Hotels book series in reading order

by Mary Stanton

by Tim Myers

by Beverly Cleary

Kate Kingsbury is a pseudonym of Doreen Roberts, a romance writer. The catalogue lists 70 books from 1987 to 2025, beginning with Gambler's Gold (1987) under the Doreen Roberts name. As Kate Kingsbury, the series include Pennyfoot Hotel Mysteries, Manor House Mysteries, Merry Ghost Inn Mysteries and Misty Bay Tearoom. Other lines appear as Allison Kingsley and Rebecca Kent. Subjects include the Pennyfoot Hotel in England, Cecily Sinclair Baxter, women sleuths and World War II. A Nice Cup of Tea (2025) is the newest title.

Mary Stanton, born in Winter Park, Florida in 1947, is an American author known for Unicorns of Balinor, an eight-volume fantasy series for children. As Claudia Bishop, Stanton has written 14 Hemlock Falls mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime and three novels in the Casebooks of Dr. McKenzie series, and has been senior editor of three mystery anthologies. The catalogue lists 43 books from 1984 to 2013, including The Road to Balinor (1988), A Taste for Murder (1994) and A Fete Worse Than Death (2013). Subject tags include the imaginary place Hemlock Falls, New York, women detectives, hotels and unicorns.

Marion Chesney

184 books• 22 series

Marion Chesney, later Marion Gibbons (1936-2019), was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery whose published career began in 1979. Historical romances appeared under the Chesney name, the Travelling Matchmaker and Daughters of Mannerling books among them, while the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mysteries appeared as M. C. Beaton; both of those mystery runs were adapted for television. Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Charlotte Ward, Jennie Tremaine and Sarah Chester are further pen names on the record. This listing gathers 185 books dated from 1979 onward, including later titles on which R.W. Green is credited.

Tim Myers writes mysteries, and the subjects name North Carolina, lighthouses, hotelkeepers and the fictional Alex Winston. The catalogue holds 109 books from Innkeeping with Murder (2001) to The Last Donut (2023). Series include Lighthouse Inn Mystery, Candlemaking Mystery, Soapmaking Mystery, Pizza Lovers, Cardmaking Mysteries and Paranormal Kids. Reservations for Murder (2002), Murder Checks Inn (2003) and At Wick's End (2004) are among the early titles.

Martha Grimes is an American detective novelist born on May 2, 1931. The best-known Grimes series features Richard Jury, a Scotland Yard inspector, and Melrose Plant, an aristocrat who became an amateur sleuth. The catalogue opens with The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981), followed by The Old Fox Deceiv'd and The Anodyne Necklace, and totals 40 books through The Red Queen (2025). Emma Graham, Andi Oliver and Foul Matter are among the other series.

Mollie Hardwick (1916–2003), also known as Mary Atkinson, was an English author best known for the books accompanying the television series Upstairs, Downstairs. Hardwick started as a BBC radio announcer in the 1940s and worked in the BBC drama department until 1962. Other work includes Thomas & Sarah, The Duchess of Duke Street, three Juliet Bravo books and the Doran Fairweather novels. The catalogue lists 51 books from The Sherlock Holmes Companion (1962) to Come Away, Death (1995), including Charles Dickens Encyclopedia (1973).

Kallie George writes picture books and early readers pitched at grades 1-3, most of them about animals. Nine series carry the George name: Duck, Duck, Dinosaur, Heartwood Hotel, Tiny Tails, Magical Animal Adoption Agency, Wings of Olympus, Crimson Twill, Disney Bibbidi Bobbidi Academy, and two Anne sequences - one in picture-book form, one in chapters - built on the character Anne Shirley. George's 44 catalogued books run from The Melancholic Mermaid (2010) to A Brave Beginning (2026).

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.

Krista Davis writes cozy mysteries with amateur women sleuths. The Domestic Diva Mysteries feature Sophie Winston and open with The Diva Runs Out of Thyme (2008); the Paws and Claws and Pen & Ink series sit beside them, with cooks, advice columnists, hotels and a Jack Russell terrier among the recurring subjects. Davis's catalogue reaches 34 books, the newest being The Diva Hosts a Murderer, and publication continues into 2026.

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.

Maia Chance writes historical mysteries with women sleuths. Snow White Red-Handed (2014) opens the catalogue, and fairy tales run through its titles: Cinderella Six Feet Under (2015), Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna (2016), Sleeping Beauty, Borrowed Time (2017). Three series divide the list, Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery, Discreet Retrieval Agency and An Agnes and Effie Mystery, and Prohibition, actresses, hotels and castles appear among the subjects. 13 titles reach The Ravine (2026).

Arnold Bennett

100 books• 3 series

Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English novelist who completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories and 13 plays, plus a daily journal running past a million words. The Five Towns and Clayhanger Family books take the pottery district as their ground, with town life, manners and conduct as the material. Bennett wrote for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, briefly ran the Ministry of Information during the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. The listing holds 100 titles from A Man from the North (1898) onward.

Catrin Collier

50 books• 11 series

Catrin Collier is the pen name of Karen Watkins, a Welsh novelist born in 1948 and known for historical fiction. The Hearts of Gold series is set in Pontypridd, Collier's home town, between 1930 and 1950, and its first book became a BBC drama in 2003. Other names include Katherine John and K. A. John for crime, Katherine Hardy for TV novelisations and Caro French for modern fiction. The catalogue lists 50 books from Without Trace (1990) to A Dragon's Legacy (2019), including the Detective Trevor Joseph, Swansea Girls and Tiger Bay series.

Nineteen catalogued books carry Nicola Barker's name, published between 1993 and 2025. Barker, born in 1966, is an English novelist and short story writer whose work is indexed under England, London, manners and customs, and eccentrics and eccentricities. The run opens with Love Your Enemies (1993) and continues through Darkmans (2007) to TonyInterruptor (2025). Two Barker series sit in the catalogue: Thames Gateway and Digital Trilogy.

Lilliam Rivera writes for young readers, with subject headings running to Hispanic Americans, teenage girls, family life, conduct of life, female gangs, street life, science fiction and dystopian young adult fiction. Nine catalogued books run from The Education of Margot Sanchez (2017) to Tiny Threads (2024), among them Dealing in Dreams (2019), Never Look Back (2020) and Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story (2021). Three titles carry a 2021 date. Rivera is credited alone on each book, which reach a median of 272 pages.

Sarah Pearse writes crime thrillers with Detective Elin Warner, set in isolated buildings where the weather closes the exits. The Sanatorium (2020), a Swiss hotel converted from its earlier use, opens the series, followed by The Retreat (2022) and The Wilds (2024). Three books make up the catalogue, at a median of 440 pages, and the series is ongoing.