Egypt book series in reading order

by Elizabeth Peters

by Wilbur Smith

by Michael Pearce

by Lauren Haney

Christian Jacq

37 books• 7 series

Christian Jacq is a French author and Egyptologist, born in 1947, and ancient Egypt is the subject of the fiction. A five-book sequence on the pharaoh Ramses is the best known work, joined by the Stone of Light, the Mysteries of Osiris, the Judge of Egypt, the Queen of Freedom and the Vengeance of the Gods. The catalogue holds 37 titles from Magic and Mystery in Ancient Egypt (1983) to The Beloved of Isis (2011), non-fiction on hieroglyphics and a Mozart series among them.

Elizabeth Peters was a pen name of Barbara Louise Mertz (September 29, 1927 to August 8, 2013), an American writer who also published as Barbara Michaels. Mertz earned a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1952. Mertz was best known for mystery and suspense novels, above all the Amelia Peabody series. In the 1960s Mertz also wrote two histories of ancient Egypt, Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land, both revised in 2007 and 2008. The catalogue lists 43 Elizabeth Peters titles from The Jackal's Head (1968) to The Locked Tomb Mystery: And Other Stories (2018), with the Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss and Jacqueline Kirby series.

Naguib Mahfouz

62 books• 1 series

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature and remains the only Egyptian writer to have done so. The fiction is set largely in Cairo and in Egypt's past, from Khufu's Wisdom (1939) and Thebes at War (1944) to Midaq Alley (1947) and the Cairo Trilogy. Mahfouz was among the first writers in Egyptian literature, with Taha Hussein, to work with existentialist themes. The listing holds 62 titles dated 1939 to 2026, most of them translations into English, at a median of 184 pages.

Wilbur Smith was a British-South African novelist born in Northern Rhodesia. Smith's historical fiction covers four centuries of international involvement in Southern Africa. The catalogue lists 66 books, from When the Lion Feeds (1964) to Flashpoint (2026). Series include Courtney, Jack Courtney, Ancient Egypt, Hector Cross and Prey Zone. Recurring character listings include the Courtney family, Ballantyne and Hector Cross. David Churchill and Tom Harper each share the credit on 1 book. Subjects include Africa, Egypt, revenge, espionage and terrorism.

Ancient Egypt is where Pauline Gedge set most of her historical fiction. Gedge, born in 1945, is a Canadian novelist whose 14 catalogued books span Child of the Morning (1977) to The King's Man (2010). Lords of the Two Lands and Lady of the Reeds are the Egyptian sequences; The Eagle and the Raven (1978) turns to the Britons and Stargate (1982) to fantasy. Gedge's novels have sold more than six million copies in 18 languages, and the first four carried cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon. The catalogue is likely complete.

Paul Doherty writes historical mysteries set largely in England, with 127 books catalogued from The Death of a King (1985) to The Meadows of Murder (2026). Recurring detectives include Hugh Corbett, Brother Athelstan, Kathryn Swinbrooke and Amerotke. Other series cover the Canterbury Tales Mysteries, Ancient Rome, Egyptian Mysteries, Nicholas Segalla, Mathilde of Westminster, Margaret Beaufort and Vlad Drakulya. Satan in St Mary's (1986) and Spy in Chancery (1988) are among the early titles.

Cairo under British administration is the setting of Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt mysteries, whose detective is Gareth Cadwallader Owen. The catalogue holds 28 books dated 1988 to 2017, at a median of 207 pages, beginning with The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet and running through The Donkey-vous (1990), The Girl in the Nile (1992) and The Fig Tree Murder (1996). Two further series appear: Seymour of Special Branch and Dmitri Kameron. The 1990s is the heaviest decade, and The Women of the Souk (2017) closes the run.

Lynda Suzanne Robinson, born on July 6, 1951, is an American novelist who publishes romance as Suzanne Robinson and mysteries as Lynda S. Robinson. The Lord Meren series of historical mysteries takes place in Ancient Egypt under Tutankhamun. The other listed series are Ladies and St. John Family. The catalogue holds 19 books from Heart of the Falcon (1990) to Never Trust a Lady (2003).

The catalogue entry Parker Bilal / Jamal Mahjoub combines 19 books published between 1989 and 2021. Navigation of a Rainmaker (1989) is the earliest, and Whitehavens (2021) is credited as Parker Bilal. The Makana and Crane and Drake series are listed on the page. Subject tags include private investigators, Cairo, Egypt, Sudanese, thrillers and mystery. The Golden Scales (2012), Dogstar Rising (2013) and The Ghost Runner (2014) are among the titles. No book has been added since 2021.

H. Rider Haggard

78 books• 6 series

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was an English writer of adventure romances set in exotic locations, Africa above all, and a pioneer of the lost world genre. The eighteen Allan Quatermain stories begin with King Solomon's Mines (1885), and Ayesha is the other named series. Haggard also worked on land reform across the British Empire. The catalogue holds 78 titles dated 1882 to 2013, from Cetywayo and His White Neighbours to a complete anthology, and covers novels, non-fiction and short fiction.

Michelle Moran is an American novelist of historical fiction. Egypt supplies the first three books, Nefertiti (2007), The Heretic Queen (2008) and Cleopatra's Daughter (2009), and later titles take in Madame Tussaud (2011), The Second Empress (2012), Rebel Queen (2015), Mata Hari's Last Dance (2016) and Maria (2024). Nine books are catalogued to 2024, with queens, kings and rulers, Egypt, India and the First World War among the recorded subjects.

