Gothic book series in reading order

Barbara Michaels was a pen name of Barbara Louise Mertz (1927-2013), an American author who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters. Mertz earned a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1952, wrote the ancient Egypt histories Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land, and was best known for mystery and suspense novels including the Amelia Peabody series. The Barbara Michaels catalogue holds 29 books from The Master of Blacktower (1966) to Other Worlds (1999), among them Ammie, Come Home (1968). Gothic, supernatural and romantic suspense tags run through the subjects.

Mary Stewart wrote romantic suspense and, later, Arthurian historical fiction. The suspense novels begin in 1954 and continue through Wildfire at Midnight (1956), Thunder on the Right (1957), Nine Coaches Waiting (1958), My Brother Michael (1959) and The Ivy Tree (1961). The Arthurian Saga retells the legend of Merlin and the kings around him. 25 titles are catalogued in all, including children's books, short stories and poetry, the last being The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One.

Jennifer Blake is one of five names used by Patricia Maxwell, an American writer in the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Love's Wild Desire (1977) was her first romance novel and became a New York Times bestseller, while the gothic mystery-suspense titles appeared as Patricia Maxwell, among them The Secret of Mirror House (1969) and Night of the Candles (1978). Louisiana anchors several series, from Louisiana History and Louisiana Gentleman to Louisiana Plantation and Louisiana Knights, across 69 catalogued books ending at True Gentlemen (2017).

M.J. Rose has 32 books in the catalogue, published from 1999 to 2024, with suspense, thrillers, gothic and occult fiction, historical fiction and erotica in the subject records. Reincarnation and women journalists also appear as subjects. Lip Service (1999) is the earliest title and Forgetting to Remember (2024) the latest. Series include Daughters Of La Lune and Butterfield Institute, and How to Publish and Promote Online (2001) is among the listed titles. One catalogued book also credits Lexi Blake.

Anne Rundle was a British novelist, born Anne Lamb on 30 May 1920 and died on 31 January 1989, who wrote more than 40 gothic and romance novels. Other pen names were Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders and Georgianna Bell. Anne Rundle won the Netta Muskett Award for new writers and took the Romantic Novelists' Association's Romantic Novel of the Year Award twice. This catalogue holds 19 books under the Rundle name, from The Moon Marriage (1967) to Moonbranches (1986).

Historical romance and FBI suspense make up Catherine Coulter's two main bodies of work. Regency and medieval romances such as the Sherbrooke Brides and Medieval Song sequences date back to the 1979 debut The Rebel Bride, while the FBI Thriller series and A Brit in the FBI follow government investigator Dillon Savich. Coulter's catalogue runs to 95 books, reaching The Heir of Whitestone in 2026.

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.

Paranormal romance is Christine Feehan's field, with vampires, shapeshifters and the Carpathians recurring across the work. Feehan's 119 catalogued books open with Dark Prince and Dark Desire (1999) and reach Dark Joy (2026). The Dark books head the list, joined by GhostWalkers, Leopard People, Torpedo Ink, Shadow Riders and the two Sea Haven sequences, Drake Sisters and Sisters of the Heart. The 2010s hold the largest share of the catalogue.

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.

Wendy Webb writes gothic suspense built on family secrets. Born in 1962, Webb won the Minnesota Book Award for fiction in 2011 and again in 2017. Her nine catalogued books run from The Tale of Halcyon Crane (2010) to The Witches of Santo Stefano (2024). Widows, single mothers, divorced women, artists and homecomings recur across the subjects Webb returns to, alongside horror and thriller elements.

Phyllis A. Whitney

77 books• 2 series

Phyllis A. Whitney published across five decades: 77 catalogued books, from A Place for Ann (1941) to Amethyst Dreams (1997), with the 1960s the busiest decade. The work splits between mystery, suspense and romance for adults and fiction written for younger readers, so early titles such as A Star for Ginny (1942) and The Mystery of the Gulls (1949) sit beside later romantic suspense. Whitney also wrote on craft, including Writing Juvenile Fiction (1947). Murder, detection, families and fathers and daughters are the recurring subjects.

Maggie Shayne, born 1965, is an American novelist with more than 70 novels to that name, and the subject tags centre on paranormal romance, vampires and romantic suspense. Awards include the RITA Award, Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice and Career Achievement Awards, and the P.E.A.R.L. Award. The catalogue holds 121 books from Reckless (1993) to Lone Wolf (2026). Wings in the Night, Texas Brands, Immortal Witches, Shattered Sisters, Brown & de Luca and Secrets of Shadow Falls are among the series.

