Indiana book series in reading order

by Mark A. Roeder

by Michael Zinn Lewin

Ralph McInerny (February 24, 1929 to January 29, 2010) was an American novelist and a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Father Dowling is the priest at the centre of the most popular McInerny mysteries, which were adapted as the Father Dowling Mysteries television series from 1987 to 1991. The catalogue holds 110 books from Jolly Rogerson (1967) to A Student's Guide to Philosophy (2014), including philosophy titles such as Thomism in an Age of Renewal (1968). Other series include Sister Mary Teresa, Andrew Broom and Notre Dame. McInerny also used the pen names Monica Quill, Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey and Edward Mackin.

Albert Samson, a low-key private detective working Indianapolis, is Michael Zinn Lewin's best-known creation, and his first case, Ask the Right Question, appears in the catalogue at 1972. Lewin, born 1942 in Springfield, Massachusetts, grew up in Indianapolis, graduated from Harvard and moved to England in 1971. Two more series follow Samson: the Lunghi Family and Lt. Leroy Powder. Twenty-nine titles reach Alien Quartet in 2018, at a median 248 pages per book.

Booth Tarkington

63 books• 3 series

Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist, and one of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921) are his best known novels, and the Penrod books and the Growth Trilogy are his named series. Tarkington's catalogue holds 63 titles, from The Gentleman from Indiana (1899) and Monsieur Beaucaire (1900) onward, with subjects covering Indiana, social classes, boys and children of the rich.

Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist, born in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 8, 1963. Kingsbury worked as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Missy's Murder (1991), Kingsbury's first book, grew out of a murder story covered as a reporter in Los Angeles. Kingsbury is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist. The catalogue holds 115 titles, running to The Christmas Ring (2025), and the series include Firstborn, Sunrise, Above the Line, Bailey Flanigan, Red Gloves and Forever Faithful. Christian fiction and family life recur among the subjects.

Philip Gulley writes about Quaker life in Indiana, in essays and in fiction. Front Porch Tales (1997) opens a catalogue of 24 books, and the Harmony novels, Home to Harmony (2000), Just Shy of Harmony (2001), Christmas in Harmony (2002), build a small town around a Quaker congregation. Christian life, clergy and universalism run through the subjects, and nothing later than 2018 is catalogued.

Mark A. Roeder writes coming-of-age fiction about gay teenagers, set largely in small-town Indiana. The catalogue holds 101 books published between 1999 and 2026, from Ancient Prejudice, Break to New Mutiny to Lukas & Hawthorne. Most titles belong to the Gay Youth Chronicles, split into the Verona and Bloomington sequences and also arranged as one complete chronology. Coming out, fathers and sons, and occasional mystery plots such as Someone Is Killing the Gay Boys of Verona run through the work.

Terence Faherty, born 1954, is an American writer of mystery novels. Two detective sequences organise the catalogue, Owen Keane Mystery and Scott Elliott Mystery, and both Owen Keane and Scott Elliott are recorded as fictitious characters. Private investigators, murder, the motion picture industry, legal material, Indiana, New Jersey and Hollywood sit among the subjects. The 24 books run from Deadstick (1991) to The Cardboard Box (2019), with Live To Regret (1992), The Lost Keats (1993) and Die Dreaming (1994) early in the sequence. The median book is 250 pages.

Kristen Ashley

109 books• 24 series

Kristen Ashley, born Kristen A L Moutaw on April 8, 1968, has reached the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists with 100 books published in 14 languages and more than three million copies sold. Two of the novels have been adapted into film. The catalogue carries 109 Ashley titles, from Rock Chick (2008) to After the Fall (2026). Rock Chick, River Rain, Colorado Mountain, 'Burg, Fantasyland, Dream Team, Dream Man, Unfinished Hero, Misted Pines and Avenging Angels are among the series. Subjects include contemporary and erotic romance, romantic suspense, motorcycle clubs and Denver.