Paul Sussman (1966-2012) was an English novelist, archaeologist and journalist. Egypt, antiquities and archaeological excavation run through the fiction, with Yusuf Khalifa the named series; titles include The Lost Army of Cambyses (2002), The Last Secret of the Temple (2005), The Hidden Oasis (2008) and The Labyrinth of Osiris (2012). The Independent called the novels the intelligent reader's answer to The Da Vinci Code. Six titles are catalogued, opening with Death by Spaghetti (1996) and closing with The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix (2014).

Constance O'Banyon is the pen name of Evelyn Gee, who was born in Texas in 1939 and makes a home in San Antonio. A second pen name, Micah Leigh, was shared with the Texan writer Emma Merritt. Catalogue subjects centre on historical and western romance, Texas, Native Americans and Egypt. O'Banyon received the 1996 Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, and eight million copies of the books are in print. The 44 listed books run from Ecstasy's Promise (1982) to Go for the Gold (2015), and series include Savage Seasons, Tausrat, DeWinter's Song and Savage Lagonda.

Heather Graham is the name under which Heather Graham Pozzessere, an American writer born on 15 March 1953, publishes mainly romance fiction; Shannon Drake is a further pen name. Graham's work has been published in about 25 languages, with more than 75 million copies printed. The catalogue records 311 books from Tender Taming (1983) to Destiny Rising (2026). Krewe of Hunters, Harrison Investigation, Cafferty & Quinn, Alliance Vampires, Keepers: L.A., New York Confidential and Finnegan Connection are among the Graham series. Subjects span historical, paranormal, contemporary and suspense romance.

Madeleine L'Engle (November 29, 1918 to September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. A Wrinkle in Time (1962) earned L'Engle the Newbery Medal, and the American Library Association gave L'Engle its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1998. The catalogue lists 70 books, beginning with The Small Rain (1945). Series include the Austin Family Chronicles, the Crosswicks Journals, the O'Keefe Family and the Time Quintet. Subjects run from science fiction and space and time to Christian life and meditations.

Steven Saylor

25 books• 7 series

Gordianus the Finder investigates murders in Rome across Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series. Roman Blood (1991) opens the run, followed by Arms of Nemesis (1992), Catilina's Riddle (1993), The Venus Throw (1995), A Murder on the Appian Way (1996) and Rubicon (1999). Saylor also wrote the Ancient World novels, the last of them Dominus in 2021. Twenty-five titles are catalogued, at 320 pages on median.

Barbara Erskine is an English novelist, born in Nottingham in 1944, whose bestselling novels and short-story collections combine history with the supernatural. Erskine's first novel, Lady of Hay (1986), has sold more than three million copies. The catalogue lists 22 books from 1986 to 2026, including Kingdom of Shadows (1988), Midnight Is a Lonely Place (1994) and Whispers in the Sand (2000), ending with The Valley of Ravens (2026). Erskine holds a degree in medieval Scottish history from the University of Edinburgh.

William Dietrich writes historical adventure novels and natural-history non-fiction. The Ethan Gage series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, has been translated into 28 languages and includes Napoleon's Pyramids (2007) and The Rosetta Key (2008). Dietrich has also set novels in the Roman Empire, Antarctica and Australia, while his non-fiction covers the natural and environmental history of the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up and worked as a newspaper journalist. The catalogue holds 20 titles, from The Final Forest (1992) to The Trojan Icon (2016).

Lawrence Durrell

45 books• 4 series

Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist and travel writer, born in India, schooled in England from the age of 11, and resident in Corfu from 1935 and in many countries after that. The Alexandria Quartet, published between 1957 and 1960, is his best known work; the Avignon Quintet, the Revolt of Aphrodite and the comic Antrobus stories follow. Durrell's travel books include Prospero's Cell (1945) and Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (1957). He was the elder brother of the naturalist Gerald Durrell.

David Levithan

43 books• 7 series

David Levithan, born 7 September 1972, is an American young adult fiction author and editor. Levithan has written numerous works with strong gay male characters, notably Boy Meets Boy (2003) and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List. Six Levithan books have won or been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Series in the catalogue include Every Day and Dash & Lily, and the subjects on file include love, friendship, gay teenagers and high schools.

Terry Deary

340 books• 41 series

Terry Deary is a British children's author, born in 1946, best known as the writer of the Horrible Histories series. Deary has written 351 books, which have sold more than 38 million copies in over 45 languages, and has ranked among Britain's best-selling authors since 1994. In 2012 Deary was the tenth most-borrowed author in British libraries, and Books for Keeps magazine named Deary the Outstanding Children's Non-Fiction Author of the 20th Century. The catalogue lists 340 titles from Teaching Through Theatre (1977) onward, including the True Stories and Tudor Terror series.

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).

Rob Lloyd Jones writes children's books, with catalogue subjects such as toy and movable books, picture books, London history, Egypt, Robin Hood and murder. The catalogue lists 49 books, starting with Animals at War (2006), then See Inside Ancient Egypt, See Inside London and See Inside Pirate Ships in 2007. Series include See Inside and Look Inside..., Look Inside, Jake Atlas and Wild Boy. Forgotten Fairy Tales of Brave and Brilliant Girls (2023) is the newest title, and the catalogue marks Lloyd Jones as dormant.

Gillian Bradshaw, born in 1956, is an American writer living in Britain whose work covers historical fiction, historical fantasy, children's literature and science fiction. The historical novels are set in classical antiquity: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Byzantine Empire, Imperial Rome and Roman Britain among them, with two further novels set during the English Civil War. The catalogue holds 32 books from Hawk of May (1980) to Aliens on Holiday (2015), and the run is marked likely complete. Down the Long Wind, Magic's Poison and English Civil War are the series listed.