Deanna Raybourn Books in Order
This page gathers all of Deanna Raybourn's books in order, with series lists, summaries, reading order help, and tips on where to start with her historical mysteries and thrillers.
Last updated: January 27, 2026
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Publication Order
28 books
A Ghastly Catastrophe
by Deanna Raybourn
2026
Veronica and Stoker investigate when a young man's body, drained of blood, is found in a carriage outside Highgate Cemetery and a second victim soon follows. Their hunt for a secretive society promising immortality leads them to a charismatic "vampire", a witchy partner, and old friends.
Kills Well with Others
by Deanna Raybourn
2025
Now officially retired and slightly bored, the same quartet is pulled back in when the Museum asks them to investigate a leak and an Eastern European crime lord tied to old operations. Racing across Europe, they juggle hot flashes, false passports, and a very personal hit list.
A Grave Robbery
by Deanna Raybourn
2024
Asked to fit a clockwork mechanism into a lifelike "wax" Sleeping Beauty for Lord Rosemorran's collection, Stoker discovers the figure is actually a perfectly preserved corpse. He and Veronica follow the trail through macabre laboratories and travelling shows to a killer obsessed with cheating death.
A Sinister Revenge
by Deanna Raybourn
2023
When Stoker's brother Tiberius receives a chilling warning and clippings about the deaths of former friends, he fears someone is targeting an old group known as the Seven Sinners. Veronica and Stoker join a tense reunion at his Devon estate to flush out the avenger.
Killers of a Certain Age
by Deanna Raybourn
2022
After forty years as elite assassins for a clandestine outfit called the Museum, Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie are gifted a luxury retirement cruise. When they realize the trip is actually a hit on them, the four friends turn their lethal skills on their former employers.
An Impossible Impostor
by Deanna Raybourn
2022
Veronica and Stoker travel to Hathaway Hall to investigate a man who may be the long lost heir thought dead in the eruption of Krakatoa. As questions about his identity mount, Veronica confronts painful pieces of her own past that refuse to stay buried.
An Unexpected Peril
by Deanna Raybourn
2021
Tasked with curating a memorial exhibition for a pioneering woman climber, Veronica suspects the celebrated death on an Alpenwald peak was no accident. When the visiting princess of that tiny nation vanishes, Veronica is strong armed into impersonating her while she and Stoker hunt a murderer.
A Mysterious Season
by Deanna Raybourn
2020
A Mysterious Season collects four Lady Julia Grey novellas set around English holidays, from Christmas and Midsummer to Twelfth Night and Bonfire Night. Each story drops Julia and Brisbane into a compact mystery that also charts milestones in their married life.
A Murderous Relation
by Deanna Raybourn
2020
London in 1888 is gripped by Jack the Ripper when Veronica and Stoker are asked to quietly retrieve a compromising gift tied to Prince Albert Victor from an exclusive brothel. Working undercover, they uncover a plot that links royal scandal to the Whitechapel killings.
A Dangerous Collaboration
by Deanna Raybourn
2019
Veronica agrees, somewhat grudgingly, to pose as Lord Templeton Vane's fiancée at a house party on a remote Cornish island in exchange for access to a rare butterfly. There she and Stoker probe the three year old disappearance of the bride who vanished on her wedding day.
A Treacherous Curse
by Deanna Raybourn
2018
Rumors of a mummy's curse swirl when Stoker's former expedition partner disappears from an Egyptian dig, along with a priceless diadem. Veronica and Stoker investigate, following jackal headed sightings and ugly gossip into a case that threatens to drag Stoker's past into the light.
A Perilous Undertaking
by Deanna Raybourn
2017
Veronica is summoned to London's secretive Curiosity Club and asked to save art patron Miles Ramsforth from the gallows after his mistress is murdered. With only days before his execution, she and Stoker dig through bohemian studios and royal secrets to find the real killer.
A Curious Beginning
by Deanna Raybourn
2015
After her guardian's death, outspoken lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell plans to leave England for good. An attempted abduction and the murder of the German baron who tried to help her instead send Veronica and brooding natural historian Stoker on the run to solve the crime.
Twelfth Night
by Deanna Raybourn
2014
Gathered at Bellmont Abbey to stage Twelfth Night revels, the March family are interrupted when an abandoned baby is found nestled in the armor of Saint George. Julia and Brisbane trace the child's origins and confront an impossible choice that could reshape their future.
