Nuns book series in reading order

by Peter Tremayne

by Carol Ann O’Marie

by Sharan Newman

Peter Tremayne

67 books• 3 series

Peter Tremayne is a pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a British historian, literary biographer and novelist born on 10 March 1943. Ellis has published more than 98 books under that name and as Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan, along with 100 short stories, and the work has appeared in 25 languages. As Tremayne, Ellis writes the Sister Fidelma historical mysteries, an international bestseller. The catalogue lists 67 titles from 1974 to 2026, opening with The Cornish Language and its Literature, issued under the Ellis name. Dracula Unborn and Hound of Frankenstein (both 1977) follow, and Blood on the Wind (2026) is the newest. Nuns, the Celtic Church, Ireland and horror appear in the subject tags.

Margaret Frazer was the pen name of Gail Lynn Brown (26 November 1946 to 4 February 2013), an American writer of more than twenty historical mystery novels plus short stories. The name was first shared with Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld for The Novice's Tale (1992), which introduced the Benedictine nun Dame Frevisse, and the partnership lasted through The Murderer's Tale (1996), the sixth Frevisse book. From The Prioress' Tale (1997), an Edgar Award nominee, Gail Brown wrote as Margaret Frazer alone. The catalogue lists 38 books up to Circle of Witches (2012), with Joliffe the Player also among the characters and subjects including nuns, women sleuths and England.

Carol Ann O'Marie is the author of the Sister Mary Helen mysteries, which feature a nun as detective. The catalogue lists 12 books from A Novena for Murder (1984) to Like a Swarm of Bees (2020). Subjects include Catholics, women sleuths, murder and California. Other titles are Advent of Dying (1986), The Missing Madonna (1988), Murder Makes a Pilgrimage (1993) and Death Takes Up a Collection (1998).

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.

Veronica Black is a pseudonym used by Maureen Peters, a writer of historical novels. The Veronica Black catalogue holds 27 books from Portrait of Sarah (1969) to Vow Of Evil (2004). Sister Joan Mystery is the listed series, and nuns, the character Sister Joan, Cornwall, women sleuths and romance all appear among the subjects. Earlier titles include A Footfall in the Mist (1971), Moonflete (1972) and Master of Malcarew (1973).

The books published under Mother Teresa's name collect meditations, prayers and spiritual counsel. Thirty-eight titles are catalogued between 1975 and 2019, from Gift for God to Do Something Beautiful for God, at a median of 144 pages. Subjects centre on Christian life, the Catholic Church, the Missionaries of Charity and church work with the poor. The Love of Christ: Spiritual Counsels (1982), My Life for the Poor (1985) and Meditations On The Way Of The Cross (1986) come from the earlier part of the run. Mother Teresa lived from 1910 to 1997.

David Thurlo's mystery fiction is set in New Mexico. Ella Clah and Sister Agatha are the recurring characters named in the subject headings, which also list Navajo Indians, policewomen, nuns, Catholics and women sleuths. The catalogue holds 34 books from Second Shadow (1990) to Kill the Heroes (2017), across the Ella Clah, Sister Agatha, Lee Nez, Charlie Henry and Navajo Rez series. Vampires appear among the subjects as well.

Cora Harrison is an Irish author of historical detective fiction and of books for children. The Burren Mysteries, set in 16th-century west Ireland, and the Reverend Mother Mystery series, set in 1920s Cork during the Irish Civil War, are two of Harrison's crime sequences; a third puts Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to work as amateur detectives in 19th-century London. The catalogue holds 67 books from Nuala and Her Secret Wolf (1997) to Murder in the Mist (2023), including the Drumshee Timeline and Drumshee Chronicles, Willowgrove Village Mysteries and Hugh Mac Egan Mysteries.

Rumer Godden

69 books

Rumer Godden was a British author with more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books to her name. Black Narcissus opened the catalogue in 1939 and reached the screen in 1947; The River followed in 1946 and was filmed in 1951; nine of Godden's works were adapted for film in all. India, nuns, family life and children's stories about dolls and mice, The Mousewife (1951), Mouse House (1952), Impunity Jane (1954), run through the work. Godden wrote a few books with her elder sister, the novelist Jon Godden, among them Two Under the Indian Sun, a memoir of a childhood spent in a part of India now inside Bangladesh. The catalogue holds 69 entries reaching 2012.

Cassandra Clark is an English novelist and playwright, and her catalogue divides in two. The earliest titles carry the name Sally Heywood and belong to romance: Impossible To Forget (1987), Fantasy Lover (1988), Jungle Lover (1990), The Gemini Bride (1990). The later work is historical mystery, with Abbess Hildegard of Meaux as its investigator and a second series around Brother Chandler. Thirty-three books are catalogued, published between 1987 and 2023 and ending with The Night of the Wolf (2023). Nuns, Great Britain and history run through the subject headings.

Boris Akunin

30 books• 5 series

Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili, a Georgian and Russian writer resident in the United Kingdom. Historical fiction is the ground, and the Erast Fandorin detective novels are the best known part of it, with Nicholas Fandorin and Sister Pelagia heading further series. Thirty books are catalogued between 1998 and 2023, four of them in 1998 alone, The Winter Queen, The Turkish Gambit, The Death of Achilles and Murder on the Leviathan, and several appear under their Russian titles. Pit (2023) is the newest. Moscow, Russia and private investigators recur as subjects.

Lynne Hinton writes about friendship and faith in small American towns. Friendship Cake (2000) opens a run of North Carolina church-community novels, and the Divine Private Detective Agency Mysteries and the Pie Town books, set in New Mexico, follow. Seventeen titles reach O, Biscuit! (2026), and Hinton is listed as actively publishing.

Donna Leon

42 books• 4 series

Venice is where Donna Leon sets her police procedurals, and Guido Brunetti is the character the books return to, in cases of murder and criminal investigation. Leon's 42 catalogued titles open with Death at La Fenice (1992) and reach Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life in 2025, with a Brunetti companion volume and non-fiction beside the novels. Leon remains actively publishing.

Sandra Hill writes historical and contemporary romance, and new beginnings is the theme running through the work. The Reluctant Viking (1994) opens a catalogue of 61 books that reaches Jinx Christmas (2026), taking in two Viking series, the Cajun and Creole Historical books, Deadly Angels, Bell Sound, Jinx and the Tante Lulu Adventures. Vikings, time travel, vampires, angels and Navy SEALs recur as subjects. Hill grew up in central Pennsylvania, attended Penn State and worked ten years in journalism before that first novel.

Jane Willan's catalogue holds 7 books, from Jump Start This Church! (2014) to The Beekeeper's Last Confession and Widow's Walk (both 2025). Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mystery is the series listed, and subjects include abbeys, nuns, murder, investigation, Wales and cheese. The Hour of Death and The Shadow of Death appeared in 2018, Abide With Me in 2020 and The Christmas Camel Caper in 2024.

Sharan Newman, born April 15, 1949, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is an American historian and historical novelist. Newman won the 1994 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Catherine LeVendeur is her woman detective, and France and nuns appear among the subjects; Death Comes As Epiphany (1993) and The Devil's Door (1994) fall in that period. The Guinevere series and Arthurian romance come earlier, and her 21 books reach Defending the City of God (2014).