Greece book series in reading order

by Margaret Doody

by Jenna Evans Welch

Christian Cameron

43 books• 9 series

Christian Cameron, born Christian Gordon Cameron on August 16, 1962, is a Canadian novelist trained as a historian and a former career officer in the US Navy. Cameron also writes as Miles Cameron, and as Gordon Kent for novels written with Kenneth Cameron, Cameron's father. The historical series Tyrant is Cameron's best-known work and had sold over 100,000 copies by 2009. The catalogue lists 44 books, from Washington and Caesar (2001) through Tyrant (2008), Killer of Men (2010) and Marathon (2011) to The Captain of Venice (2026), with The French Ambassador due in 2027. Other series include Long War, Tom Swan, Chivalry, Age of Bronze and Commander, and ancient Greece and the Battle of Salamis are recorded subjects.

Set in Greece, Jeffrey Siger's mysteries follow Andreas Kaldis through police procedural investigations, and the titles name Mykonos, Athens, Patmos, Sparta, Delphi and Santorini. Murder in Mykonos (2008) opens the Andreas Kaldis series, which accounts for the whole of Siger's 14 catalogued books. Serial murder investigation and Greek settings recur throughout, and Not Dead Yet (2025) is the newest entry.

Anne Zouroudi, born in Lincolnshire, is a British crime novelist who sets her Greek Detective series among the islands and towns of Greece. Hermes Diaktoros, known as the fat man, investigates each murder. Zouroudi was shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Breakthrough Authors in 2008, the year The Messenger of Athens was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. Eleven books run from that debut in 2007 to The Demons of December (2018).

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.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi

23 books• 2 series

Valerio Massimo Manfredi, born in 1943, is an Italian historian, archaeologist, essayist and journalist who also writes historical fiction. Greece, Rome and Italy are among the subjects of Manfredi's 23 books, and Alexander appears in fiction. Child of a Dream, The Sands of Ammon and The Ends of the Earth all came out in 1998. Spartan, The Last Legion and Tyrant followed, and Manfredi also has an Odysseus series. Wolves of Rome (2019) is the latest.

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.

Harry Turtledove

141 books• 28 series

Harry Turtledove, born June 14, 1949, is an American historian and novelist of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery, based in Southern California. The catalogue counts 142 books, starting with Wereblood and Werenight (1979), published as Eric G. Iverson, and listing The Succulent Succubus for 2027. Other pen names are H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko and Mark Gordian. The Videssos Cycle, Southern Victory / Timeline-191, Worldwar, Colonization, Crosstime Traffic, The War That Came Early and Gerin the Fox are among the series. World War II and the American Civil War are frequent subjects.

Mary Renault

17 books• 2 series

Mary Renault was the pen name of Eileen Mary Challans, a British novelist best known for historical fiction set in ancient Greece. Renault studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, worked as a nurse and began with contemporary romances such as Purposes of Love (1939). The ancient-Greek novels followed, among them The Last of the Wine (1956) and The King Must Die (1958), which opens the Theseus series. A move to South Africa in 1948 with her partner, Julie Mullard, let Renault write openly gay characters away from English censorship. The Alexander the Great novels close the 17-title catalogue at Funeral Games (1981).

Victoria Hislop

11 books• 1 series

Victoria Hislop, born Hamson in 1959, is an English author. Greece supplies the setting for most of the fiction, which begins with The Island (2005) and continues through The Return (2008), The Thread (2011), The Sunrise (2014), Cartes Postales from Greece (2017), Those Who Are Loved (2019) and One August Night (2020). Family life, history and interpersonal relations are the recurring subjects. Two earlier titles, Sink or Swim (2001) and Fix Your Life - Now! (2002), are nonfiction and self-improvement. Eleven books are catalogued to 2023, at a median 390 pages.

Margaret Anne Doody, born on 21 September 1939, is a Canadian writer of historical detective fiction and a feminist literary critic. Doody teaches as a professor of literature at the University of Notre Dame, helped found its PhD in Literature Program, and directed that program from 2001 to 2007. Aristotle is the series on the site, and the catalogue lists Aristotle Detective (1978), Aristotle And Poetic Justice (2000), Aristotle and the Secrets of Life (2002), Poison in Athens (2004) and Mysteries Of Eleusis (2005). Other titles include The Alchemists (1980), Frances Burney (1988), The True Story of the Novel (1996), Tropic of Venice (2006) and Jane Austen's Names (2015). Subject headings name Fanny Burney, women authors, and literary history and criticism.

