Missouri book series in reading order

by Rett MacPherson

by Michael A. Kahn

by Thomas L. Tedrow

by Wendi Silvano

Roger Lea MacBride, born in 1929 and died in 1995, was an American lawyer, political figure and writer who inherited Laura Ingalls Wilder's estate. MacBride edited and published further Wilder material, then wrote the Rose Years, a spin-off series set in the Little House on the Prairie world and following Rose Wilder Lane through Missouri farm life and frontier schools. He also pushed the development of the television adaptation, and served a single term as a Republican in the Vermont House of Representatives in the 1960s. Fifteen catalogued titles date from 1976 to 2001.

The Torie O'Shea mysteries are the work of Rett MacPherson, whose 14 catalogued books span 1997 to 2021. Subject headings name women sleuths, women genealogists, Missouri and the imaginary place New Kassel, along with inheritance and treasure troves. Family Skeletons (1997) opens the list, followed by A Veiled Antiquity (1998) and A Comedy of Heirs (1999). Strange Bedfellows (2021) is the most recent title, and the catalogue is dormant.

John Lutz

66 books• 6 series

John Lutz (1939-2021) was an American writer in mystery, crime and suspense, with a career past fifty years, at least fifty books and roughly 250 short stories to it. Three private investigators carry the series work, Alo Nudger, Fred Carver and Frank Quinn, with St. Louis, Florida and New York among the settings. SWF Seeks Same, filmed in 1992 as Single White Female, is his best known title, and Lutz led both the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America as president. The catalogue holds 66 books, from The Truth of the Matter (1971) to Single White Female Seeks Same (2022).

Michael A. Kahn is the author of the Rachel Gold series, and catalogue subjects name Rachel Gold as the fictitious character. Other subjects include women lawyers, legal mysteries, murder investigations, St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago. The 17 catalogued books open with The Canaan Legacy / Grave Designs (1988) and reach Bad Trust (2020), taking in Firm Ambitions (1994), Sheer Gall (1996) and The Mourning Sexton (2005). Kahn has worked as a trial lawyer for over forty years, as a senior partner at Folger Levin & Kahn in San Francisco from 1979 to 2009 and in a Napa practice since 2022.

Quilting runs through every series Ann Hazelwood writes: Colebridge Community, East Perry County, Wine Country Quilts and Door County Quilts. Missouri, widows, family secrets and small-town life are the recurring subjects. The Basement Quilt (2012) is the earliest of 23 catalogued titles, and Christmas, She Wrote closed the run in 2023. Nothing new has appeared since.

Helen Moss writes adventure and mystery stories for children. Adventure Island is the main series, and the subjects name Emily Wild, Jack Carter and Scott Carter as characters. The early titles read The Mystery of the...: Cursed Ruby, Hidden Gold, Midnight Ghost and Whistling Caves, all from 2011. Time Dogs and Secrets of the Tombs are further series, and time travel and dogs appear among the subjects. Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska (2023) is the latest of 24 books.

Fannie Flagg

12 books• 5 series

Small towns and the people in them are the subject of Fannie Flagg's fiction. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (1987) is her best known novel, and the Elmwood Springs books, A Redbird Christmas (2004) and I Still Dream About You (2010) follow. Flagg's catalogue holds 12 titles published between 1981 and 2025, including a Whistle Stop Cafe cookbook.

Denise Swanson is an American mystery writer. The Scumble River Mysteries are set in a fictional Illinois town, and the Devereaux's Dime Store Mysteries in a small fictional town in Missouri. Catalogue subjects name Skye Denison as a recurring fictional character and list school psychologists, murder, investigation and women sleuths. The catalogue holds 46 books running from Murder of a Small-Town Honey (2000) to Wedding Jitters and Stormy Rivers (2026). Welcome Back To Scumble River, Chef-To-Go Mysteries, Stephanie Danielson and Forever Charmed Mysteries are the other series listed. Swanson has been nominated for the Agatha Award and the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Dorothy Garlock (1919-2018) wrote historical romance, much of it set on the American frontier. The catalogue runs to 63 books published between 1980 and 2017, from Love and Cherish (1980) to The Nearness of You (2017), with the 1980s her heaviest decade. Series include Wyoming Frontier, Dolan Brothers, Wabash River, Route 66, Colorado Wind and the Tucker Family books. Garlock also published as Johanna Phillips, Dorothy Phillips and Dorothy Glenn.