Amanda Stevens has 76 books in the catalogue, from The Tempted (1985) to The Disappearance (2026). The Graveyard Queen is a Stevens series, alongside Gallagher Justice, Matchmakers Underground, Eden's Children, Twilight's Children, Quantum Men, On The Edge and Echo Lake. Subjects include romantic suspense, contemporary romance, murder, kidnapping and police. Titles from the 1990s include Angels Don't Cry (1993), The Seventh Night (1993), Fade To Black (1994) and Dark Obsession (1995).

Laura Purcell is a British novelist and scriptwriter working in historical fiction and horror. The Georgian Queens series sits at the start of the catalogue, which opens with God Save the King (2012) and takes in Queen of Bedlam (2012) and Mistress of the Court (2015). The gothic novels follow: The Silent Companions (2017), The Corset (2018), Bone China (2019) and The Shape of Darkness (2021). 10 titles reach House of Splinters (2026). Purcell led the writing on the historical horror podcast Roanoke Falls, executive produced by John Carpenter and Sandy King.

Rebecca Winters is one of the names used by Rebecca Brown Burton, a United States romance writer who lived from February 14, 1940 to February 15, 2023. Burton wrote more than 175 romance novels as Rebecca Burton, as Rebecca Brown Burton and, for Harlequin, as Rebecca Winters. The catalogue lists 167 books, beginning with The Loving Season (1979) under the Rebecca Burton name and ending with A Big Sky Cowboy (2023). Tags cover contemporary and western romance, ranchers, twins and veterans, and series include Lone Star Lawmen, Wind River Cowboys and Montanari Marriages.

Virginia Coffman (1914-2005) was an American writer of gothic romance with more than 100 novels to her name. Moura (1959) opens the catalogue listed here, which holds 77 titles and ends with Golden Gate People (2001). Moura, Lucifer Cove, Royles Saga and Jewels are the named series. Suspense, mystery, historical settings, France and the Second World War appear among the subjects. Output peaked in the 1970s and the books run to a median 299 pages.

Gwendoline Butler, who lived from 1922 to 2013, was a British writer of mysteries and romances who also published as Jennie Melville. Butler is credited with inventing the woman's police procedural. Her two main sequences are the Inspector John Coffin novels and the Charmian Daniels books, the latter issued under the Melville name. The catalogue holds 76 titles from Receipt for Murder in 1956 onward, taking in Victorian mysteries, gothic tales and romantic novels as well as contemporary detection.

Rona Randall was the main pen name of British novelist Rona Shambrook, born Rona Green on 16 June 1911, who published gothic and romance novels plus some non-fiction from 1942 to 2001 and also wrote as Virginia Standage. Her novel Broken Tapestry won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 1970. The catalogue here holds 41 titles published between 1947 and 2005, opening with She Married a Doctor (1947); doctors, nurses, love triangles and gothic suspense recur across it. The Potters is her one named series.

Velda Johnston wrote American gothic romance, and also published as Veronica Jason. Raised and educated in Pasadena, California, Johnston sold a first short story while still at high school, then studied journalism at UCLA on a scholarship and wrote for the university newspaper. The 35 catalogued books run from Along a Dark Path (1967) to House of Illusion (2001), at a median of 218 pages, with four titles in 1971 alone: I Came to a Castle, Phantom Cottage, The Face in the Shadows and The People on the Hill. Romantic suspense, widows and Italy appear among the subjects.

Elsie Lee (1912-1987) wrote gothic and Regency romance alongside suspense. Thirty books are catalogued between 1963 and 1985, at a median of 232 pages, with the 1960s the heaviest decade. The 1964 group runs Comedy of Terrors, Muscle Beach Party and The Masque of the Red Death, and gothic suspense follows in Dark Moon, Lost Lady (1965) and The Curse of Carranca (1966). Two 1965 titles carry the pen name Jane Gordon. Fulfillment (1985) is the last dated entry.

Shane Peacock

24 books• 7 series

Born in Port Arthur, Ontario in 1957, Shane Peacock works in Canada as a novelist, playwright, journalist and television screenwriter. The Boy Sherlock Holmes books, written for young adults, are Peacock's best known series, published in ten countries and twelve languages. Sherlock Holmes as a fictional character heads the subject records, with mystery and detective stories beside him. The catalogue runs to 24 titles between Great Farini (1996) and A Place of Secrets (2025), and also holds the Dylan Maples Adventures, the Dark Missions of Edgar Brim and the Northern Gothic Mysteries.