Psychologists book series in reading order

by Jonathan Kellerman

by Stephen White

by Don Donaldson

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.

Alex Gray

23 books• 1 series

Alex Gray is a Scottish crime writer. The Detective Lorimer novels make up the catalogue, setting Detective Chief Inspector William Lorimer and the psychological profiler Solomon Brightman on murder and serial killings around Glasgow. Gray has also published magazine articles, poetry, short stories and pieces for BBC radio schools programmes. The catalogue lists 23 titles dated 2002 to 2025, opening with Never Somewhere Else (2002) and continuing through The Riverman (2007), Glasgow Kiss (2009), Five Ways to Kill a Man (2010) and The Swedish Girl (2013). Acts of Malice is dated 2025.

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.

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.

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.

Don Donaldson is the author of the Andy Broussard & Kit Franklyn series, with 15 books catalogued from 1988 to 2017. Andy Broussard and Kit Franklyn are the fictitious characters named in the subjects, alongside medical examiners, forensic pathologists and psychologists. Louisiana and Cajuns also appear, under mystery and medical thriller tags. Cajun Nights (1988) is the first title, followed by Blood on the Bayou (1991), No Mardi Gras For The Dead (1992) and New Orleans Requiem (1994). Assassination at Bayou Sauvage (2017) is the final listed book.

Dennis Palumbo writes the Daniel Rinaldi mystery series, with psychologists, murder and investigation among the catalogue subjects. Mirror Image (2010), Fever Dream (2011), Night Terrors (2013), Phantom Limb (2014) and Head Wounds (2018) are listed, and Panic Attack (2021) is the newest. The catalogue also carries City Wars (1979) and Writing from the Inside Out (2000), with subjects that include American science fiction and handbooks on authorship. From Crime to Crime (2008) and The Power of Uncertainty (2011) complete the 10 titles.

Lois Greiman writes historical romance and mystery. The catalogue lists 45 books published between 1993 and 2018, from Surrender My Heart (1993) to Unsweetened (2018). Chrissy McMullen is the recurring figure in A Chrissy McMullen Mystery; other series include Men Of The Mist, Witches of Mayfair, Sedonia, Hope Springs, SD, Heart on the Run and Home in the Hills. Subjects record Scotland, manners and customs, women sleuths, psychotherapists and women ranchers.

Three books make up Edith Eger's catalogue, all of them rooted in her survival of the Holocaust and her later career in psychology. Eger was born in Slovakia, practises in the United States, and specialises in post-traumatic stress disorder. The Choice (2017) opens the run, The Gift followed in 2020, and The Ballerina of Auschwitz arrived in 2024. Personal narrative, concentration camp testimony, suffering and happiness are the subjects across all three.

Tara Taylor Quinn writes romance and romantic suspense, with 144 books catalogued from Yesterday's Secrets (1993) to Colton's Covert Challenge (2026). Colton's Protection Detail is listed for 2027. Subjects include contemporary romance, pregnancy, women lawyers, single mothers, missing persons and Arizona. Quinn's series include Sierra's Web, Where Secrets Are Safe, Parent Portal, Cottages on Ocean Breeze, Coltons of Dark Canyon, Chapman Files, It Happened in Comfort Cove and Hayden Sisters. Shelter Valley Stories also appears in the listing.

Martin J. Smith is the author of the Memory series. Catalogue subjects include psychological thrillers, the fictitious character Jim Christensen, psychologists, recovered memory, amnesia, Alzheimer's disease, single fathers and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Time Release (1997) opens the catalogue, followed by Shadow Image (1998) and Straw Men (2001). The 11 listed books run to 27 Knots (2026).

Val McDermid

55 books• 13 series

Val McDermid, born 4 June 1955, is a Scottish crime writer whose work falls under the Tartan Noir label and is noted for unflinching violence. The catalogue runs to 55 books, from Report For Murder (1987) to Winter: The Story of a Season (2026). McDermid's best-known novels follow clinical psychologist Tony Hill and his colleagues in the police, a sequence televised as Wire in the Blood from 2002 to 2008. Inspector Karen Pirie, Lindsay Gordon and Kate Brannigan are the other named series. Awards on record include the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger and the Cartier Diamond Dagger.

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.

Caleb Carr writes history and historical crime fiction. The Alienist (1994) introduces Dr Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist working serial murder cases, and The Angel of Darkness (1997) follows. Non-fiction on war and national security - America Invulnerable (1988), The Devil Soldier (1992), The Lessons of Terror (2002) - fills much of the rest. Thirteen titles are catalogued, with entries dated through 2024.

Vicki Lewis Thompson, born 11 October 1950, is an American romance novelist who has also published as Cory Kenyon and, with Mary Tate Engels, as Corey Keaton. The catalogue holds 174 books from Mingled Hearts (1984) to When a Cowboy Falls Hard (2026), including Promise Me Sunshine (1984), When Angels Dance (1985) and The Fix-It Man (1986). Sons of Chance, McGavin Brothers, NERDS, Rowdy Ranch, Thunder Mountain Brotherhood, Buckskin Brotherhood, Wild About You and Hex are among the series. Cowboys, westerns, Harlequin Blaze, paranormal romance and werewolves appear in the subjects.

Kate Rhodes is a British poet and novelist, born in London in 1964. Rhodes published the poetry collection Reversal in 2005 as the first volume of the Enitharmon New Poets Series, after a Hawthornden Literary Institute fellowship in 2004 and years teaching English in a sixth form college and lecturing at university. Crime fiction followed, in the Alice Quentin novels and the DI Ben Kitto series, with women psychologists and murder investigation among the subjects. The catalogue holds 16 titles to 2025, taking in Crossbones Yard (2012), A Killing of Angels (2013), The Winter Foundlings (2014), Blood Symmetry (2016), Hell Bay (2018) and Burnt Island (2019). Deadman's Pool is dated 2025.

Two books by Howard Roughan are catalogued: The Up and Comer (2001) and The Promise of a Lie (2004). Both are thrillers with a legal and psychological cast, taking in lawyers, extortion, deception, false testimony and the relationship between psychotherapist and patient. No further title has been catalogued since 2004.