Indiana book series in reading order

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.

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.

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.