Virginia book series in reading order

by Frederick Ramsay

by Lauren Brooke

by Rita Mae Brown

by Donna Andrews

Jane Peart wrote suspense, historical fiction and romance for both secular and Christian readers, and died in 2007. Before writing full time, Peart attended college in New England and worked as an airline attendant. Brides of Montclair heads the series list, with Westward Dreams, American Quilt, Orphan Train West and Edgecliffe Manor completing five recorded lines. Plantation life and Virginia appear in the subject record alongside orphans, women pioneers and Christian life. The catalogue holds 51 titles dated 1980 to 2004, averaging 230 pages.

Jude Deveraux

78 books• 14 series

Historical and contemporary romance make up Jude Deveraux's 78 catalogued books, many following the Montgomery and Taggert families across generations. Edilean, James River, Summerhouse, Nantucket Brides, Peregrine, Providence Falls and the Medlar Mystery books are among her series. The catalogue begins with The Enchanted Land (1978), runs densest through the 1980s, and reaches Order of Royals in 2026.

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.

Rita Mae Brown

76 books• 7 series

Rita Mae Brown's catalogue reaches 77 books and splits between literary fiction and mystery. Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) belongs to the early work, catalogued under lesbian fiction. The Mrs. Murphy mysteries pair Harry Haristeen with her cats, and the Sister Jane books follow Jane Arnold and fox hunting. Runnymede is a third sequence. Clawed and Dangerous is the newest title, and Pawsible Suspects is scheduled for 2027.

Frederick Ramsay wrote 20 mysteries published from Artscape (2004) to Countdown (2018). Ike Schwartz is the recurring character of the Ike Schwartz Mystery series, and sheriffs and Virginia appear among the subjects. Frederick Ramsay also wrote the Jerusalem Mystery, Botswana Mystery and Jesse Sutherlin Mystery series, and historical mystery is a listed subject. Buffalo Mountain, Judas and Stranger Room date from 2007 and 2008. The catalogue is likely complete.

Lauren Brooke is the name on Heartland, a children's series about a Virginia horse farm where rescued and traumatised horses are rehabilitated. The catalogue holds 38 books published between 2000 and 2010, split across Heartland, its Heartland Special volumes and the boarding-school spin-off Chestnut Hill. Coming Home (2000) opens the run and Far and Away (2010) closes it. Teenage girls, horsemanship, grief and fathers and daughters head the subject list.

Donna Andrews is an American mystery writer with two award-winning amateur sleuth series, Meg Langslow and Turing Hopper. Subjects mark the books as humorous mysteries with women sleuths. Murder With Peacocks (1999) is the earliest catalogued title, and later titles include Murder With Puffins (2000), You've Got Murder (2002) and We'll Always Have Parrots (2003). Jay to the World (2026) is the newest, and Andrews is still publishing.

Virginia wine country is where Ellen Crosby sets her mysteries, around the vintner Lucie Montgomery and the murders that turn up on the estate. The Merlot Murders and The Chardonnay Charade both appear in 2006, and the series keeps its naming pattern through The Bordeaux Betrayal, The Riesling Retribution, The Vintage Vendetta and The Sauvignon Secret. Sophie Medina heads a second series. Eighteen titles run to Deeds Left Undone in 2025.

Liliana Hart has 100 books in the catalogue, from Dane (2011) to Done Dirty (2026), with Bone of my Bones due in 2027. The listing covers women-sleuth mysteries, suspense, contemporary romance and erotic romance, with subjects set in Virginia, Montana and Texas. Series include J.J. Graves Mystery, Addison Holmes Mysteries, MacKenzies of Montana, MacKenzie Security, Harley and Davidson, Laurel Valley, Dynamis Security, Mabel McCoy Mystery, Gravediggers and ALPHA Squadron. Other 2011 titles include All About Eve, Catch Me If You Can and Whiskey Rebellion.

