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Barbara Allan Books in Order

Explore Barbara Allan books in order, with Trash 'n' Treasures reading order, quick summaries, series notes, and easy guidance on where to start.

Last updated: June 9, 2026

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23 books

Antiques Roadkill

by Barbara Allan

2006

Newly divorced Brandy Borne returns to Serenity and clashes with a crooked antiques dealer who cheated her mother. When he turns up dead in a hit-and-run, Brandy and Vivian become the town's favorite suspects.

Antiques Maul

by Barbara Allan

2007

Brandy and Vivian open a booth at Serenity's new antiques mall, hoping business will be easier than family life. Then a merchant dies in what looks like a dog attack, and the case quickly stops looking simple.

Antiques Flee Market

by Barbara Allan

2008

Christmas business is booming at the mall, but holiday cheer fades when dealer Walter Yeager dies and a valuable first edition vanishes. Brandy and Vivian dig past small-town gossip to see whether the death was really natural.

Antiques Bizarre

by Barbara Allan

2010

With Serenity flooded, a church bazaar seems like the perfect fundraiser until Vivian secures a priceless Faberge egg. Poisoning, a second death, and a roomful of bidders turn charity into a very public murder case.

Antiques Knock-Off

by Barbara Allan

2011

When prickly busybody Connie Grimes is murdered, Vivian shocks everyone by confessing. While Mother makes herself at home in jail, a pregnant Brandy sorts through fake antiques, buried grudges, and one very dangerous lie.

Antiques Disposal

by Barbara Allan

2012

A storage-unit auction leaves Brandy and Vivian with a rare cornet, some dubious bargains, and a corpse rolled inside a rug. When the horn disappears and another body surfaces, their latest treasure hunt turns nasty.

Antiques Chop

by Barbara Allan

2013

Reality show fame arrives when Brandy and Vivian begin filming Antiques Sleuths in a house linked to an old axe murder. When the producer is killed in eerily similar fashion, the cameras capture more than they expected.

Antiques Slay Ride

by Barbara Allan

2013

In this holiday novella, Brandy and Vivian chase a trove of Christmas collectibles and find the owner dead instead. Rival dealers, unhappy relatives, and a house full of festive loot give them plenty of suspects.

Antiques Con

by Barbara Allan

2014

Brandy and Vivian head to New York to sell a rare Superman drawing at a comic-book convention. A hotel break-in and a murder committed with an award pen leave them sorting through collectors, creators, and crooks.

Antiques Fruitcake

by Barbara Allan

2014

This short holiday mystery sends Brandy into community theater chaos when a leading lady dies after eating a piece of prop fruitcake. Vivian is in the middle of the production, so solving the case becomes very personal.

Antiques St. Nicked

by Barbara Allan

2015

During Serenity's holiday stroll, a man dressed as Santa is murdered and the charity money disappears. Brandy and Vivian have to cut through Christmas chaos fast if they want peace on earth, or at least in town.

Antiques Swap

by Barbara Allan

2015

While filming the pilot for Antiques Sleuths at Serenity's swap meet, Brandy lands in the arms of an old flame. When his wife is found murdered, gossip explodes and Brandy and Vivian start prying into a very secret circle.

Antiques Fate

by Barbara Allan

2016

Vivian's one-woman Macbeth brings Brandy and Sushi to Old York's English-style festival. Before the show can really begin, a theater owner dies onstage and the weekend turns into a dangerous village whodunit.

Antiques Frame

by Barbara Allan

2018

Life after the reality show gets worse when Brandy finds Tony Cassato's not-quite-ex-wife dead and gets blamed for the crime. With Brandy in jail, Vivian has to push past feuds, jealousy, and bad blood to clear her.

Antiques Ho-Ho-Homicides

by Barbara Allan

2018

This festive collection gathers three Christmas cases for Brandy, Vivian, and Sushi. Murder crashes pageants, workshops, and holiday celebrations, but the Bornes are still determined to wrap up every last clue.

Antiques Wanted

by Barbara Allan

2018

Vivian decides to run for county sheriff, dragging Brandy into campaign duty at an assisted-living home. When a donor dies in a blast and more deaths follow, the election season turns grim in a hurry.

Antiques Ravin'

by Barbara Allan

2019

Now sheriff, Vivian heads to the town of Antiqua during an Edgar Allan Poe festival after a string of odd break-ins. A dead waitress, rare Poe memorabilia, and a growing pile of literary clues make this case especially eerie.

Antiques Fire Sale

by Barbara Allan

2020

A visit to the historic Wentworth Mansion ends in fire, ruin, and the death of its caretaker, who once mattered to Vivian. When another body appears, Mother and Brandy start treating the blaze as a cover for murder.

