College teachers book series in reading order

by Edmund Crispin

by Aaron Elkins

by Ian Morson

by Elizabeth E.X. Ferrars

by Susanna Gregory

by David Lodge

Jane Langton (1922–2018) wrote children's literature and mystery novels, and illustrated her own books. Two sequences carry most of the work: the Homer Kelly mysteries, built on a recurring detective of that name, and the Hall Family Chronicles, which run to magic and fairy tale. Thirty-four books are catalogued, from The Majesty of Grace (1961) to The Dragon Tree (2008), with Massachusetts and Cambridge among the settings, at a median length of 252 pages.

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.

Amanda Cross is the pen name Carolyn Heilbrun (1926-2003) used for mystery novels. Heilbrun was an American academic at Columbia University and the first woman granted tenure in its English department. Fourteen Amanda Cross books are catalogued, from In the Last Analysis (1964) to The Edge of Doom (2002), and Kate Fansler, a college teacher, is the recurring figure across them. Women sleuths, detective and mystery stories and New York City carry the subject tags.

Charlotte MacLeod wrote mystery fiction on both sides of the Canadian-American border, and her 48 catalogued books run from Mystery of the White Knight (1964) to It Was an Awful Shame and Other Stories (2002). Four recurring casts carry the work: Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn in Boston, Professor Peter Shandy at Balaclava Junction, Madoc and Janet Rhys, and the Grub-And-Stakers. Massachusetts settings, college teachers and women sleuths recur across the mysteries. The catalogue closes in 2002.

Edmund Crispin was the pen name of Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978), an English crime writer and composer. The detective novels follow Gervase Fen, a college teacher of English, and open with The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944), continuing through Holy Disorders (1945), The Moving Toyshop (1946), Buried for Pleasure (1948) and The Long Divorce (1951). Twelve books are catalogued between 1944 and 1979, at a median 224 pages. As Bruce Montgomery he composed music, including the scores for the early Carry On films.

Aaron Elkins, born in Brooklyn on 24 July 1935, is an American mystery writer. The novels featuring forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the skeleton detective, are the best known part of the catalogue, which also runs the Lee Ofsted series, the Chris Norgren Mysteries, the Alix London series and standalone novels. The catalogue lists 35 books, from Fellowship of Fear (1982) to A Long Time Coming (2018). Subjects include college teachers, women golfers and Seattle.

Bill Crider (1941-2018) was an American author of crime fiction. Crider's series include Sheriff Dan Rhodes, private investigator Truman Smith, college teacher Carl Burns, Professor Sally Good, Stanley Waters and Ellie Taine. Subjects tie the mysteries to Texas and extend past detective fiction into westerns. The catalogue lists 75 books from Too Late to Die (1986) to That Old Scoundrel Death (2019). Several anthology and shared-world titles in the listing carry other names beside Crider's, among them Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin and Lyndsay Faye.

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.

Philip Roth

38 books• 3 series

Philip Roth wrote American fiction about Jewish men, academics and the country they lived in. The Conversion of the Jews (1958) opens the catalogue, Goodbye, Columbus followed in 1959, and Portnoy's Complaint arrived in 1969. Nathan Zuckerman, David Kepesh and the American Trilogy are the recurring structures. Thirty-eight titles are catalogued, ending with Why Write? in 2017.

Margaret Yorke (1924–2012) wrote English crime fiction across five decades. 44 books are catalogued under the name, from Summer Flight (1957) to an edition of Cause for Concern dated 2014. Patrick Grant, an Oxford don who investigates, is her one recurring detective; the rest of the catalogue is standalone suspense about criminals, families and murder in England. Yorke was born Margaret Beda Larminie and wrote under the Yorke name throughout her career.

Tom Sharpe was an English satirical novelist who lived from 1928 to 2013. Riotous Assembly (1971) opens 17 catalogued books ending with The Wilt Inheritance (2010). The Wilt novels, Porterhouse Blue (1974) and Blott on the Landscape (1975) are the best known, and all three reached television. South Africa and England both appear among the settings, with college teachers, comedy and satire running through the subjects.

Alexander McCall Smith

165 books• 25 series

Sir Alexander McCall Smith, born 24 August 1948, is a Scottish legal scholar and novelist who created The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Born and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), McCall Smith was Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and worked on medical law and bioethics committees. English-language sales passed 40 million by 2010, with translations into 46 languages. The catalogue lists 165 books from White Hippo (1980) to 2026, including 44 Scotland Street, Isabel Dalhousie, Detective Varg and children's titles.

Betty Neels (15 September 1909 - 7 June 2001) was an English author of more than 134 romance novels, born in Leyton. Mills & Boon published the novels first in the United Kingdom, and Harlequin reprinted them in North America. Neels wrote from 1969 until death, and the books are noted for being especially chaste. The catalogue lists 140 books, including Nurse in Holland (1969), Sister Peters in Amsterdam (1969) and Tempestuous April (1970). Doctors, nurses, surgeons and the Netherlands recur in the subjects, and Dr Fforde is a named series.

