Ghosts book series in reading order

by Tite Kubo

by Dori Hillestad Butler

by Nancy Atherton

by Jonathan Stroud

by R.L. Stine

by Karen White

by R.L. Stine

by Christopher Pike

R.L. Stine

589 books• 64 series

Robert Lawrence Stine, born October 8, 1943, is an American novelist who writes horror fiction for children. Goosebumps, the series Stine created, sold more than 400 million copies in 35 languages and grew into a franchise of two television series, video games, comics and two feature films. Fear Street, Stine's horror sequence for teenagers, passed 80 million copies and was adapted for film. Stine has been called the Stephen King of children's literature. The listing runs to 590 titles, from How to Be Funny (1978), published as Jovial Bob Stine, to How to Train Your Dummy, scheduled for 2027.

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.

Joan Aiken

125 books• 12 series

Joan Aiken (Joan Delano Aiken, 4 September 1924 to 4 January 2004) was an English writer of supernatural fiction and alternative history novels for children. The Whispering Mountain (1968) won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was commended for the Carnegie Medal, and Night Fall won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1972. Aiken received an MBE in 1999 for services to children's literature. The catalogue lists 125 books from All You've Ever Wanted (1953) to 2020, including The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) and the Wolves Chronicles, Arabel and Mortimer and Felix Brooke series.

Mary Downing Hahn writes ghost stories and mysteries for young readers. Born in 1937 and once a school librarian, Hahn published The Sara Summer in 1979 and has 41 catalogued books through The Old Willis Place (2024). Wait Till Helen Comes and Stepping On The Cracks are among the best known titles, and the Gordy Smith books form the one named series. Ghosts, witches, stepfamilies and family life recur as subjects.

Christopher Pike is the pseudonym of Kevin Christopher McFadden, an American author born on November 12, 1955. Pike writes mystery-thrillers, supernatural horror and children's fiction, mostly for young adults, with some adult fiction too. The catalogue lists 86 books from Getting Even and Slumber Party (both 1985) to Strange Girl (2015), with Chain Letter (1986), The Tachyon Web (1986) and Spellbound (1988) among the early titles. Series include Spooksville, Last Vampire, Remember Me, Final Friends, Alosha, Chain Letter and Witch World, and vampires, monsters and witches all appear among the subjects.

Ann M. Martin

446 books• 24 series

Ann Matthews Martin, born August 12, 1955, is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction and a Smith College graduate. The Baby-Sitters Club, first published in 1986, is the series Martin is known best for, and Martin remains involved with the series and its spin-offs. The catalogue lists 446 books, beginning with Inside Out and Bummer Summer in 1983. Related lines include Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, California Diaries, Kids in Ms. Colman's Class, Main Street and Doll People. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel (2025) is the newest listed title.

Jonathan Stroud

28 books• 4 series

Jonathan Stroud is a British fantasy writer, born 27 October 1970, known for the Bartimaeus young adult sequence and the Lockwood & Co. children's series. The Bartimaeus sequence received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and Stroud's books have appeared on ALA Notable lists. Netflix announced a Lockwood & Co. television series in 2020, and filming began in July 2021. The catalogue lists 28 Stroud books from The Lost Treasure of Captain Blood (1996) to The Legendary Scarlett and Browne (2025), with The Amulet of Samarkand dated 2003.

Bruce Coville

132 books• 20 series

Bruce Coville has 132 books catalogued from The Foolish Giant (1978) to Aliens, Underwear, and Monsters (2022). Sarah's Unicorn (1979), Operation Sherlock (1986) and The Ghost in the Third Row (1987) are among the early titles. Series include My Teacher Is an Alien, Magic Shop, Unicorn Chronicles, I Was a 6th Grade Alien, Space Brat, Moongobble and Me, Nina Tanleven and A.I. Gang. Extraterrestrials, unicorns, monsters and humour fill the subjects. Coville, born May 16, 1950, writes young adult fiction and first published in 1977.

Ghost stories crossed with murder investigation are Simone St. James's form. The Haunting of Maddy Clare (2012) opens a catalogue of 11 books that reaches A Box Full of Darkness in 2026, taking in The Broken Girls (2018), The Sun Down Motel (2020), The Book of Cold Cases (2022) and Murder Road (2024). The First World War, veterans and nurses appear among the earlier subjects. Every title stands alone.

Penelope Lively

65 books• 3 series

Penelope Lively, born in 1933, is a British writer of fiction for children and for adults, and holds the title Dame. Moon Tiger took the Booker Prize in 1987, and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (1973) won the Carnegie Medal for British children's books. Her catalogue runs to 65 titles published between 1970 and 2021, from Astercote (1970) to Metamorphosis (2021), taking in The Whispering Knights (1971), The Driftway (1972), The House in Norham Gardens (1974) and A Stitch in Time (1976). Ghost stories, English social life, the Second World War, and space and time recur as subjects.

Cornelia Funke

51 books• 9 series

Cornelia Funke (Cornelia Maria Funke, born 10 December 1958 in Dorsten) is a German author of children's fiction, called Germany's bestselling author for children. Funke worked as a social worker and then a book illustrator, began writing novels in the late 1980s and writes mostly fantasy about children facing adversity. The catalogue lists 51 books from Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost (1993) to The Green Kingdom (2025), including Dragon Rider (1997) and The Thief Lord (2000). Inkheart/Inkworld and MirrorWorld are series.

Angie Sage, born 20 June 1952, is an English author of children's books. Septimus Heap, the TodHunter Moon trilogy and Araminta Spook (published as Araminta Spookie in the United States) are Sage's series. The catalogue lists 42 books, starting with Monkeys in the Jungle (1989) and ending with Midnight Train (2021). Subjects include magic, wizards, apprentices, ghosts, haunted houses and picture books.

