Horse racing book series in reading order

by Walter Farley

by Ben Osborne

Dick Francis (Richard Stanley Francis, 1920 to 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey who turned to crime fiction set in English horse racing. After RAF service in wartime, Francis rode as a jump jockey, became champion jockey of the British National Hunt and rode for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The catalogue records 44 books, from the autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957) and the novel Dead Cert (1962) to Under Orders (2006). Sid Halley and Kit Fielding are recurring figures.

Horse racing runs through every John Francome thriller. Francome, born in 1952, was a seven-time British champion jump jockey, then a racing trainer and a Channel 4 broadcaster, before writing. 27 catalogued books span Born Lucky (1985) to Storm Rider (2010), with Declared Dead (1988), Blood Stock (1989), Stone Cold (1990) and Rough Ride (1993) among them. Jockeys, steeplechasing and crime in British racing fill the subjects, and the catalogue is likely complete.

Lauraine Snelling is an American author of Christian fiction who has published since 1982. Snelling's historical series draw on Norwegian immigration and the author's own heritage. The Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame inducted Snelling in 2012 at Norsk Høstfest, and sales exceed 5 million copies. The catalogue counts 102 books, from Tragedy on the Toutle (1982) to Fair Are the Meadows (2026). Series include Golden Filly, High Hurdles, Red River of the North, Dakota Plains, Daughters of Blessing and Leah's Garden, with horses, pioneer life and North Dakota among the subjects.

Felix Francis, born in 1953, is a British crime writer and the younger son of Dick Francis. Felix Francis studied physics and electronics at London University and taught A Level physics for 17 years at three schools, ending as head of science at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire. The catalogue lists 20 books from Dead Heat (2007) to The Chase (2026). Dick Francis and Jefferson Hinkley appear as series names, Sid Halley is a recurring character, and subjects include horse racing, jockeys and betting.

Walter Farley

28 books• 2 series

Horses carry Walter Farley's work. The American author's first book, The Black Stallion (1941), introduced the stallion called the Black and the character Alec Ramsay, and sequels followed for decades. The catalogue records 28 books to 1989, the year of Farley's death, among them The Island Stallion (1948), The Black Stallion Revolts (1953) and the Little Black Pony series. Farley's son Steven has continued the series since. Horse racing, harness racing and training recur as subjects.

Fern Michaels was the pen name of Mary Ruth Kuczkir, born Mary Ruth Koval on April 9, 1933, who died on November 12, 2025. The American novelist wrote romance and thrillers, including the Texas quartet, the Captive series, Family Blessings, Pretty Woman and Crown Jewel. Michaels's output passed 200 books with an estimated 150 million copies sold. The catalogue lists 190 titles, from Pride and Passion (1975) to A Season of Secrets (2026). Series include the Sisterhood, Godmothers, Men of the Sisterhood, Lost and Found, Vegas, Kentucky and Twin Lights. Female friendship, vigilantes and revenge appear among the subject tags.

Marguerite Henry (born Marguerite Breithaupt, 13 April 1902 to 26 November 1997) was an American children's author who wrote fifty-nine books drawn from true stories of horses and other animals. King of the Wind, a 1948 horse book, won Henry the Newbery Medal, and two other Henry books were runners-up. Misty of Chincoteague (1947), one of those runners-up, led to several related titles and the 1961 film Misty. The catalogue lists 34 Henry books from Birds at Home (1942) to Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley (1996), including Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945). Subjects include ponies, the Chincoteague pony and horse racing.

Robert B. Parker

87 books• 9 series

Robert B. Parker (September 17, 1932 – January 18, 2010) was an American writer working mainly in mystery and detective fiction. The Spenser novels, about a private detective, are Parker's most famous works and inspired the ABC series Spenser: For Hire and a run of TV movies. The Godwulf Manuscript (1973), God Save the Child (1974) and Mortal Stakes (1975) are among the early titles. Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall are further characters, and Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch form another series. Parker's books draw on detailed knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area, and Robert Crais, Harlan Coben and Dennis Lehane are among those who credit the Spenser novels with renewing the detective genre.