Robert J. Randisi (August 24, 1951 – October 6, 2024) was an American author, editor and screenwriter working in detective fiction and westerns. Series credited to Randisi include Gunsmith, Shelter, Lady Gunsmith, Tracker, Angel Eyes, Rat Pack Mysteries, Miles Jacoby Mystery and Joe Keough Mystery. Catalogue subjects include Clint Adams, private investigators, police, serial murder and New York. Randisi is credited on 665 listed books, with titles such as Chain Gang Kill (1980), Circus of Death (1981) and Deadly Debt (2024).

Thomas L. Tedrow published 16 catalogued books in a short span, from 1992 to 1996. The Tedrow series are Days of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Younguns, Dino Mites and Troll Family Adventures. Missouri Homestead, Children of Promise, Good Neighbors and Land of Promise all appeared in 1992. Frontier and pioneer life, farm life, Missouri and Christian life are among the subjects of this children's fiction. Dino Mites Declare War and Dorothy: Return to Oz date from 1993, and The Legend Of The Missouri Mud Monster (1996) is the last title.

Lou Jane Temple is the author of the Heaven Lee and Spice Box series, with 10 books catalogued from 1996 to 2006. Subject headings name the fictional character Heaven Lee, Kansas City, caterers, women cooks, restaurants and cooking, and file the books as women-sleuth mysteries. Death by Rhubarb (1996) is the first title; A Stiff Risotto (1997), The Cornbread Killer (1999) and Red Beans and Vice (2001) follow. The listing also includes The Big Platter Cookbook (2004), and Death du Jour (2006) is the newest.

Paige Shelton's mysteries put amateur sleuths in bookshops, farmers' markets and small towns. The Scottish Bookshop Mysteries, the Farmers' Market Mysteries, the Alaska Wild Mysteries and the Country Cooking School Mysteries are the main series, with Broken Rope and the Dangerous Type Mysteries alongside. Chewy Moon (2007) is the earliest catalogued title, and The Bone Woman arrives in 2026. Thirty-six books in all, at 304 pages on median.

Elaine Viets writes mystery series with women investigators: the Dead-End Job Mysteries led by Helen Hawthorne, Josie Marcus: Mystery Shopper, the Death Investigator Angela Richman books, the Francesca Vierling mysteries and the Florida Beach Mysteries. Fifty catalogued books run from Urban Affairs (1988) to Beach Blonde Betrayal (2026), with non-fiction among the early titles.

Catherine Palmer writes Christian romance, much of it historical and set in frontier America. The catalogue holds 56 books dated between 1974 and 2010, grouped into Treasures Of The Heart, Town Called Hope, English Ivy and Miss Pickworth. Titles include The Burning Plains (1988), Land of Enchantment (1990), Forbidden (1991), Outlaw Heart (1992) and Gunman's Lady (1993), and the newest listing is The Gunman's Bride (2010). Recorded subjects include marriage, inheritance, pioneer life and American Christmas stories. The list is marked likely complete.

Stephanie Grace Whitson is an American writer of historical fiction who has lived in Nebraska since 1975 and took her subject from the lives of pioneer women in the West. Walks The Fire (1994) opens a catalogue of 36 books reaching 2024, and the series include Prairie Winds, Dakota Moons, Keepsake Legacies, Quilt Chronicles and Pine Ridge Portraits. Women pioneers, Dakota Indians, women missionaries, quilts and Christian historical romance recur as subjects.