Nancy Atherton wrote one series and stayed with it: the Aunt Dimity mysteries, traditional English detective stories with a ghost inside them. Aunt Dimity is dead and still consulted, and inheritance, ghosts and a woman sleuth are the recurring subjects. Atherton's 25 catalogued books run from Aunt Dimity's Death (1992) to Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage in 2022, with nothing published since.

Avi is the pen name of Edward Irving Wortis, an American author of children's and young adult books born December 23, 1937. Avi won the 2003 Newbery Medal for Crispin: The Cross of Lead and was a Newbery runner-up in 1991 and 1992. The catalogue records 87 books from Things That Sometimes Happen (1970) to The Road From Nowhere (2026), and Rat Race is set for 2027. Series include Crispin, Dimwood Forest and Beyond the Western Sea. Ghosts, animals, adventure and mysteries appear among the subjects.

Phil Rickman wrote supernatural and mystery novels, publishing under the pen names Will Kingdom and Thom Madley as well as his own. Merrily Watkins, a woman priest in England, is the recurring figure, and exorcism, ghosts and the occult run through those books. 30 catalogued titles span Candlenight (1991) to The Echo of Crows (2026), among them The Wine of Angels (1998), Midwinter of the Spirit (1999) and A Crown of Lights (2001). The John Dee Papers and the Grayle Underhill and Bobby Maiden novels sit alongside. Rickman, born in 1950, died in 2024.

Carolyn Keene is a Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, the credit on the Nancy Drew mysteries. Mildred Wirt Benson, one of the writers behind the name, used it from 1929 to 1953 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. The catalogue lists 647 Carolyn Keene books, beginning with The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery (all 1930) and reaching Vans & Villains (2026). Series include Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, Nancy Drew Diaries, Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and Dana Girls Mystery Stories.

Carolyn G. Hart writes mystery and detective fiction with women sleuths, and the subject records name Annie Laurance Darling, Max Darling and Henrie O as fictitious characters, alongside booksellers and bookselling, women journalists and murder. The catalogue holds 69 books, from The Secret of the Cellars (1964) to Ghost Blows a Kiss (2021), with the 2000s the heaviest decade. Death On Demand, Bailey Ruth, Henrie O and Nela Farley are the lines on record, beside standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction. No new title has been listed since 2021, so the entry is dormant.

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.

Kelley Armstrong, born 14 December 1968, is a Canadian writer working mainly in fantasy since 2001. Thirty-one fantasy novels carry the Armstrong name, thirteen of them in Women of the Otherworld, five in Cainsville, six in the Rockton books, and three each in Darkest Powers, Darkness Rising and Age of Legends. Armstrong also wrote the Nadia Stafford crime trilogy, three standalone teen thrillers, and the middle-grade Blackwell Pages trilogy with Melissa Marr. The catalogue runs to 177 titles, from Bitten (2001) to Last Resort at Haven's Rock, scheduled for 2027, with subjects including werewolves, witches, vampires and the supernatural.

Charles Dickens

69 books• 3 series

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 to 9 June 1870) was an English novelist and journalist born in Portsmouth. At 12, Dickens left school to work in a boot-blacking factory while John Dickens, the writer's father, was held in a debtors' prison; three years later came a return to school, and then a start in journalism. The catalogue lists 69 Dickens titles, opening with Sketches by Boz (1836) and including The Pickwick Papers (1837), The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1838) and Barnaby Rudge (1841), with collected editions reaching The Complete Works of Charles Dickens (2026). Subjects include social conditions, classic literature and English Christmas stories.

Dame Susan Hill, Lady Wells, is an English writer of fiction and non-fiction born 5 February 1942. The Woman in Black has been adapted for stage and screen. I'm the King of the Castle (1970) won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971, and The Bird of Night took the Whitbread Novel Award in 1972 and reached the Booker Prize shortlist. The catalogue counts 78 books from The Enclosure (1961) to A Change of Circumstance (2021), including the Simon Serrailler police procedurals, children's books and picture books. Hill became a CBE in 2012 and a DBE in 2020, both for services to literature.

Victoria Laurie writes mysteries with psychic leads. Abby Cooper opens the Psychic Eye Mysteries with Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye (2004), and M.J. Holliday heads the Ghost Hunter Mysteries. The Life Coach Mysteries, the Magical Trinket Mysteries, Maddie Fynn and the Oracles of Delphi Keep complete the series work. Forty-five catalogued books reach A Future To Remember (2026). Women detectives and missing persons recur as subjects.

Meg Cabot

102 books• 20 series

Meggin Patricia Cabot, born February 1, 1967, is an American novelist of young adult and adult fiction. Meg Cabot wrote The Princess Diaries, a young adult series Walt Disney Pictures adapted into two feature films. Awards include the ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award. The catalogue lists 102 books from Where Roses Grow Wild (1998) to Kissing Cowboys (2026), including titles as Patricia Cabot and Jenny Carroll. Other series include Mediator, Heather Wells, Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls, Airhead and Little Bridge Island.

Alyson Noel

32 books• 5 series

Thirty-two books by Alyson Noel are catalogued, from Faking 19 (2005) to Chasing Eternity (2024). Noel, born December 3, 1965, is an American author from Orange County, California. Paranormal fiction dominates the recorded subjects, along with psychic ability, immortality, the dead, high schools and death. Soul Seekers, Riley Bloom, Beautiful Idols and Stealing Infinity are the series listed, and Evermore (2009), Blue Moon (2009) and Shadowland (2009) are among the titles.