Night of a Thousand Stars
by Deanna Raybourn
2014
Runaway bride Poppy Hammond bolts from her wedding with the help of a charming curate who is not what he seems. When he later vanishes, Poppy and her lady's maid chase him eastward into a tangle of lost treasure, political plots, and unexpected romance.
Bonfire Night
by Deanna Raybourn
2014
Julia and Brisbane accept a peculiar inheritance that requires them to spend All Hallows' Eve through Bonfire Night in a lonely country house. Local legends, eerie lights, and a missing lady's maid turn a supposed family holiday into a tense, ghost tinged investigation.
Whisper of Jasmine
by Deanna Raybourn
2013
On New Year's Eve 1914, notorious hostess Delilah Drummond throws a glittering London party where dreamy Evangeline Merriweather meets intense archaeologist Gabriel Stark. A borrowed gown, a whisper of jasmine, and one reckless night change both of their lives.
Midsummer Night
by Deanna Raybourn
2013
On the eve of Julia and Brisbane's long awaited wedding at Bellmont Abbey, village revels, pagan customs, and the chaos of the March clan collide. When a dangerous figure from the past appears, their celebration threatens to become a fatal trap.
Far in the Wilds
by Deanna Raybourn
2013
In 1918 Kenya, professional hunter Ryder White prefers the company of the savannah to that of other expatriates. Guiding a European prince on a leopard hunt, he finds the job far more dangerous and revealing than another well paid safari.
City of Jasmine
by Deanna Raybourn
2013
Famed aviatrix Evangeline Starke is circling the globe in a biplane when a photograph suggests her husband Gabriel, thought lost on the Lusitania, is alive in Damascus. Chasing the truth leads her into relic hunts, desert dangers, and a chance to reclaim love.
A Spear of Summer Grass
by Deanna Raybourn
2013
After a scandal in Paris, glamorous Delilah Drummond is exiled to her stepfather's remote Kenyan estate to let gossip die down. There she plunges into the gin soaked expat world, clashes with enigmatic guide Ryder White, and faces a murder that forces real change.
Silent Night
by Deanna Raybourn
2012
Julia expects a cozy Christmas at Bellmont Abbey with Brisbane and her eccentric family, but missing jewels, unsettling newcomers, and a prowling "ghost" suggest an old crime is being reenacted. She must solve the puzzle before the holiday turns deadly again.
The Dark Enquiry
by Deanna Raybourn
2011
Back in London as newlyweds, Julia longs to be a full partner in Brisbane's enquiry work. When her brother secretly hires him to investigate a spiritualist circle, Julia pushes into a case laced with seances, espionage, and blackmail.
The Dead Travel Fast
by Deanna Raybourn
2010
A respectable but restless writer, Theodora Lestrange flees her predictable Edinburgh life for a friend's Carpathian castle, intending to finish a book. Instead she is drawn into the eerie orbit of Count Andrei Dragulescu and rumors of very real monsters.
Dark Road to Darjeeling
by Deanna Raybourn
2010
On their extended honeymoon, Julia and Brisbane are persuaded to detour to a remote tea plantation in India where Portia's friend Jane has been recently widowed. Amid family tensions and colonial gossip, they probe whether Jane's husband died by accident or design.
Silent on the Moor
by Deanna Raybourn
2009
Julia ignores Brisbane's warnings and follows him to Grimsgrave Hall, a crumbling estate on the Yorkshire moors where he has become entangled with the proud Allenby family. Poison, old obsessions, and buried legacies give her the deadliest case yet.
Silent in the Sanctuary
by Deanna Raybourn
2007
Fresh from a six month sojourn in Italy, Julia returns to her family's abbey for Christmas and finds the halls crammed with relatives, guests, and one infuriating Nicholas Brisbane. When a man is murdered in the chapel, they reluctantly partner again to unmask a killer.
Silent in the Grave
by Deanna Raybourn
2006
At a London dinner party, Lady Julia Grey's quiet, sickly husband collapses and dies, apparently of natural causes. When a private enquiry agent hints at murder, Julia joins the investigation and uncovers secrets in her marriage, her household, and herself.
Where should I start?
If you want Victorian gothic mysteries: Silent in the Grave → Silent in the Sanctuary → Silent on the Moor → Dark Road to Darjeeling.
