Psychological fiction book series in reading order

by Stephen White

by Robert W. Walker

by Jonathan Kellerman

by Dean Koontz

by Elizabeth George

by Brian Freeman

by John Banville Books / Benjamin Black

by Lisa Unger

by Michael A. Kahn

by Linda Ladd

by Tana French

by Lev Grossman

by Colleen Hoover

by Ted Thackrey Jr.

by Jed Rubenfeld

Joyce Carol Oates

180 books• 8 series

Joyce Carol Oates, born June 16, 1938, is an American writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays and nonfiction. The catalogue holds 180 books, beginning with By the North Gate (1963) and reaching The Frenzy: Stories (2026). Oates took the National Book Award for the novel Them (1969), and later honours include two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize in 2019. Black Water, What I Lived For, Blonde and the collection Lovely, Dark, Deep were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014.

Dean Koontz, born on July 9, 1945, is an American novelist of suspense thrillers that mix in horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery and satire. Koontz published early work under pen names including Deanna Dwyer, K. R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, David Axton and Brian Coffey. The catalogue holds 164 books, from Star Quest / Doom of the Green Planet (1968) to The Friend of the Family (2026), with A Storm So Bright and Beautiful set for 2027. Jane Hawk, Nameless and Dean Koontz's Frankenstein are Koontz series, and Odd Thomas appears among the characters. Fourteen Koontz hardcovers and sixteen paperbacks reached number one on The New York Times list, and sales top 500 million copies.

Ruth Rendell

88 books• 7 series

Ruth Rendell (17 February 1930 to 2 May 2015) was an English writer of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries who held the title Baroness Rendell of Babergh. Chief Inspector Wexford is the creation most associated with Rendell. Separate standalone crime novels looked into what drives criminals and their victims, and the pseudonym Barbara Vine carried that interest into a third body of work. Rendell's novels have sold an estimated 20 million copies. The catalogue records 88 books, starting with From Doon With Death (1964), then To Fear a Painted Devil (1965) and Vanity Dies Hard (1966).

Stephen King

223 books• 25 series

Horror fiction is the field most closely tied to Stephen King, an American author born on September 21, 1947, and nicknamed the "King of Horror". King's work also reaches into suspense, crime, science fiction, fantasy and mystery, and includes roughly 200 short stories, most later gathered in collections. Carrie (1974) was the debut that set King in horror; Different Seasons (1982), four novellas in one volume, marked the first major step outside it. The catalogue lists 223 books from 1971 to 2026, starting with The Blue Air Compressor, a short story, and reaching Other Worlds Than These (2026). Series on file include Holly Gibney, the Bill Hodges Trilogy, Green Mile, Shining and Talisman.

V.C. Andrews was the name used by Cleo Virginia Andrews (June 6, 1923 to December 19, 1986), an American novelist best known for Flowers in the Attic (1979). That novel led to four sequels and two film adaptations. The publisher never classed the books as Young Adult, yet their young protagonists have drawn teenage readers for decades. After Andrews died in 1986, a ghostwriter first hired to finish two incomplete manuscripts went on publishing new books under the V.C. Andrews name. The catalogue carries 108 books under that name from 1979 to 2025, across series such as Dollanganger, Casteel, Cutler, Landry, Logan and De Beers.

Georges Simenon

187 books• 5 series

Inspector Maigret, a policeman in Paris, is the centre of Georges Simenon's crime fiction. The catalogue holds 187 books, beginning in 1931 with Pietr the Latvian. Short novels are the form, at a median 169 pages, and the 1950s were the densest decade. Standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction sit beside the Maigret run, most of it translated from the French.

Alan Gregory is a clinical psychologist in Boulder, Colorado, and every one of Stephen White's 20 catalogued books is built around him. Privileged Information (1991) opens the run and Compound Fractures (2013) closes it. Forensic psychology and psychological suspense supply the plots, through Private Practices, Higher Authority, Harm's Way, Remote Control and Cold Case.

Patricia Highsmith

36 books• 1 series

Psychological suspense was Patricia Highsmith's territory: criminals, psychopaths, murder, and the strain that identity puts on ordinary morality. Highsmith (1921-1995), born Mary Patricia Plangman, was an American novelist and short story writer whose work drew on existentialist literature and produced more than two dozen film adaptations. Five novels follow the character Tom Ripley, starting with The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955). The catalogue holds 36 titles, from Strangers on a Train (1950) to the collected diaries and notebooks issued in 2021, with the 1960s her heaviest decade.

Hallie Ephron, born March 9, 1948, is an American novelist, book reviewer, journalist and writing teacher who writes mystery and suspense. Never Tell a Lie, There Was an Old Woman, Come and Find Me and Night Night, Sleep Tight were all Mary Higgins Clark Award finalists, and Never Tell a Lie became the 2011 Lifetime film And Baby Will Fall. The guide Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel received a 2006 Edgar Award nomination. The catalogue lists 16 books from Amnesia (2000) to Careful What You Wish For (2019), including the Dr. Peter Zak series, with forensic psychiatrists and Boston among the subjects.

Jonathan Kellerman, born August 9, 1949, is both an American novelist and a psychologist. Kellerman has won Edgar and Anthony awards, and the character most associated with the name is Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults for the Los Angeles Police Department. The catalogue holds 67 Kellerman titles, beginning with the non-fiction Helping the Fearful Child (1981) and When the Bough Breaks (1985), and running to Jigsaw (2026). Beyond Alex Delaware there are the Clay Edison, Petra Connor and Detective Jacob Lev series. Milo Sturgis appears in the subject tags alongside Delaware.

