Family secrets book series in reading order

by Gabrielle Lord

by Maggie Stiefvater

by Sara Shepard

by Ellen Hart

by James W. Hall

by Jeffrey Archer

by Jenna Evans Welch

by Rachel Joyce

V.C. Andrews was the name used by Cleo Virginia Andrews (June 6, 1923 to December 19, 1986), an American novelist best known for Flowers in the Attic (1979). That novel led to four sequels and two film adaptations. The publisher never classed the books as Young Adult, yet their young protagonists have drawn teenage readers for decades. After Andrews died in 1986, a ghostwriter first hired to finish two incomplete manuscripts went on publishing new books under the V.C. Andrews name. The catalogue carries 108 books under that name from 1979 to 2025, across series such as Dollanganger, Casteel, Cutler, Landry, Logan and De Beers.

Karen White writes about family secrets, old houses and the women who inherit them. 36 catalogued books run from In the Shadow of the Moon (2000) to That Last Carolina Summer, with Whispers of Goodbye (2001), Falling Home (2002), After the Rain (2003), The Color of Light (2005) and Pieces of the Heart (2006) among the early titles. The Tradd Street series turns on a real estate agent and a haunted historic property; Royal Street and Falling Home form separate groupings. The Birds on Newcomb Boulevard is scheduled for 2027.

Lisa Jewell

24 books• 4 series

English novelist Lisa Jewell, born in 1968, writes popular fiction. The catalogue holds 24 of her books, from Ralph's Party (1999) to It Could Have Been Her (2026). Other titles include Thirtynothing (2000), After the Party (2010), Then She Was Gone (2018), The Family Upstairs (2019) and None of This Is True (2023). Subjects range over family secrets, sisters, missing persons and London, with both psychological suspense and humorous fiction represented. Ralph's Party and Family Upstairs also appear as series listings next to her standalone novels.

Maggie Stiefvater

31 books• 7 series

Maggie Stiefvater is an American author of young adult fantasy, born Heidi Hummel on November 18, 1981. The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Cycle are the series Stiefvater is best known for. The catalogue lists 31 books from Lament (2008), including Ballad, Shiver, Linger, Forever, The Scorpio Races and The Raven Boys. Other series named are Dreamer Trilogy, Pip Bartlett, Gathering Of Faerie and Curiosities. Subjects include magic, dreams, the supernatural and family secrets.

Gabrielle Lord is an Australian writer of psychological thrillers, described as Australia's first lady of crime. Fortress (1980) opens a catalogue of 35 books that holds the Gemma Lincoln and Jack McCain crime series alongside Conspiracy 365, written for younger readers around the character Callum Ormond. Kidnapping, family secrets and death recur through the subjects. Shattered (2021) is Lord's most recent catalogued title.

Mary Higgins Clark

62 books• 8 series

Mary Higgins Clark, born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins, was an American suspense novelist who lived from December 24, 1927 to January 31, 2020. Where Are the Children? (1975) was the debut suspense novel, and by 2015 that book was in its 75th printing. Each of Clark's 51 books was a bestseller in the United States and in European countries. The catalogue starts with Aspire to the Heavens / Mount Vernon Love Story (1968) and reaches It Had to Be You (2024). Alvirah and Willy are recurring characters, and Under Suspicion is a Clark series. Clark worked as a secretary, a copy editor and for one year a Pan-American Airlines flight attendant, and short stories supplemented the family income.

Elin Hilderbrand is an American novelist, born July 17, 1969, who writes mystery and romance. Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket, and the novels are typically set on and around the island. The 39 catalogued books start with The Beach Club (2000) and reach The Thoroughbreds (2026). Named series include Nantucket, Paradise and 28 Summers. Subject headings return to family secrets, female friendship, summer resorts and love stories. In 2019 New York magazine called Hilderbrand "the queen of beach reads".

