China book series in reading order

by John Wilcox

by Kevin Kwan

Robert Van Gulik

27 books• 2 series

Robert van Gulik, who lived from 1910 to 1967, was a Dutch orientalist, diplomat and guqin player, and the author of the Judge Dee historical mysteries. He took the detective from an 18th-century Chinese novel, Dee Goong An, which he translated and published in 1949 as Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. The series that followed is set in imperial China and includes The Chinese Maze Murders (1957), The Chinese Bell Murders (1958), The Chinese Gold Murders (1959), The Haunted Monastery (1961) and The Lacquer Screen (1962). Van Gulik also wrote Sexual Life in Ancient China (1961).

Yan Lianke

12 books

Yan Lianke, born 24 August 1958, is a Chinese novelist and short story writer based in Beijing, with more than ten volumes of short stories. The satirical edge of the work has led to some of the best-known books being banned in China, and Yan has acknowledged self-censoring to avoid that. The style is described as experimental and surreal, and Yan terms it mythorealism. Yan won the Franz Kafka Prize in 2014 and has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. The catalogue lists 12 books, among them Lenin's Kisses, Dream of Ding Village, Serve the People!, The Four Books and Heart Sutra (2023).

Kay Bratt's catalogue lists 48 books from Silent Tears (2008) to It's Only Love (2026). China, orphanages, abandoned children, coming of age and birthparents are among the recorded subjects. Series include Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters, Hart's Ridge, Life of Willow, Sworn Sisters and Daughter's Quest for Truth. Chasing China (2011), The Bridge (2011), A Thread Unbroken (2012), Train to Nowhere (2012) and The Scavenger's Daughters (2013) are among the earlier titles.

Pearl S. Buck

99 books• 1 series

China is the subject Pearl S. Buck is catalogued for. East Wind: West Wind (1930) is the earliest of 99 entries, followed by The Good Earth (1931), Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935); House Of Earth is the one named series. Farm life, marriage, families and social customs fill the subject tags. No newer title is dated, and the listing is marked likely complete.

Eliot Pattison

18 books• 2 series

Eliot Pattison is an American lawyer who writes mystery fiction. The Inspector Shan novels are set in present-day Tibet and follow Shan Tao Yun, a former investigator with the Beijing Justice Department; a second series, Bone Rattler, works in another time and place. Eighteen books are catalogued between The Skull Mantra (1999) and Freedom's Ghost (2023). Pattison has also published non-fiction on international trade. The subject list adds China, historical settings and Native Americans.

Donald Eugene Pendleton (December 12, 1927 to October 23, 1995) was an American author of fiction and non-fiction who created Mack Bolan, a character with hundreds of millions of copies sold since a 1969 debut. From 1980, other authors wrote the Bolan books under the Pendleton name, at first with Pendleton's editorial guidance. Pendleton also wrote six Joe Copp, Private Eye novels and six Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novels. Early titles include The Insatiables (1967), War Against the Mafia (1969) and Miami Massacre (1970).

Amy Tan

14 books• 5 series

Chinese American families, and mothers and daughters in particular, are Amy Tan's subject. The Joy Luck Club (1989) opens a catalogue of 14 titles, followed by The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) and The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001). Tan also writes for children, among them The Moon Lady (1992) and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), alongside non-fiction and short stories. The Backyard Bird Chronicles is the newest title.

Qiu Xiaolong

23 books• 4 series

Qiu Xiaolong is a Chinese American crime novelist, poet, translator, critic and academic. Born in Shanghai, Qiu travelled to the United States in 1988 to write a book on T. S. Eliot and stayed after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre of 1989. Thirteen of his novels form the Inspector Chen Cao series of Shanghai police procedurals, opening with Death of a Red Heroine (2000), winner of the 2001 Anthony Award for best first novel, and A Loyal Character Dancer (2002). Poetry and translation sit beside the fiction, in Classic Chinese Love Poems (2003) and Poems of Tang and Song Dynasties (2006). The catalogue holds 23 books dated 2000 to 2026.

Gail Tsukiyama is an American novelist from San Francisco whose historical fiction is set largely in China and Hong Kong. Silk industry workers, country life, the Second World War and mothers and daughters are the recurring subjects. Nine books run from Women of the Silk (1991), which also names a series, to The Brightest Star (2023), taking in The Samurai's Garden (1994), The Language of Threads (1999), The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (2007) and The Color of Air (2020).