Christian historical romance is Tamera Alexander's form, with frontier and pioneer life, Colorado settings and widows among the subjects. Rekindled (2006) opens the Fountain Creek Chronicles, and Timber Ridge Reflections follows. The Belmont Mansion, Belle Meade Plantation and Carnton series come later. Nineteen titles are catalogued, reaching In These Hills in 2026.

Jane Smiley

40 books• 6 series

Jane Smiley, born September 26, 1949, is an American novelist and the winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Thousand Acres (1991). The catalogue holds 40 Smiley books from Barn Blind (1980) to Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (2026). The Greenlanders (1988), Moo (1995) and The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998) are among the titles. Series include Horses Of Oak Valley Ranch, Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga and Ellen and Ned. Subjects include horses, ranch life and rural families.

Historical romance is the register of Manda Collins's catalogue, whose subjects list nobility, aristocracy, England, betrothal, horse racing, and social life and customs. The 26 catalogued books run from How to Dance with a Duke (2012) to Ghost Me, Maybe (2026), with How to Romance a Rake (2012), Why Dukes Say I Do (2013), Why Earls Fall in Love (2014) and A Good Rake is Hard to Find (2015) in between. Wicked Widows, A Lady's Guide, Studies In Scandal, Ugly Ducklings, Lords of Anarchy and A Wallflower's Guide are the series credited to Collins.

Edward Marston writes historical crime fiction, and the catalogue of 117 books runs to The Corpse on the Bristol Train (2026). Inspector Robert Colbeck, Elizabethan Theater, Domesday, Home Front Detective, Dillman & Masefield / Ocean Liner Mysteries, Christopher Redmayne, Captain Rawson and Bow Street Rivals are among the series. Nicholas Bracewell and Lord Westfield's Men appear in the subjects, together with theater, police work, railroad travel and World War I. Alan Saxon and Merlin Richards are further series, and Marston is still publishing.

Christina Jones writes humorous romance. Twenty-eight books are catalogued from Going the Distance (1995) to Summer at Sandcastle Cottage (2021), with the Milton St John Trilogy, the Mad Villages books and Hazy Hassocks as the series. Horse racing, country life, magic and carnivals appear among the subject headings, and Running the Risk (1997), Jumping to Conclusions (1999), Walking on Air (2000) and Hubble Bubble (2004) fall in the middle of the run. The median book runs 320 pages. Nothing new has appeared since 2021.

Sasscer Hill has 15 catalogued books, running from Full Mortality (2010) to Murder at the Willcotts Hotel (2023). Subject headings on the listing include horse racing, women detectives, government investigators, undercover operations and the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau. Hill's series are Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery, Fia McKee, Quinn O'Neill Mystery and Janet Simpson Cozy Mysteries. Racing From Death (2012) and Flamingo Road (2017) are among the titles.

Ben Osborne is the author of the Danny Rawlings Mysteries, with 10 books catalogued from 2008 to 2020. Subject headings name horse racing, jockeys, stablehands, sports and Great Britain, and file the books as suspense thrillers. The Hyperion Legacy (2008) is the first title; The Rule of Lazari (2009), The Lost Triptych (2014), A Glint Among the Bones (2016) and The Kincsem Prophecy (2019) follow. The Gatekeeper (2020) is the newest, and the listing is marked as likely complete.

Laura Hillenbrand

2 books

Laura Hillenbrand, born in 1967, writes narrative nonfiction, and her catalogue holds exactly two books: Seabiscuit (1999), about the racehorse and the sport around him, and Unbroken (2014), a Second World War story of survival. The two have sold more than 13 million copies between them, and both were adapted for film. Hillenbrand fell ill at college and left without completing her degree, an experience she wrote up as the essay A Sudden Illness for The New Yorker in 2003.