Theater book series in reading order

by James Patterson

Edward Marston writes historical crime fiction, and the catalogue of 117 books runs to The Corpse on the Bristol Train (2026). Inspector Robert Colbeck, Elizabethan Theater, Domesday, Home Front Detective, Dillman & Masefield / Ocean Liner Mysteries, Christopher Redmayne, Captain Rawson and Bow Street Rivals are among the series. Nicholas Bracewell and Lord Westfield's Men appear in the subjects, together with theater, police work, railroad travel and World War I. Alan Saxon and Merlin Richards are further series, and Marston is still publishing.

Ann M. Martin

446 books• 24 series

Ann Matthews Martin, born August 12, 1955, is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction and a Smith College graduate. The Baby-Sitters Club, first published in 1986, is the series Martin is known best for, and Martin remains involved with the series and its spin-offs. The catalogue lists 446 books, beginning with Inside Out and Bummer Summer in 1983. Related lines include Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, California Diaries, Kids in Ms. Colman's Class, Main Street and Doll People. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel (2025) is the newest listed title.

Francine Pascal (née Rubin, 1932–2024) was an American author whose name is tied to the Sweet Valley books for young adults. Sweet Valley High anchored that collection, was adapted for television, and branched into spin-offs such as The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. The catalogue opens with Hangin' Out with Cici (1977) and also carries the Fearless series. Subjects include twins, sisters, high schools, friendship and dating. Most Sweet Valley books came out in the 1980s and 1990s, and several titles were re-released decades later.

Robertson Davies

31 books• 4 series

Robertson Davies was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist and professor, and the founding Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. The fiction comes in trilogies: Salterton, opening with Tempest-Tost (1951); Deptford, opening with Fifth Business (1970) and continuing through The Manticore (1972) and World of Wonders (1975); Cornish; and Toronto. Thirty-one titles are catalogued, essays, criticism and diaries among them, ending with A Celtic Temperament: Robertson Davies as Diarist (2015).

Ngaio Marsh

38 books• 3 series

Inspector Roderick Alleyn of the English police carries almost all of Ngaio Marsh's detective fiction. 38 catalogued books run from A Man Lay Dead (1934) to Money in the Morgue, taking in Enter a Murderer (1935), The Nursing Home Murder (1935), Death in Ecstasy (1936), Vintage Murder (1937) and Artists in Crime (1938). Marsh also published short stories and non-fiction. The catalogue is likely complete.

R.L. Stine

589 books• 64 series

Robert Lawrence Stine, born October 8, 1943, is an American novelist who writes horror fiction for children. Goosebumps, the series Stine created, sold more than 400 million copies in 35 languages and grew into a franchise of two television series, video games, comics and two feature films. Fear Street, Stine's horror sequence for teenagers, passed 80 million copies and was adapted for film. Stine has been called the Stephen King of children's literature. The listing runs to 590 titles, from How to Be Funny (1978), published as Jovial Bob Stine, to How to Train Your Dummy, scheduled for 2027.

Henning Mankell

35 books• 9 series

Kurt Wallander, a police detective in Sweden, is the figure Henning Mankell is known for. Mankell's catalogue holds 35 books, from A Bridge to the Stars (1990) to The Rock Blaster (2020), and takes in the Joel Gustafsson and Linda Wallander sequences, the Fredrik Welin novels, the Sofia Alface books, children's fiction and non-fiction. Faceless Killers (1991) and The Dogs of Riga (1992) are among the early titles.

Bruce Coville

132 books• 20 series

Bruce Coville has 132 books catalogued from The Foolish Giant (1978) to Aliens, Underwear, and Monsters (2022). Sarah's Unicorn (1979), Operation Sherlock (1986) and The Ghost in the Third Row (1987) are among the early titles. Series include My Teacher Is an Alien, Magic Shop, Unicorn Chronicles, I Was a 6th Grade Alien, Space Brat, Moongobble and Me, Nina Tanleven and A.I. Gang. Extraterrestrials, unicorns, monsters and humour fill the subjects. Coville, born May 16, 1950, writes young adult fiction and first published in 1977.

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) was an English comedian who wrote comic fiction for teenage girls. The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson sets down the diary of a teenager and her friends, the Ace Gang, starting with Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (1999); the first two books became the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. The Misadventures of Tallulah Casey follows Georgia's younger cousin. The catalogue holds 17 titles, ending with The Taming of the Tights (2013).

Elizabeth J. Duncan

14 books• 2 series

Elizabeth J. Duncan is a Canadian writer of cozy mysteries. Penny Brannigan, the series set in North Wales, is her main work: its opening book, The Cold Light of Mourning (2009), drew nominations for both the Agatha Award and the Arthur Ellis Award; A Small Hill to Die On took the Bony Blithe Award in 2013; and Never Laugh As a Hearse Goes By was shortlisted for that award in 2014. Shakespeare in the Catskills is the second series, and 14 books are catalogued through On Deadly Tides (2020).

Daisy Meadows is the name on the Rainbow Magic children's books, a fantasy line whose subjects include fairies, goblins, Jack Frost and two girls, Kirsty Tate and Rachel Walker. The catalogue opens in 2003 with colour-fairy titles such as Ruby the Red Fairy, Amber the Orange Fairy and Fern the Green Fairy, and runs to Nur the Vlogger Fairy (2023). Sub-series include the Weather, Jewel, Party, Pet Keeper, Dance, Ocean and Showtime Fairies. Magic Animal Friends appears under the same name.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

131 books• 11 series

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, born in 1933, wrote 131 catalogued books for children and young adults across half a century. Shiloh, a quartet of children's novels, won the Newbery Medal in 1992, and the Alice McKinley series became one of the most frequently challenged sets of books of the early 21st century. The Boy/Girl Battle, Bessledorf Mysteries, Witch Saga, Cat Pack and Roxie and the Hooligans fill out the list, which runs from To Make a Wee Moon (1969) to Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard's Roost (2018). Family life, schools, friendship and siblings are the constant subjects, at a median of 154 pages.

Rosie Thomas is the pen name of Janey King, a British journalist and romance novelist born in Denbigh, Wales, in 1947. Janey King has twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year award and ranks among the 100 authors most borrowed from United Kingdom libraries. The catalogue opens with Celebration and Love's Choice in 1982, and later novels include The White Dove (1986), Bad Girls Good Women (1988) and All My Sins Remembered (1992). Female friendship, London and family life appear in the subjects, and Illusionists is a listed series.

Viola Davis is an American actress and film producer, born in 1965, with two catalogued books. Corduroy Takes a Bow, published in 2018, is a 32-page children's book about the teddy bear Corduroy and the theatre. Finding Me followed in 2022, a memoir. Davis holds both the Triple Crown of Acting and the EGOT, was named by Time among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and again in 2017, and was placed ninth by The New York Times in 2020 on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.