partnership lasted through The Murderer's Tale (1996), the sixth Frevisse book. From The Prioress' Tale (1997), an Edgar Award nominee, Gail Brown wrote as Margaret Frazer alone. The catalogue lists 38 books up to Circle of Witches (2012), with Joliffe the Player also among the characters and subjects including nuns, women sleuths and England.

Morris West (1916-1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright whose books appeared in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies. The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) is the best known, and in it West set out the election of a Slav pope fifteen years before Karol Wojtyła was chosen; The Clowns of God (1981) and the earlier The Devil's Advocate (1959) stand beside it. International politics and the Roman Catholic Church in world affairs are his recurring subjects, and the Vatican Trilogy gathers part of the work. Thirty-five titles run from Moon in My Pocket (1945) to The Last Confession (2000).

Monica Wood has 13 books in the catalogue, published between 1993 and 2024. Secret Language (1993) is first, followed by Description (1995) and My Only Story (2000). Ernie's Ark (2002), Any Bitter Thing (2005), When We Were the Kennedys (2012) and A Woman in a Million (2016) are later titles, and How to Read a Book (2024) is the newest. Subjects include authorship, narration and description, Catholics, clergy, sisters, orphans and beauty operators.

Evelyn Waugh

47 books• 2 series

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) was an English novelist, biographer and travel writer who also worked as a journalist and book reviewer. The satires Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934) came early; Brideshead Revisited followed in 1945, and the Sword of Honour trilogy between 1952 and 1961. Waugh's catalogue holds 47 titles across fiction, travel and biography, with editions dated as late as 2005. Waugh was educated at Lancing College and at Hertford College, Oxford, and taught school briefly before writing full time.

Scott Hahn

86 books• 8 series

Scott Walker Hahn, born October 28, 1957, is an American Roman Catholic author, theologian and apologist who was a Presbyterian minister before converting. Hahn has written over 50 books on Catholic theology, Church history and Bible study, and teaches at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Rome Sweet Home and The Lamb's Supper are among Hahn's works. The catalogue lists 86 books from The Acts of the Apostles (1991) to Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Old and New Testaments (2024). Series include Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Catholic for a Reason and Didache.

Jon Hassler (1933-2008) was an American novelist and teacher who wrote about small-town life in Minnesota. Staggerford, an imaginary Minnesota town, gives its name to his main series and to the 1977 novel that opens it; Rookery State College is a second sequence. Teachers, Catholics, friendship, town custom and Native American life run through 23 catalogued books dated 1977 to 2021, at a median 282 pages. Hassler held a Regents professorship emeritus and a writer-in-residence post at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Dame Muriel Spark (1918-2006) was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. The Comforters (1957) opens her fiction, and Memento Mori (1958), The Bachelors (1960), The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) follow in quick succession. Spark also wrote criticism and biography, including a study of Emily Brontë. Catholicism, young women and English social life recur across 51 catalogued titles.

Edith Pargeter

53 books• 6 series

Edith Pargeter (28 September 1913 to 14 October 1995) was an English author who also wrote as Ellis Peters. Pargeter worked across many categories, above all history and historical fiction, and received honours for translating Czech classics. Murder mysteries set in both medieval and modern times form a large part of the work, led by the medieval detective series featuring Brother Cadfael. Series in the catalogue include Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, Inspector Felse, Brothers of Gwynedd, the Second World War Trilogy and Heaven Tree. The listing holds 53 books dated from Iron Bound (1936) to The Trinity Cat (2006).

A former Catholic priest, James Carroll (born January 22, 1943) is an American novelist, historian and journalist. Carroll writes about efforts to reform the Catholic Church, and his books cover religion and history as well as fiction. He holds nine honorary doctorates and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His 23 catalogued books run from Madonna Red (1976) to The Truth at the Heart of the Lie (2021), including An American Requiem (1996).