Victor Davis Hanson

30 books• 3 series

Military history and classical Greece run through the 30 catalogued books of Victor Davis Hanson, an American classicist, military historian and conservative political commentator born September 5, 1953. The Western Way of War (1989) comes first, followed by Hoplites (1991), The Other Greeks (1995), Fields Without Dreams (1996), Who Killed Homer (1998) and Carnage and Culture (2001); The Counterrevolution (2026) is the newest. Hanson is professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a visiting professor at Hillsdale College. Hanson received the National Humanities Medal in 2007, and agriculture and family farms also appear among the subjects.

David Gemmell wrote heroic fantasy. Legend, also published as Against the Horde (1984), opens the Drenai saga, continued in The King Beyond the Gate (1985) and Waylander (1986). The Rigante, Troy, Lion Of Macedon, Hawk Queen and Sipstrassi sequences follow. Thirty-five catalogued books reach Rhyming Rings (2017). Imaginary wars, warriors and kings are the recurring subjects.

Historical crime is Barbara Cleverly's field. The British author, a former teacher from Yorkshire, has 22 books catalogued between 2001 and 2019. Her Detective Joe Sandilands mysteries run to thirteen titles and open with The Last Kashmiri Rose (2001), a New York Times Notable Book; India is among their settings. The Laetitia Talbot novels and the Detective John Redfyre mysteries form two further sequences, with women archaeologists, police investigation and period detail as the standing material. Cleverly took the Crime Writers' Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger in 2004, and Invitation to Die (2019) is her most recent title.

Tom Holt, born Thomas Charles Louis Holt on 13 September 1961, is a British novelist who also writes fantasy as K. J. Parker. The catalogue lists 57 books under the Holt name, from Lucia in Wartime (1985) and Lucia Triumphant (1986) to The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse (2023). Recorded subjects include humorous fantasy, and titles include Expecting Someone Taller (1987), Who's Afraid Of Beowulf? (1988), Goatsong (1989) and Flying Dutch (1991). Series include J. W. Wells & Co., YouSpace and Walled Orchard.

Gary Corby is an Australian author of historical mysteries set in Classical Greece. The invented detective Nicolaos leads, Diotima the priestess of Mantinea is the heroine, and historical figures including Socrates and Pericles recur. The Athenian Mysteries run to seven books, from The Pericles Commission (2010) through The Ionia Sanction (2011), Sacred Games (2013), The Marathon Conspiracy (2014) and Death Ex Machina (2015) to Death on Delos (2017).

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.

Joan Holub, born in Texas in 1956, has written and illustrated over 180 children's books and also publishes as Rita Book and Brad Bucks. The catalogue lists 184 Holub titles from If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution (1987) to This Little Engineer (2023), with a median length of 48 pages. Subject tags include Greek mythology, Greek goddesses, stories in rhyme, schools and ants. Holub series include Goddess Girls, Mini Myths, Ant Hill, Doll Hospital, Young Princesses Around the World and Smart About History.

Suzanne Williams writes children's fiction, and the subject records cite friendship, schools, magic, fairies, princesses, fairy tales and Greek mythology. The catalogue lists 58 books from Mommy Doesn't Know My Name (1990) to Aphrodite & the Dragon's Emerald (2023), with Library Lil (1997) among the early titles. Series include Grimmtastic Girls, Princess Power, Fairy Blossoms, Thunder Girls, Little Goddess Girls, Third-Grade Friends and Goddess Girls Super Special. Heroes in Training and Goddess Girls are among the linked names.

Barry Unsworth (1930-2012) was an English historical novelist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Unsworth wrote 17 novels, reached the Booker Prize shortlist three times and won in 1992 with Sacred Hunger. The Partnership (1966) opens a 20-book list that includes Pascali's Island (1980) and Stone Virgin (1985). The slave trade, Greece, Florida and the Catholic Church appear among the subjects, and The Quality of Mercy (2011) is the last title.

Scott Oden writes historical fiction and fantasy, with subject headings covering Greece, Egypt, Greek mercenaries, caliphs, assassins, Cairo, imaginary wars and battles, and monsters. Eight catalogued books run from Men of Bronze (2005) to Conan: The Shadow of Vengeance (2024), a title published under the Conan name. Memnon (2006), The Lion of Cairo (2010), Serpent of Hellas (2011), A Gathering of Ravens (2017), Twilight of the Gods (2020) and The Doom of Odin (2021) also belong to the catalogue, and Grimnir is Oden's listed series.