Julia Buckley writes mysteries with women sleuths, 28 catalogued books published between 2006 and 2026. The Dark Backward (2006) opens the catalogue, followed by Madeline Mann (2007), Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2008), The Ghosts of Lovely Women (2011), Counterplay (2012) and Ginevra Bond (2012). Series include the Writer's Apprentice Mysteries, Undercover Dish, the Hungarian Tea House books, Madeline Mann, Shakespeare's Bookshop and, as Veronica Bond, Dinner and a Murder. A Dark and Starlit Sea is the newest title.

Wanda E. Brunstetter writes Amish romance and has sold more than 10 million books, with titles on the New York Times Best Seller list; Brunstetter is based in Washington. The catalogue lists 125 books from A Merry Heart (1997) to A Castle of Sand (2026). Series include Brides Of Lancaster County, Brides Of Webster County, Brides Of Lehigh Canal, Daughters Of Lancaster County, Sisters Of Holmes County, Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club, Amish Millionaire, Creektown Discoveries and Rachel Yoder: Always Trouble Somewhere. Subjects include Amish women and children, Pennsylvania and Amish cooking.

Gene Stratton-Porter

28 books• 1 series

Gene Stratton-Porter, born Geneva Grace Stratton in 1863, was an American novelist, naturalist and nature photographer from Wabash County, Indiana. Indiana's Limberlost Swamp gives the Limberlost novels their setting, among them Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909), and in 1917 Stratton-Porter pressed legislators to protect that swamp and other Indiana wetlands. Nature writing sits beside the fiction in The Song of the Cardinal (1906), What I Have Done With Birds (1907) and Music of the Wild (1910). Stratton-Porter wrote columns for magazines including McCall's and Good Housekeeping, and founded a film production company in 1924, the year Stratton-Porter died.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

131 books• 11 series

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, born in 1933, wrote 131 catalogued books for children and young adults across half a century. Shiloh, a quartet of children's novels, won the Newbery Medal in 1992, and the Alice McKinley series became one of the most frequently challenged sets of books of the early 21st century. The Boy/Girl Battle, Bessledorf Mysteries, Witch Saga, Cat Pack and Roxie and the Hooligans fill out the list, which runs from To Make a Wee Moon (1969) to Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard's Roost (2018). Family life, schools, friendship and siblings are the constant subjects, at a median of 154 pages.

Jerry S. Eicher has 46 catalogued books published between 2002 and 2025, and the subject tags include Amish, Mennonites and Christian romance. The first listed titles are Transforming the Believer (2002) and Living Christianity (2003). Sarah (2007) and Sarah's Son (2008) came next, then Rebecca's Choice, Rebecca's Promise and Rebecca's Return (all 2009). Eicher series include Hannah's Heart, Adams County, Little Valley, Fields Of Home, Beiler Sisters and St. Lawrence County Amish, and Portrait of Love (2025) is the latest release.

Barbara Longley writes romance, including time-travel and fantasy romance. A catalogue of 20 books opens with Heart of the Druid Laird (2011) and runs to His Heart’s Melody (2024). Subjects recorded across those titles include Scotland, Iraq War veterans, disabled veterans, single mothers, Indiana and Minnesota. Longley's series include Perfect, Indiana; Loch Moigh; Haneys; MacCarthy Sisters; and Star Launch. The catalogue is ongoing.

P.M. Carlson wrote mystery fiction, and Maggie Ryan and Marty Hopkins are fictitious characters named in the recorded subjects. The catalogue lists 14 books from Audition for Murder (1985) to Crossfire (2006). Listed series are Maggie Ryan and Nick O'Connor, Marty Hopkins, and P.M. Carlson Short Story Collection. Subjects also include police, policewomen, New York, Indiana and Vietnam. Murder Is Academic (1985), Murder Unrenovated (1987), Murder in the Dog Days (1990) and Gravestone (1993) are other titles. The list is marked likely complete.

Laird Hunt

13 books

Laird Hunt is an American writer, translator and academic, born April 3, 1968, in Singapore. The catalogue lists 13 books from The Impossibly (2001) to Float Up, Sing Down (2024). Titles in between include Indiana, Indiana (2003), Kind One (2012), Neverhome (2014), The Evening Road (2017) and In the House in the Dark of the Woods (2018). Recorded subjects include historical and psychological fiction, farm life and Indiana.