Antiques Carry on

by Barbara Allan

2021

Vivian drags Brandy to London to meet her new editor, and the trip goes off the rails almost immediately. A murder abroad sends them home, but the case keeps following them through Serenity.

Antiques Liquidation

by Barbara Allan

2022

Vivian wakes Brandy at 2 a.m. for a shady pre-auction buying trip, and they come home with dead stock and trouble. Soon the auctioneer is murdered, a valuable toy ark vanishes, and an old mystery rises with a skeleton.

Antiques Foe

by Barbara Allan

2023

Vivian is thrilled to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster, right up until the questions turn nasty. After the podcaster is found dead in her hotel room, Brandy has to clear Mother before a new killer strikes again.

Antiques Slay Belles

by Barbara Allan

2024

Five days before Christmas, Brandy and Vivian prepare a holiday antiques talk for the country club. When a local gossip collapses face-first into plum pudding, the season's social event turns into a fresh murder case.

Antiques Round-Up

by Barbara Allan

2025

Hoping to stock up on Western antiques, Brandy and Vivian head to Tranquility, Texas for a citywide yard sale. Car trouble, jail trouble, and a dead banker make the trip feel less like shopping and more like a showdown.

Where should I start?

If you want the series from the start: Antiques RoadkillAntiques MaulAntiques Flee Market
If you like the reality-show stretch: Antiques ChopAntiques ConAntiques Swap
If you want holiday cases: Antiques Slay RideAntiques St. NickedAntiques Slay Belles
If you want the newest run: Antiques Carry onAntiques LiquidationAntiques FoeAntiques Round-Up

Author bio

Barbara Allan is the shared pen name of Barbara Collins and Max Allan Collins, a husband-and-wife writing team whose funniest mysteries come out of Muscatine, Iowa. Max was born and raised there, and he and Barbara met as students at Muscatine Community College. That local grounding matters, because the Barbara Allan books are full of small-town habits, river-town flavor, community theater energy, and the kind of gossip that can turn into a murder case by lunchtime.

Max came to storytelling early. As a kid he wanted to be a cartoonist, and a letter from Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould gave that dream a real jolt. By his early teens he had shifted hard toward mystery writing, and he never really looked back. Over the years he built a huge career in novels, comics, screenplays, film work, and tie-in fiction, while staying based in the town where he started.

Barbara came into print along a different path.

She made her name as a mystery short story writer, with work appearing in anthologies such as Murder Most Delicious, Deadly Housewives, and the Cat Crimes books. Several of her stories were chosen for the first three volumes of The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, and she co-edited Lethal Ladies. Her own collection, Too Many Tomcats, shows the playful, sharp-edged side of her writing, especially her fondness for cats, clever setups, and endings that land with a sly snap.

When Barbara and Max started writing together, they did not simply split the difference between their separate styles. They built something looser, funnier, and more openly chaotic. Under the Barbara Allan name they launched the Trash 'n' Treasures mysteries with Antiques Roadkill, introducing Brandy Borne, her impossible mother Vivian, and the little dog Sushi. Readers tend to come for the whodunits, then stay for the mother-daughter friction, the antiques lore, and the sense that the books know exactly how ridiculous murder can look in a small town.

Their collaboration also reaches beyond that series. Together they wrote the thriller Regeneration and the comic Cold War adventure Bombshell, which imagines Marilyn Monroe caught in a global crisis. Max's solo work is much broader, from Road to Perdition to the long-running Nate Heller and Quarry books, but Barbara Allan has its own feel. These stories are warmer, chattier, and more domestic, happy to mix crime with stage business, collectible oddities, family squabbles, and the serious business of finding a bargain before somebody else does.

That tone connected with readers.

Antiques Flee Market picked up a Romantic Times award for humorous mystery, and the series kept growing through full-length novels, holiday stories, and later books that send Brandy and Vivian to conventions, festivals, London, and Texas. Even when the setting shifts, the heart of the books stays the same: a practical daughter, a theatrical mother, and a mystery that gets messier the more they meddle.

The pair have stayed closely tied to Muscatine for years, living and working there with their son Nathan. In recent years their collaboration has even moved onto the screen with Death by Fruitcake, a film drawn from their holiday mystery world. That feels fitting. Barbara Allan has always been about two writers working side by side, using familiar places, sharp humor, and a lot of lived-in detail to make cozy mysteries that are a little unruly, very human, and easy to sink into.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 23 Barbara Allan Books in Order (Complete List 2026)