Karin Slaughter

39 books• 10 series

American crime writer Karin Slaughter was born in 1971. Her debut, Blindsighted (2001), made the Crime Writers' Association shortlist for best thriller debut, and Cop Town won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2015. The catalogue carries 39 of her books through The Secrets We Hide (2026). Will Trent, Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver are recurring figures, and her series listings include Andrea Oliver, North Falls Thriller, Pretty Girls and Good Daughter alongside standalone novels. Subjects cover police work, medical examiners, murder and the state of Georgia. Slaughter's books are published in 120 countries.

Rick Riordan

82 books• 19 series

Rick Riordan, born Richard Russell Riordan Jr. on June 5, 1964, is an American author. Riordan is best known for the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, which take in Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo and The Nico di Angelo Adventures. The catalogue holds 82 books from 1997 to 2026, opening with Big Red Tequila (1997) and reaching The Lightning Thief in 2005; the Tres Navarre and Kane Chronicles lines also feature. Riordan's books have been translated into 42 languages and have sold more than 30 million copies in the United States. 20th Century Fox filmed the first two Percy Jackson books, a project Riordan had no part in.

Tracie Peterson, born 1959, writes Christian fiction, mostly historical novels carrying romance and faith themes. Peterson used the pen name Janelle Jamison early on and has written joint novels with other Christian authors; Bethany House publishes many of the titles. Several Peterson series feature Harvey Girls, the waitstaff of the Fred Harvey Company. The catalogue lists 153 books from A Kingdom Divided (1991) to Devoted to Love (2026), across series such as Heirs of Montana, Westward Chronicles, Ribbons West, Yukon Quest, Shannon Saga and Desert Roses. Peterson lives in Montana and runs Peterson Ink with husband Jim.

Lucinda Riley

33 books• 3 series

Family secrets, sisters and houses with histories are Lucinda Riley's material, set across the twentieth century and into wartime. Riley published first as Lucinda Edmonds, from Lovers and Players (1992) through Hidden Beauty, Enchanted and Aria. The Seven Sisters novels are the best known later work, and the Guardian Angels books sit alongside the standalones. Thirty-three titles make up the catalogue, long ones at a median of 472 pages, running to The Last Love Song in 2025.

Family secrets in the American South are Joshilyn Jackson's material: mothers and daughters, buried crimes, and the humour that sits beside them. Gods in Alabama (2005) opens the catalogue, followed by Between, Georgia (2006), Backseat Saints (2010), The Almost Sisters (2017) and Never Have I Ever (2019). Thirteen titles run to Missing Sister in 2026, at 328 pages on median.

Marcia Willett (1945-2022) was a British writer of women's fiction who also published as Willa Marsh. The catalogue holds 38 titles published between 1995 and 2022, opening with A Friend of the Family (1995) and The Courtyard (1995) and closing with Christmas at the Keep (2022). The Chadwick Family Chronicles is Willett's one continuing series; the rest are standalone novels and novellas. Family life, family secrets, brothers and sisters, widows and the county of Cornwall recur across the subjects.

Melanie Dobson writes Christian historical fiction and romance, with family secrets, missing persons and the Second World War among the subjects. The catalogue holds 33 books from Together for Good (2006) to The Lost Story of Via Belle (2026). Earlier titles include The Black Cloister (2008), Refuge on Crescent Hill (2010), Where the Trail Ends (2012) and The Courier of Caswell Hall (2013). Legacy of Love and Magic Portal are named series.

Sara Shepard

47 books• 9 series

Pretty Little Liars (2006) opens Sara Shepard's catalogue and remains the title Shepard is best known for, alongside The Lying Game; both became television shows on Freeform. Shepard, born in 1977, is an American author with 48 catalogued books dated 2006 to 2027, reaching Birds of Prey: The Origins in 2026 and with Tell Me Everything scheduled for 2027. Nine series are catalogued, among them The Perfectionists, The Amateurs, The Heiresses, Penny Draws and Agatha Harkness. Secrets, friendship, high school and murder run through the books.