Emilie Richards has 78 books in the catalogue, from Angel and the Saint (1985) to Peaks and Valleys (2022), and no new title has appeared since. Richards is an American writer of contemporary romance and mystery novels. Series include MacDonald Sisters, Shenandoah Album, Tales of the Pacific, Goddesses Anonymous, Happiness Key, Iron Lace, Whiskey Islands and Ministry Is Murder. Brendan's Song (1985), Gilding the Lily (1985) and Something So Right (1986) are among the early titles. Subjects include female friendship, mothers and daughters, sisters and family life.

Harry Kraus writes Christian medical suspense, with physicians, patients and heart transplantation among the recurring subjects. The catalogue lists 19 books from Stainless Steal Hearts (1994) to Between the Gods and Men (2016). Kraus's series is Claire McCall. Other titles include Fated Genes (1996), Lethal Mercy (1997) and Breathing Grace (2007). The 16 books with page counts have a median length of 380 pages.

Robert Bausch (1945-2018) was an American fiction writer who published nine novels and one short story collection. He taught English at Northern Virginia Community College, and before that at institutions including the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins, George Mason and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A Hole in the Earth (2000), his fourth novel, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Washington Post Favorite Book of the Year; The Gypsy Man (2002) won him the Fellowship of Southern Writers award for fiction. The catalogue runs from On The Way Home (1982) to Far as the Eye Can See (2014).

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.

Librarians and murder investigation sit at the core of Victoria Gilbert's Blue Ridge Library Mysteries, set in Virginia. Nineteen titles are catalogued from Crown of Ice (2014) to Death on the Books (2026), with the Booklovers B&B Mysteries, Hunter and Clewe, Campus Sleuth Mysteries and the Mirror of Immortality series beside the library books. Town life and painters also appear in the subject tags.

Carl Weber

38 books• 11 series

Carl Weber, born 1964, is an American author, publisher and television writer and producer who owns the publishing house Urban Books and formerly owned the Urban Knowledge bookstore chain. The catalogue holds 38 books of African American urban fiction and romance, from Lookin' For Luv (2000) and Married Men (2001) to Dating to Die (2026). Weber's novels became the films The Man in 3B (2015), The Preacher's Son (2017), The Choir Director (2018) and Influence (2020). The Family Business book series is the basis of the crime drama The Family Business (2018), and Weber created The Black Hamptons in 2022.

Barbara Michaels was a pen name of Barbara Louise Mertz (1927-2013), an American author who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters. Mertz earned a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1952, wrote the ancient Egypt histories Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs and Red Land, Black Land, and was best known for mystery and suspense novels including the Amelia Peabody series. The Barbara Michaels catalogue holds 29 books from The Master of Blacktower (1966) to Other Worlds (1999), among them Ammie, Come Home (1968). Gothic, supernatural and romantic suspense tags run through the subjects.

James L. Nelson

34 books• 6 series

Ships and sea warfare are James L. Nelson's material. Nelson writes naval historical fiction across the Isaac Biddlecomb novels of the American Revolution, the Thomas Marlowe books, the Samuel Bowater series, the Norsemen Saga and Blood, Steel, and Empire. Ship captains, naval operations and pirates recur throughout. Thirty-four catalogued titles run from By Force of Arms (1996) to Hispaniola Gold (2026).

Laura Benedict writes horror and suspense with a supernatural edge. Isabella Moon (2007) opens a catalogue of 11 books that ends at The Stranger Inside (2019), and Bliss House Novels is the series recorded under the name. Ghosts, missing children, criminal investigation, crime and family life appear in the subjects, with Virginia and Kentucky as settings. The median Benedict book runs 352 pages, and nothing new has been catalogued since 2019.

Horses and ranch life run through Laura Moore's catalogue: subjects record horse farms, stables, horsemen and horsewomen, ranches, the American West and Virginia, alongside contemporary romance. Moore's 11 books appeared between 2001 and 2017, from Chance Meeting and Ride a Dark Horse, both 2001, to Making Waves (2017). Two series are listed, Miller/Sheppard and the Rosewood Trilogy, and the run takes in Night Swimming (2003), In Your Eyes (2004), Believe in Me (2010), Trouble Me (2012), Once Tempted (2013), Once Tasted (2014) and Once Touched (2015).