Saul Bellow

34 books• 2 series

Saul Bellow is the only writer to have won the National Book Award for Fiction three times. Born Solomon Bellows on June 10, 1915, Bellow was an American writer who died on April 5, 2005, and whose honours include the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature and the National Medal of Arts. The National Book Foundation gave Bellow its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 1990. The catalogue lists 34 books from Dangling Man (1944) to Leaving the Yellow House (2018), including The Victim (1947), The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Seize the Day (1956), Henderson the Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964) and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). Subjects name Jewish men and college teachers.

David Lodge (28 January 1935 – 1 January 2025) was an English novelist and literary critic who taught literature at the University of Birmingham until 1987. Several Lodge novels satirise academic life, above all the Campus Trilogy of Changing Places (1975), Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988); the last two reached the Booker Prize shortlist. Roman Catholicism is another recurring theme, present from the debut novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge also wrote television screenplays and three stage plays, and went on publishing criticism after retiring. The catalogue lists 40 books from 1960 to 2021.

Elizabeth E.X. Ferrars wrote English detective fiction across seven decades. Five recurring investigators carry the series: Toby Dyke, Virginia Freer, Andrew Basnett, Superintendent Ditteridge and Police Chief Raposo. Titles favour wordplay, as in Give a Corpse a Bad Name (1940), Don't Monkey with Murder (1942), Neck in a Noose (1942) and The March Hare Murders (1949). Retired teachers, botanists, thieves and divorced women populate the subjects. The listing holds 74 books dated 1940 to 2014, at a median of 192 pages.

Sarah R. Shaber is a mystery author with 16 catalogued books published from 1997 to 2019. Two series carry the Shaber name, Professor Simon Shaw and Louise Pearlie, alongside standalone novels and a Louise Pearlie short story. Simon Said (1997) is the first title, followed by Snipe Hunt (2000) and The Fugitive King (2002). College teachers, archaeologists and North Carolina are among the subjects. Louise's War (2011) and Louise's Gamble (2012) came later, and Louise's Crossing (2019) is the latest book.

Ian Morson is the author of the Master William Falconer Mystery series and the Nick Zuliani series. The 11 catalogued books span 1994 to 2013, beginning with Falconer's Crusade (1994). Falconer's Judgement, A Psalm for Falconer, City of the Dead and Falconer's Trial are among the titles, and Falconer and the Rain of Blood (2013) is the newest. Subjects list historical mystery, Great Britain, philosophers, college teachers and the Barons' War of 1263 to 1267.

C.S. Lewis

59 books• 9 series

C.S. Lewis wrote fantasy fiction and Christian apologetics, and the two meet in Narnia. Spirits in Bondage (1919) opens a catalogue of 59 books that holds the Chronicles of Narnia, the Cosmic Trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet (1938), The Screwtape Letters (1942) and Mere Christianity (1943). The 1950s carry the largest share of the list, and catalogued editions run to 2022.

Sylvain Reynard's catalogue splits in two. The Gabriel's Inferno series is contemporary romance between a college teacher and a graduate student, running from Gabriel's Inferno (2011) to Gabriel's Promise (2020). The Florentine series turns to vampires and paranormal romance across The Prince, The Raven, The Roman and The Shadow. Nine books in total, at a median of 404 pages.

Kingsley Amis

60 books• 5 series

Satirical comedies are the work Sir Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) is best known for, among them Lucky Jim (1954), One Fat Englishman, Ending Up, Jake's Thing and The Old Devils. Amis worked as a novelist, poet, critic and teacher, producing over 20 novels, six poetry collections, a memoir, short fiction, radio and TV scripts and criticism. The Times placed Amis ninth among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 in 2008. Martin Amis, also a novelist, is Kingsley Amis's son. The catalogue lists 60 titles from Bright November (1947) to Raising a Smile (2019).

Tessa Bailey

72 books• 17 series

Romance fiction is the field of Tessa Bailey, an American author with 72 books catalogued between 2013 and 2026. Subjects on file span contemporary romance, romantic comedy, romantic suspense and erotica, and the subject list also names police recruits and New York. Protecting What's His (2013) is the first listed title and Broken Rival (2026) the newest. Bailey's series include Made in Jersey, Crossing the Line, Broke and Beautiful, Hot & Hammered, Bellinger Sisters and A Vine Mess.

Jennifer Hillier is a Canadian thriller writer of Filipino descent, born and raised in Toronto, who lived in Seattle for eight years and now lives in Oakville, Ontario. The catalogue holds 8 Hillier books: Creep (2011), Freak (2012), The Butcher (2014), Wonderland (2015), Jar of Hearts (2018), Little Secrets (2020), Things We Do in the Dark (2022) and Heart of Glass (2026). Jar of Hearts won the 2019 International Thriller Writers Award for Hardcover Novel, and Things We Do in the Dark took the ITW Award for Best Audiobook in 2023. Serial Killer Files is the series listed.

Richard Russo

21 books• 1 series

Small towns in upstate New York, and the families and friendships inside them, are Richard Russo's subject. 21 catalogued books run from Mohawk (1986) to Under the Falls, including The Risk Pool (1988), Nobody's Fool (1993), Straight Man (1997), Empire Falls (2001) and the story collection The Whore's Child and Other Stories (2002). Nobody's Fool heads the one series in the catalogue. Russo remains actively publishing.