Veterinarians book series in reading order

by James Herriot

by Hugh Lofting

James Herriot wrote about veterinary practice in the English countryside, mixing memoir, anecdote and animal stories. The catalogue holds 39 titles published between 1970 and 2023, among them All Creatures Great and Small (1972), All Things Bright and Beautiful (1974) and the 2023 collection The Wonderful World of James Herriot. All Creatures Great and Small is the best known sequence, and Herriot also wrote children's books such as Bonny's Big Day. The books are short at a median of 180 pages, and the catalogue is closed.

Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer of children's and young adult novels. Speak (1999) brought the first wide recognition; the American Library Association gave Anderson its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2010, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award followed in 2023. The catalogue holds 40 books published between 1996 and 2025, among them the Vet Volunteers series, the Seeds of America trilogy and Fever 1793 (2000). Veterinary medicine, animal rescue, schools and history recur as subjects.

English village life is Rebecca Shaw's subject: clergy, the parish church, veterinary practice and the people of two invented places, Turnham Malpas and Barleybridge. Shaw wrote 28 novels for Orion Publishing Group and sold more than a million copies, plus three standalone ebooks. The New Rector (1994) opens Tales from Turnham Malpas, and Talk of the Village (1996), Village Secrets (1998), Scandal In The Village (1999) and Village Gossip (2000) follow. The catalogue holds 29 titles at a median of 280 pages.

Eileen Brady writes the Kate Turner, DVM mysteries, in which a veterinarian in New York State keeps ending up inside murder investigations. Seven books carry the series, opening with Muzzled (2014) and running through Unleashed (2014), Chained (2017), Penned (2018), Saddled with Murder (2020) and Last But Not Leashed (2022) to Murders of a Feather (2023). Animal puns title every book. Nothing new has been catalogued since 2023.

Contemporary romance is the territory of Jill Shalvis, an American novelist whose work includes the Lucky Harbor books. The catalogue records 140 books, opening with Summer of Fire in 1996 and extending to Falling into You in 2026. Heartbreaker Bay, Wildstone, Animal Magnetism, Sunrise Cove, Cedar Ridge and Sky High Air are among the series. Firefighters, bush pilots, sisters, California and Washington state appear in the subject tags, and Shalvis is still publishing.

Catherine Anderson writes romance across historical, contemporary and western settings. The Comanche books, the Kendrick, Coulter and Harrigan family novels, Mystic Creek and the Valance Family form the series work, with Oregon ranches and Colorado recurring in the subjects. Forty-two books are catalogued between Coming Up Roses (1970) and Maple Leaf Harvest in 2021.

Karen Rose Smith is an American author born in Pennsylvania whose first romance appeared in 1992. Smith has written for Meteor/Kismet, Kensington, Silhouette and Harlequin, and has indie-published novels and short story collections as e-books. Awards include New Jersey's Golden Leaf Award for short contemporary romance (twice), CRA's Award of Excellence and the Golden Quill for Traditional Romance. The catalogue lists 124 books from A Man Worth Loving (1992) to If Books Could Kill (2026). Mystery lines include Caprice De Luca Mystery and Daisy's Tea Garden Mysteries.

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.

Cynthia Baxter's catalogue holds 58 books published between 1981 and 2020. Mystery and detective fiction leads the recorded subjects, which name women sleuths, murder, private investigators, women veterinarians, twins and the fictitious character Jessica Popper; horror tales and children's fiction also appear. Once There Was a Fat Girl (1981) is the listed first title and Game of Cones (2020) the most recent. Series credited to Baxter include Reigning Cats & Dogs Mystery, Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery, Murder Packs A Suitcase Mysteries, Pratt Twins, Bubble Gum Gang Mysteries and Dark Moon Legacy. The run is likely complete.