Tatiana De Rosnay

9 books

Family secrets and the French past drive Tatiana De Rosnay's fiction. Sarah's Key (2006) turns on the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup and the deportation of Jews under the Nazi occupation; later novels including A Secret Kept, The House I Loved, The Rain Watcher and Flowers of Darkness keep to France, secrecy and family life. De Rosnay also wrote Manderley Forever (2015), a life of Daphne du Maurier. Nine books span 2006 to 2025, closing for now with Blonde Dust.

Across 194 catalogued books, Danielle Steel writes contemporary romance and family drama: love stories, marriages, widowhood and the turns that reshape a life. The run starts with Going Home (1973) and continues through Celebration, with 24 Hours scheduled for 2027. Steel's catalogue also holds children's picture books, short stories and non-fiction beside the standalone novels that make up most of it.

Lisa Jackson

189 books• 27 series

Lisa Jackson, born Susan Lisa Jackson in 1952, is an American author of romance and romantic suspense novels, with more than 75 to that name. The catalogue holds 189 Lisa Jackson books, from A Twist of Fate (1983) to Not What It Seems (2026). Subjects across the list include serial murders, women detectives, Montana and contemporary romance. Jackson's series include Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli, McCaffertys, Cahills / San Francisco, Savannah and the Dark Jewels Trilogy, plus a historical trilogy issued as Susan Lynn Crose. New Jackson titles continue to appear.

Greg Iles

19 books• 4 series

Suspense set largely in Mississippi is Greg Iles's territory, above all in the Penn Cage novels, which take a lawyer through buried family secrets and murder. Iles's 19 catalogued books open with Spandau Phoenix (1993) and close with Cemetery Road (2019), taking in the Penn Cage and Mississippi sequences and a set of standalone thrillers. The catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Shari Lapena

12 books• 1 series

Psychological thrillers about married couples and family secrets make up most of Shari Lapena's work. Lapena published Things Go Flying (2007) and Happiness Economics (2011) before The Couple Next Door (2016) turned the catalogue toward suspense. All 12 catalogued books stand alone, so reading order follows publication date and nothing else. Getting Away with Murder is the newest, and Lapena has titles catalogued through 2026.

Jeffrey Archer

63 books• 11 series

Jeffrey Archer's 63 catalogued books cover novels, short stories, plays, children's books and prison diaries. The list opens with Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976) and reaches Adam and Eve in 2026. The Clifton Chronicles, Kane and Abel and the Detective William Warwick novels are the main series; families, social class and English history supply the material.

Kristin Harmel

20 books• 4 series

Kristin Harmel is an American novelist, born May 4, 1979, in Newton, Massachusetts. The Book of Lost Names, The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Sweetness of Forgetting and The Paris Daughter are among Harmel's most notable novels. At 16 Harmel was already a sports reporter for the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Bay AllSports magazine, and after graduating from the University of Florida worked as a PEOPLE magazine reporter from 2000 to 2012. The catalogue lists 20 books from How to Sleep with a Movie Star (2006) to Meet Me in Paris (2026), with subjects such as France, family secrets and the Second World War.

Ruth Rendell

88 books• 7 series

Ruth Rendell (17 February 1930 to 2 May 2015) was an English writer of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries who held the title Baroness Rendell of Babergh. Chief Inspector Wexford is the creation most associated with Rendell. Separate standalone crime novels looked into what drives criminals and their victims, and the pseudonym Barbara Vine carried that interest into a third body of work. Rendell's novels have sold an estimated 20 million copies. The catalogue records 88 books, starting with From Doon With Death (1964), then To Fear a Painted Devil (1965) and Vanity Dies Hard (1966).

Christina Dodd's catalogue holds 82 books published between 1991 and 2026, opening with Candle in the Window and Treasure of the Sun in 1991 and reaching Teach the Torches to Burn in 2026. Dodd writes historical romance, much of it Regency, alongside romantic suspense; recorded subjects include England, governesses, princesses, and manners and customs. Series credited to Dodd include Governess Brides, Virtue Falls, Chosen Ones, Cape Charade, Darkness Chosen, Fortune Hunter and Knight. Dodd is a recipient of the RITA Award.