Maryland book series in reading order

by Mariah Stewart

by Sherryl Woods

by Marcia Talley

by Anna Belfrage

Sherryl Woods is an American writer of romance and mystery, born July 23, 1944, in Arlington, Virginia, who has also used the pen names Alexandra Kirk and Suzanne Sherrill. The Chesapeake Shores novels became a six-season Hallmark Channel series, and Netflix's Sweet Magnolias is based on Woods' books, with Woods as an executive producer. The catalogue lists 157 titles from Restoring Love (1982) to Starlit Secrets (2024). Other named series include Calamity Janes, Devaney Brothers and the Amanda Roberts and Molly DeWitt mysteries.

Mariah Stewart writes women's fiction and romantic suspense. The Chesapeake Diaries, Wyndham Beach, the Hudson Sisters, Mercy Street, Enright and Last are the series in a catalogue of 50 titles, which opens in 1995 with Moments in Time and reaches Wake-Up Calls (2026). Maryland settings, federal investigators, serial murders and family life fill the subject tags.

Nora Roberts

279 books• 37 series

Nora Roberts, born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950, is an American writer of romance under that name. As J. D. Robb, Roberts writes police procedurals with science-fiction elements, and has also published as Jill March and, in the UK, as Sarah Hardesty. This listing carries 280 Roberts books, opening with Irish Thoroughbred (1981); The Missing is scheduled for 2027. Series on the page include the In Death Universe, the MacGregors, Night Tales, the Calhoun Women, the Chesapeake Bay Saga, Irish Hearts and the O'Hurleys.

Laura Lippman

56 books• 8 series

Laura Lippman, born January 31, 1959, is an American journalist and the author of more than 20 detective novels. Subjects on the books include Tess Monaghan, women private investigators, murder and Baltimore. The catalogue lists 56 Lippman books, beginning with Baltimore Blues and Charm City (both 1997) and reaching Murder Takes a Vacation (2025). Lippman's awards include an Edgar Award, an Agatha Award, seven Anthony Awards, two Barry Awards and two Shamus Awards.

Melissa Foster writes contemporary and erotic romance inside one large connected world, Love in Bloom. The Bradens, the Remingtons, Seaside Summers, Bayside Summers, the Whiskeys, the Wickeds and the Steeles at Silver Island are its branches. Megan's Way (2009) is the earliest of 135 catalogued titles, Love Me Wicked the newest, and Shamelessly Mr. Charming is scheduled for 2027.

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries, a run of 9 books published between 2014 and 2023. By Cook or by Crook (2014) opens the series and A Parfait Crime (2023) is the latest entry. Women cooks, grandfathers, restaurants and dinner tables fill the subjects, alongside murder and investigation in Maryland and Virginia. Food puns title almost every book: Scam Chowder, Final Fondue, The Tell-Tale Tarte, S'more Murders and Gingerdead Man among them. No new title has appeared since 2023.

Emily Arnold McCully, born July 1, 1939, is an American writer and illustrator known chiefly for children's books. Mirette on the High Wire, which McCully both wrote and illustrated, won the 1993 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration. The catalogue lists 88 books, from Maxie (1970) to 1, 2, 3, Pull! (2023), and the Mirette and Grandma series are among them. Subject tags include stories without words, mice, cats, bears, grandmothers, friendship, history and biography.

Marcia Talley is an American mystery novelist and a former librarian who took early retirement in 2000 to write full-time. Hannah Ives carries Talley's series, which opens with Sing It To Her Bones in 1999 and continues through Unbreathed Memories, Occasion of Revenge, In Death's Shadow and Dead Man Dancing. Maryland and the Bahamas supply the settings, and two collaborative novels and a body of short stories sit beside the 33 catalogued books. Circles of Death is dated 2024.

Historical fiction and time travel sit at the front of Anna Belfrage's subject records, together with Scotland, Great Britain, Maryland, family life and romance. Matthew Graham and Alex Lind are the two fictional characters named in those subjects, and The Graham Saga is the entry in the character records. Belfrage has 23 catalogued books, from A Rip in the Veil (2012) to Queen of Shadows (2026). The King's Greatest Enemy, the Castilian Saga and Time Locket are the other series on file under the Belfrage name.

John Barth

21 books• 1 series

John Simmons Barth (1930-2024) was an American writer of postmodern and metafictional fiction. The catalogue holds 21 titles from The Floating Opera (1956) to Postscripts (2022), taking in The End of the Road (1958), Chimera (1972), Letters (1979), Sabbatical: A Romance (1982), The Friday Book (1984) and The Tidewater Tales (1987). Three books from the 1960s drew the most attention: The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), which retells the colonial history of Maryland; Giles Goat-Boy (1966), a satirical fantasy in which a university stands for the Cold War world; and Lost in the Funhouse (1968), an experimental and self-referential story collection. Chimera took a share of the National Book Award in 1973. Subjects recorded against the catalogue include American fiction, novelists, storytelling, college students, married people and Maryland.

J.F. Freedman is a thriller writer whose catalogue carries the Luke Garrison and Kate Blanchard series. Subject headings file the books under legal thrillers and mystery, list murder trials, public defenders, false testimony and women detectives, and name the fictitious character Wyatt Matthews. The 11 J.F. Freedman books in order begin with Against the Wind (1991) and end with Turn Left at Doheny (2014). House of Smoke (1996), Key Witness (1997), Above the Law (2000) and A Killing in the Valley (2006) fall between. The list is marked likely complete.