Nicci French writes psychological suspense about missing persons, murder and the psychology of the people caught up in both. The Memory Game (1997) opens a catalogue of 28 titles. Frieda Klein, a psychotherapist, carries the longest series; Maud O'Connor heads a later one; and standalone novels including The Safe House, Beneath the Skin and Secret Smile fill the early years. Books median 376 pages.

Judith Kelman's catalogue is psychological suspense. Her 18 books run from Prime Evil (1986) to The First Stone (2007) and include Hush Little Darlings (1989), Someone's Watching (1991), If I Should Die (1993) and One Last Kiss (1994). Sara Spooner is the one named series. Subject headings cover serial murders, false imprisonment, physicians and espionage thrillers.

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Lisa Unger

40 books• 11 series

Lisa Unger, born Lisa Miscione on April 26, 1970, is an American writer whose contemporary fiction is mainly psychological thrillers. Angel Fire (2002) opens a catalogue of 40 books that reaches Served Him Right (2026). Lydia Strong, Ridley Jones and House of Crows are series. Other listed titles include Beautiful Lies (2006), Black Out (2008) and Fragile (2010). Subjects cover women journalists, missing persons, married people and women sleuths.

Cormac McCarthy

17 books• 3 series

Cormac McCarthy's fiction moves from Tennessee to the ranch country of the American West, with fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, and psychological pressure as its material. The Orchard Keeper (1965) opens the catalogue, followed by Outer Dark (1968), Child of God (1973), Suttree (1979), Blood Meridian (1985), All the Pretty Horses (1992) and The Crossing (1994). Plays and screenplays are catalogued beside the novels, and the listing reaches a graphic novel adaptation of The Road in 2024.

Fay Weldon

59 books• 9 series

Fay Weldon (1931-2023), born Franklin Birkinshaw, was a British novelist, essayist and playwright whose career ran fifty-five years and produced 31 novels. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) is the best known, televised by the BBC in 1986. The Bulgari Connection (2000), Puffball (1980), Wicked Women (1995) and The Cloning of Joanna May (1989) sit alongside it. Weldon was a feminist and described her subject as overweight, plain women. Fifty-nine catalogued titles, taking in novels, plays, short stories and nonfiction, run from 1967 to 2019.

Mary Kubica writes psychological suspense, all of it standalone. Ten catalogued novels run from The Good Girl (2014) to It's Not Her (2026), and kidnapping, amnesia, strangers and secrets recur in their subject tags. No series sequence links the books, so publication order is simply chronology. Kubica is actively publishing.

Marriages with something rotten at the middle are Alice Feeney's subject. Feeney writes domestic and psychological suspense, 9 catalogued books published between 2017 and 2027. Sometimes I Lie (2017) opens the list, followed by I Know Who You Are (2019), His & Hers (2020), Rock Paper Scissors (2021), Daisy Darker (2022) and Good Bad Girl (2023). Twist is scheduled for 2027.

Alice Hoffman

52 books• 10 series

Alice Hoffman, born March 16, 1952, is an American novelist who also writes for young adults and children. Practical Magic (1995) became a 1998 film of the same name and grew into a media franchise. Magic realism runs through much of the work, with elements of magic, irony and unconventional romances. The catalogue counts 52 books, starting with Property Of (1977) and The Drowning Season (1979) and reaching The Witches of Cambridge (2026). Series include Practical Magic, Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, Water Tales and Green Angel, plus picture books. Subjects include Massachusetts, mothers and daughters, friendship and family life.

Jennifer Hillier is a Canadian thriller writer of Filipino descent, born and raised in Toronto, who lived in Seattle for eight years and now lives in Oakville, Ontario. The catalogue holds 8 Hillier books: Creep (2011), Freak (2012), The Butcher (2014), Wonderland (2015), Jar of Hearts (2018), Little Secrets (2020), Things We Do in the Dark (2022) and Heart of Glass (2026). Jar of Hearts won the 2019 International Thriller Writers Award for Hardcover Novel, and Things We Do in the Dark took the ITW Award for Best Audiobook in 2023. Serial Killer Files is the series listed.

Michael Robotham

20 books• 5 series

Psychological crime fiction is Michael Robotham's form, built around psychologists, police, and cases of murder and kidnapping in London. Joseph O'Loughlin and Cyrus Haven head his two main series, with Philomena McCarthy, standalone thrillers and non-fiction alongside. Twenty-one catalogued books run from The Suspect (2004) to The White Crow, and Tell Me Something True is scheduled for 2027.

Anita Shreve wrote psychological fiction about marriage, widowhood and friendship between women. The catalogue opens with non-fiction, including Working Woman: A Guide to Fitness and Health (1986), and turns to novels with Eden Close (1989). Twenty-three titles reach The Stars Are Fire (2017), with the Fortune's Rocks Quartet the one linked sequence. No new Shreve title has appeared since 2017.

F. Paul Wilson

102 books• 26 series

F. Paul Wilson (Francis Paul Wilson, born May 17, 1946) is an American author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers and science fiction, based in Wall, New Jersey. Repairman Jack is the recurring character of novels such as Ground Zero, The Tomb and Fatal Error, and a young adult series follows Jack as a teenager. The Adversary Cycle includes The Keep (1981). Healer (1976) is the first catalogued title. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award and the Horror Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ian McEwan

33 books• 2 series

Ian McEwan writes British literary fiction, alongside drama, librettos and short stories. Thirty-nine catalogued titles start with the story collection First Love, Last Rites (1975) and run through The Cement Garden (1978), In Between the Sheets (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) as far as 2025. England, man-woman relationships and social life recur as subjects, at a median length of 193 pages.