L. Ron Hubbard

110 books• 5 series

L. Ron Hubbard (Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, March 13, 1911 to January 24, 1986) was an American writer and the founder of Scientology. The early career produced a large body of pulp science fiction and fantasy. The catalogue holds 110 books, starting in 1934 with Sea Fangs, Dead Men Kill, Hurtling Wings and Twenty Fathoms Down. Series include Mission Earth, Slaves of Sleep and collections of western and science fiction short stories. Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950, a book described as pseudoscientific, created Scientology in 1952 and led the Church of Scientology until 1986. Subjects include air pilots, sea stories, westerns and crime.

Raymond Benson

52 books• 15 series

James Bond novels published from 1997 to 2003 are what Raymond Benson, an American writer born in 1955, is known for. The catalogue lists Zero Minus Ten (1997), The Facts of Death (1998), Doubleshot (2000), Never Dream of Dying (2001) and The Man With the Red Tattoo (2002), after an earlier title, The James Bond Bedside Companion (1984). The catalogue holds 52 books up to The Hook and the Eye (2026). Black Stiletto, Spike Berenger, Metal Gear Solid, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy's EndWar are among the series, and espionage thrillers and intelligence officers lead the subjects.

Anchee Min writes memoir and historical fiction rooted in China. Born on 14 January 1957, Min is a Chinese-American author who lives between San Francisco and Shanghai. The catalogued run of 9 books opens with the memoir Red Azalea (1993) and closes with Chinese Propaganda Posters (2015), taking in Katherine (1995), Becoming Madame Mao (2000), Wild Ginger (2001), Empress Orchid (2003), The Last Empress (2007), Pearl of China (2009) and a second memoir, The Cooked Seed (2013). The fiction puts strong women at its centre, among them Jiang Qing, wife of Chairman Mao Zedong, and the Empress Dowager Cixi, the last empress to rule China.

Peter May

33 books• 5 series

Peter May, born 20 December 1951, is a Scottish novelist, crime writer and television screenwriter. The Blackhouse won the U.S. Barry Award for Crime Novel of the Year and France's Cezam Prix Litteraire, and The Lewis Man took Le Telegramme's Grand Prix des Lecteurs. Entry Island won two awards in 2014, and May received France's Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere in 2025. Sales exceed twelve million copies. The catalogue lists 33 books, from The Reporter (1978) to The Black Loch (2024), with the China Thrillers, the Enzo Files and the Lewis Tetralogy among the series.

Military and technological thrillers make up Larry Bond's work - submarines, intelligence officers and terrorism. Battles of the Third World War (1987) opens the catalogue, and Red Phoenix (1989), Vortex (1991) and Cauldron (1993) follow. Jerry Mitchell heads one series; Larry Bond's First Team and Red Dragon Rising head others. Twenty-five titles are catalogued, the last of them Arctic Gambit in 2018.

Kylie Chan is an Australian fantasy author best known for the Dark Heavens trilogy, set in modern-day Hong Kong and built on Chinese mythology, demons and martial arts. White Tiger appeared in July 2006, Red Phoenix in January 2007 and Blue Dragon in August 2007; two further trilogies, Journey to Wudang and Celestial Battle, continue with the same characters. Eighteen books span 2006 to 2025, reaching The Serpent Princess.

Elsa Hart writes historical mysteries. The Li Du novels put a librarian into murder investigations in China: Jade Dragon Mountain in 2015, The White Mirror in 2016 and City of Ink in 2018. The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne followed in 2020. Four books stand in the catalogue, which is recorded as likely complete.

Sax Rohmer

67 books• 6 series

Sax Rohmer was the pen name of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, an English novelist born 15 February 1883 who died on 1 June 1959. Rohmer is remembered chiefly for the novels about the master criminal Fu Manchu. The catalogue begins with The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu / The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu (1913), followed by The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu (1916) and The Hand of Fu-Manchu (1917). Other series are Sumuru, Gaston Max, Paul Harley, Red Kerry and Morris Klaw, and titles include The Yellow Claw (1915) and Brood of the Witch Queen (1918).

John Wilcox is the author of the Simon Fonthill series, catalogued under historical and war & military subjects. The Horns of the Buffalo (2004) is the earliest listed title, followed by The Road to Kandahar (2005), The Diamond Frontier (2006) and Last Stand at Majuba Hill (2007). Subjects include the British Army, the Zulu War of 1879, South Africa, India and China. The Guns of El Kebir (2007), Siege of Khartoum (2009) and The Shangani Patrol (2010) come later. The Arrow's Arc (2018) is the newest listed book.