If you prefer a brisk Victorian adventure series: A Curious Beginning → A Perilous Undertaking → A Treacherous Curse.
If you love 1920s historical romance and adventure: Far in the Wilds → A Spear of Summer Grass → Whisper of Jasmine → City of Jasmine.
If you enjoy contemporary thrillers with older heroines: Killers of a Certain Age → Kills Well with Others.
If you want shorter visits with recurring characters: Silent Night → Midsummer Night → Twelfth Night → Bonfire Night.
Author bio
Deanna Raybourn is a sixth generation Texan who was born in Fort Worth in 1968 and grew up in San Antonio, a city she still calls part of her heart. As a child she was surrounded by stories, from English children's books given by her grandmother to the mysteries and adventure novels she borrowed by the armful. She has said she cannot remember a time when she was not making up tales of her own.
She stayed close to home for college, double majored in English and history at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and gravitated toward Shakespeare and every odd corner of the history curriculum she could fit into her schedule.(utsa.edu) Those classes fed the historical sweep of her later fiction, while workshops and long research papers taught her how to build a story from the ground up.
College also changed her life in quieter ways. She met the fellow student who would become her husband, married him on the same day as her graduation, and soon took a job teaching high school English in San Antonio.(utsa.edu) For three years she juggled lesson plans with late night writing sessions before leaving the classroom to have a baby and give full time writing a serious try.
Raybourn finished her first novel at twenty three, during a summer break, then spent fourteen years writing book after book without selling one.(utsa.edu) Those years of rejection hardened her persistence more than any formal training could have done. When a commercial fiction imprint finally offered her a multi book deal, she was ready.
Her debut, Silent in the Grave, appeared in 2006 and introduced Victorian widow Lady Julia Grey and private enquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane. Set in smoky London drawing rooms and shadowy music rooms, the novel follows Julia as she decides her husband's death was not natural and insists on helping investigate the truth. The book went on to win a major RITA award for a novel with strong romantic elements and was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel.(en.wikipedia.org)
Over the next several years she followed Julia and Brisbane through more novels and holiday novellas that send them from English country houses to the moors of Yorkshire and the tea country of India. Readers tend to come for the murders and stay for the March family's chaos, the dry humor, and Julia's gradual move from sheltered aristocrat to true partner in the work of detection.
Between Lady Julia books, Raybourn began to stretch into other corners of historical fiction. The Dead Travel Fast spins a gothic tale in the Carpathian Mountains, while A Spear of Summer Grass, Far in the Wilds, Whisper of Jasmine, and City of Jasmine jump to the 1910s and 1920s, following scandalous socialites, aviatrixes, and explorers through Kenya, Damascus, and beyond. Those novels keep the witty voice but add sun baked landscapes, colonial politics, and a slightly darker edge.
In 2015 she launched a second long running series with A Curious Beginning, the first Veronica Speedwell mystery. Veronica is a lepidopterist and unapologetically independent woman in late Victorian England, teamed with scarred natural historian Revelstoke Templeton Vane, known as Stoker. Together they take on cases involving artists' colonies, Egyptian curses, missing princesses, wax museums, and dangerous secret societies across books like A Treacherous Curse, A Dangerous Collaboration, A Sinister Revenge, A Grave Robbery, and A Ghastly Catastrophe.
Raybourn's first contemporary thriller, Killers of a Certain Age, arrived in 2022 and follows four women in their sixties who have spent four decades as assassins for a clandestine outfit called the Museum. When a retirement cruise turns out to be an attempt on their own lives, they turn their skills back on their former employers instead. The book debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and later won the Barry Award for Best Thriller, and the sequel, Kills Well with Others, sends the same quartet after an Eastern European crime boss while they hunt a traitor inside the Museum.(deannaraybourn.com)
Across all of these stories runs a clear set of obsessions: smart, stubborn women who claim their own work; partnerships built on banter and hard won trust; and a relish for history that shows up in small, vivid details rather than long lectures. Her books usually balance danger with a streak of quiet comedy, whether the scene involves Victorian seances or modern hit women hiding on a cruise ship.
Raybourn now lives in Virginia with her husband and their daughter, still writing full time and still talking openly about the years when publication seemed unlikely.(deannaraybourn.com) She often describes herself not as a historian but as a storyteller who happens to love research, and her work keeps inviting readers into that blend of curiosity, imagination, and lived in historical worlds.
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