South Africa book series in reading order

by Wilbur Smith

by James McClure

by Deon Meyer

by John Wilcox

Deon Meyer

23 books• 6 series

South Africa is the setting for Deon Meyer's crime novels. Benny Griessel heads the main series, with Mat Joubert, Lemmer and Thobela Mpayipheli leading the others, and Dead Before Dying (1999) opens the catalogue. Twenty-four books reach Leo in 2025, taking in missing persons, kidnapping, cold cases and vigilante justice.

Wilbur Smith was a British-South African novelist born in Northern Rhodesia. Smith's historical fiction covers four centuries of international involvement in Southern Africa. The catalogue lists 66 books, from When the Lion Feeds (1964) to Flashpoint (2026). Series include Courtney, Jack Courtney, Ancient Egypt, Hector Cross and Prey Zone. Recurring character listings include the Courtney family, Ballantyne and Hector Cross. David Churchill and Tom Harper each share the credit on 1 book. Subjects include Africa, Egypt, revenge, espionage and terrorism.

James McClure wrote the Kramer and Zondi Mystery police procedurals, set in South Africa, with Trompie Kramer and Mickey Zondi as the recorded fictional characters. The Steam Pig (1971) opens the catalogue of 15 books, followed by The Caterpillar Cop (1972) and The Gooseberry Fool (1974). The Sunday Hangman (1977) and The Blood of an Englishman (1980) are later titles. God It Was Fun (2014) is the last catalogued book.

J.M. Coetzee

32 books• 2 series

In the Heart of the Country (1976) opens the catalogue of J.M. Coetzee, a novelist, essayist and translator born in South Africa in 1940 and an Australian citizen since 2006. Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Life and Times of Michael K (1983), Foe (1986), Age Of Iron (1990) and The Master of Petersburg (1994) follow it, and Scenes from Provincial Life and the Jesus Trilogy are the two series inside the 32 books, which reach Speaking in Tongues (2025). Coetzee took the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003 and the Booker Prize twice, along with three Central News Agency Literary Awards, the Jerusalem Prize and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize. Coetzee lives in Adelaide.

Mike Nicol is a South African writer and journalist, born in Cape Town in 1951. The catalogue spans nearly five decades, from Among The Souvenirs (1978) to Falls the Shadow (2026), with 19 books in total. Nicol's series are the Revenge Trilogy and PI Fish Pescado and Vicki Kahn. South Africa, politics, history, biography, illegal arms transfers and thrillers are among the catalogue subjects. Horseman (1996) and The Ibis Tapestry (1998) also appear on the list.

Roger Smith, who also writes as James Rayburn and Max Wilde, is a thriller author whose books are linked to South Africa, including the Cape Town series. Catalogue subjects include criminals, thieves, fugitives, assassins, psychopaths and fathers and sons. The 11 listed titles begin with Mixed Blood (2009) and Wake Up Dead (2009). Dust Devils (2011), Capture (2012), Vile Blood (2012, as Max Wilde), Man Down (2014) and Nowhere (2016) follow. Ash (2019), written as James Rayburn, is the newest.

Damon Galgut

9 books

Damon Galgut, born in 1963, is a South African novelist and playwright. The Promise (2021) took the Booker Prize, after Galgut reached the shortlist twice before, in 2003 and 2010. Nine books carry the Galgut credit, opening with A Sinless Season (1985) and running through Small Circle of Beings (1988), The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991), The Quarry (1995), The Good Doctor (2003), The Impostor (2007), In a Strange Room (2010) and Arctic Summer (2014). Recorded subjects include South Africa, Namibia, young men, clergy, physicians and political fiction. The median recorded length is 215 pages across all nine.

Malla Nunn, born in 1963, is a Swaziland-born Australian screenwriter, film director and author. The Detective Emmanuel Cooper mysteries are set in South Africa and open with A Beautiful Place to Die (2008), followed by Let The Dead Lie (2010), Blessed Are the Dead (2012) and Present Darkness (2013). Nunn then turned to young adult fiction with the award-winning When the Ground Is Hard (2019) and Sugar Town Queens (2021). Six books are catalogued in all.