Daniel Woodrell (1953–2025) was an American novelist and short story writer. Woodrell set most of the fiction in the Missouri Ozarks among the rural poor, and coined the term country noir for Give Us a Kiss (1996); reviewers then applied it to the rest of the work. The Rene Shade novels came first and take place in Louisiana: Under the Bright Lights (1986), Muscle for the Wing (1988) and The Ones You Do (1988). Eleven titles are catalogued in all, including Tomato Red (1998), Winter's Bone (2006), The Outlaw Album (2011) and The Maid's Version (2013).

Keisha Ervin writes urban fiction and African American romance. Thirty-eight books carry her name, published between Me & My Boyfriend in 2000 and The Untold Stories Vol. 2 in 2021. Chyna Black, Material Girl, Mina's Joint, India Black, Cam & Gray, McKinley's Journey, Cranes In The Sky and First Wives Club are among the series. Relationships, adultery and street life supply the material, and the 2010s were the busiest decade.

David Robbins is a Western writer, according to subject records that name Skye Fargo and Canyon O'Grady as fictitious characters and cite frontier and pioneer life, Colorado and Texas. Series listed under the name include Wilderness, Canyon O'Grady, White Apache, Mountain Majesty, Davy Crockett, Preacher's Law and Blood Feud, alongside Omega Sub and Battlefield Mars. Endworld is also among the linked names. Stalked (2020) is the most recent title in the listing.

Wendi Silvano writes early readers and picture books, averaging 32 pages a volume. Turkey Trouble is the one recorded series, running to Turkey's Fall Fumble (2026) with Turkey's Leprechaun Trap scheduled for 2027. The wider catalogue holds 113 titles dated 2000 onward, opening with Pancakes for Breakfast and taking in the Duck and Goose books of 2004 to 2006. Holidays supply much of the subject matter: Valentine's Day, Santa Claus and turkeys all appear in the record.

Jean Hager is an American writer of mystery fiction, children's fiction and romance, born in 1932, who published romance under the names Jeanne Stephens, Leah Crane, Marlaine Kyle, Amanda McAllister and Sara North. Two of her three mystery series draw on modern Cherokee life in Oklahoma, one following police chief Mitch Bushyhead and the other civil rights investigator Molly Bearpaw. The third is set at Iris House, a Missouri bed and breakfast run by the amateur sleuth Tess Darcy. The catalogue records 55 Hager titles between 1970 and 2000.

Space colonies, interplanetary voyages and space flight appear in the subject records for Allen M. Steele, a science fiction author tagged for both hard science fiction and space opera. The catalogue counts 45 books from Orbital Decay (1989) to Lemuria 7 (2026). Clarke County, Space (1990), Lunar Descent (1991), Labyrinth of Night (1992) and Rude Astronauts (1993) are early titles. Coyote is a listed series, and Coyote and Near-Space short fiction are grouped separately.

Charlotte Hubbard, who also publishes as Naomi King, writes Amish romance and Christian fiction. The early titles are historical romances, among them Colorado Captive (1991), Colorado Moonfire (1992), Sahara Splendor (1993) and Outlaw Moon (1994), and the later run turns to Amish communities in Promise Lodge, Home at Cedar Creek, Simple Gifts and the Maidels of Morning Star. The catalogue holds 39 books reaching Miracles at Promise Lodge (2024), at a median of 368 pages.

Laura V. Hilton writes Amish Christian romance, with Missouri among the recorded settings. The catalogue holds 25 books published between 2004 and 2021, and the series recorded are Amish Of Webster County, Amish Of Seymour County, Amish Of Jamesport, Amish Of Mackinac County and Amish Firefighter. Hot Chocolate (2004) opens the listing, with Patchwork Dreams (2010), A Harvest of Hearts (2011), Healing Love (2012) and Awakened Love (2013) following. The Amish Secret Wish (2021) is the newest entry. Cindy Loven is credited alongside Hilton on one title.