Alan Paton

20 books

South African writer and educator Alan Paton (11 January 1903 - 12 April 1988) opposed apartheid in both writing and activism. Paton's novels include Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) and Too Late the Phalarope (1953), and the short story The Waste Land also appears among the works. The Order of Ikhamanga in Gold was awarded to Paton after his death for literary service to the anti-apartheid cause. The catalogue lists 20 books, including Tales From a Troubled Land (1961), Hofmeyr (1962) and The Hero of Currie Road (2008).

G.A. Henty wrote historical adventure stories for young readers. The catalogue holds 109 Henty titles, opening with A Search for a Secret (1867) and closing at The Plague Ship (2002). War, military history and the conduct of life are the recurring subjects, and much of the work sits in England and the wider British past. Early titles include The March to Magdala (1868), Out on the Pampas (1870) and The Young Franc Tireurs (1872).

H. Rider Haggard

78 books• 6 series

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was an English writer of adventure romances set in exotic locations, Africa above all, and a pioneer of the lost world genre. The eighteen Allan Quatermain stories begin with King Solomon's Mines (1885), and Ayesha is the other named series. Haggard also worked on land reform across the British Empire. The catalogue holds 78 titles dated 1882 to 2013, from Cetywayo and His White Neighbours to a complete anthology, and covers novels, non-fiction and short fiction.

Bryce Courtenay

22 books• 5 series

Bryce Courtenay was a South African-Australian novelist and advertising director, and one of Australia's best-selling authors. The Power of One (1989) opened a catalogue of 22 titles that closed with The Silver Moon in 2014, taking in Tandia (1992), April Fool's Day (1993), the Potato Factory novels begun in 1995 and the Persimmon Tree books. Apartheid, boxing, prisons, the Second World War and the histories of Australia and South Africa run through the fiction.

Tony Park, born in 1964, is an Australian author of thrillers and non-fiction who has worked as a newspaper reporter, a public relations consultant and a government press secretary, and served 34 years in the Australian Army Reserve including a six-month tour in Afghanistan in 2002 as a public affairs officer. Africa is the setting for most of his fiction: Far Horizon (2004) opens a catalogue of 29 titles, and safari guides, poachers and the Second World War recur as subjects. King of Beasts (2026) is the newest title.

Jack Cavanaugh writes religious historical fiction, much of it in saga form. The American Family Portrait series is the longest run, opening the catalogue in 1994 with The Puritans and The Colonists and continuing through The Patriots, The Pioneers, The Adversaries and The Allies. Twenty-nine catalogued books reach I am NOT a Demon, also catalogued as Behold, in 2024, with Great Awakenings, Kingdom Wars, Songs in the Night, African Covenant and Book of Books alongside. The Reformation, the Second World War and South Africa supply further settings.

Matthew Hervey, an officer of the fictional British 6th Light Dragoons, carries Allan Mallinson's fiction from the late Napoleonic Wars into colonial campaigns in India, North America and South Africa. A Close Run Thing (1999) opens the sequence, followed by The Nizam's Daughters (2000), A Regimental Affair (2001), A Call to Arms (2002), The Sabre's Edge (2003) and Company of Spears (2006). Mallinson, born in 1949, is an English author and a retired British Army brigadier, and also writes military history, reaching the First World War. The catalogue holds 19 books through 2020, at a median 448 pages.

Sarah Lotz is a British-South African novelist working in thriller, suspense and horror. The catalogue holds 19 books published between 2008 and 2026, opening with Pompidou Posse (2008) and reaching How to Kill a Crime Writer (2026). Subject headings for the work take in South African fiction in English, survival, erotica, humour and children's fiction. Two series are credited to Lotz: Deadlands and A Girl Walks...

John Wilcox is the author of the Simon Fonthill series, catalogued under historical and war & military subjects. The Horns of the Buffalo (2004) is the earliest listed title, followed by The Road to Kandahar (2005), The Diamond Frontier (2006) and Last Stand at Majuba Hill (2007). Subjects include the British Army, the Zulu War of 1879, South Africa, India and China. The Guns of El Kebir (2007), Siege of Khartoum (2009) and The Shangani Patrol (2010) come later. The Arrow's Arc (2018) is the newest listed book.