Katherine Addison Books in Order
Part ofSarah Monette Books in OrderExplore Katherine Addison books in order, including Sarah Monette titles, with short summaries, series background, and tips on where to start.
Last updated: July 15, 2026
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Katherine Addison books in publication order
24 books
Mélusine
by Sarah Monette
2005
Wizard Felix Harrowgate falls from power when a magical catastrophe destroys his reputation and his sanity. Joined to thief and former assassin Mildmay Foxe, he flees a corrupt city and uncovers darker secrets than either of them expected.
The Virtu
by Sarah Monette
2006
Felix wants to return to Mélusine and restore the Virtu, the power source whose destruction ruined his life. Mildmay follows reluctantly, knowing the city holds grief, old masters, and new terrors waiting for them both.
A Companion to Wolves
by Elizabeth Bear
2007
Young nobleman Isolfr is chosen to become a wolfcarl, bonded to a giant telepathic wolf. That honor drags him into a brutal northern war, and forces him to rethink duty, love, and what kind of man he will be.
The Bone Key
by Sarah Monette
2007
This linked collection follows shy museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth through ghostly encounters, old grudges, and unnerving little mysteries. The stories are quiet, elegant, and creepy in exactly the right way.
The Mirador
by Sarah Monette
2007
Felix is back among the wizards of the Mirador, but power never stays simple in Mélusine. While Mildmay tries to keep him safe, spies, rival sorcerers, and dangerous loyalties turn the city into a trap.
Corambis
by Sarah Monette
2009
Exiled and accused of heresy, Felix and Mildmay enter Corambis expecting judgment and find rebellion instead. To stop an ancient machine and a political disaster, the brothers must face new dangers and the future they never planned for.
Shadow Unit 3
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
When Chaz Villette disappears while visiting a house tied to his past, Shadow Unit faces its most personal case yet. The search becomes a brutal race against a gamma who knows exactly how to break people.
Shadow Unit 4
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
Season two opens with the unit still shaken by what happened to Chaz. New anomaly cases force everyone back to work before they have healed, and the return to the field proves almost as dangerous as the monsters.
Shadow Unit 5
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
Two linked cases push Shadow Unit close to collapse. Bad calls, lingering trauma, and Chaz's struggle with severe PTSD make this one less about catching monsters than surviving the cost of the job.
Shadow Unit 6
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
The team is splintered when fresh investigations and a shocking abduction force them to regroup. For once Stephen Reyes is not the one pulling strings, and that shift makes the whole unit feel newly exposed.
Shadow Unit 8
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
Fresh hunts collide with crucial backstory about the people who built Shadow Unit in the first place. Monsters still stalk the edges, but the deeper tension comes from history, loyalty, and what the job has already cost.
Shadow Unit 9
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
Each new anomaly case exposes another crack in the team. This installment keeps the investigations moving fast, while the emotional suspense comes from watching experienced agents edge closer to their limits.
Shadow Unit 10
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
The cases are deadly, but the bigger danger may be the wear and tear inside the unit itself. This volume digs into trust, damage, and what happens when impossible work becomes normal.
The Tempering of Men
by Elizabeth Bear
2011
The troll war may be over, but peace does not last long in Iskryne. As Isolfr and the wolf pack build a new hall, rivalries, invading men, and changing loyalties threaten the fragile order they fought to win.
Shadow Unit 13
by Elizabeth Bear
2013
The pressure keeps climbing as Shadow Unit tackles cases that throw different members into the spotlight. Big consequences are brewing, but the series never loses sight of the smaller personal fractures underneath.
Shadow Unit 14
by Elizabeth Bear
2014
Old enemies, bad memories, and fresh anomaly cases start converging at once. By this point the series feels like a long television season nearing its endgame, tense, messy, and very hard to put down.
Shadow Unit 15
by Steven Brust
2014
The final volume brings Shadow Unit's long arcs to a head. It still delivers eerie investigations and weird crimes, but the deepest payoff is watching the survivors decide who they are after everything that came before.
The Goblin Emperor
by Katherine Addison
2014
Maia, the half-goblin youngest son of the emperor, has spent his life in exile. When his father and three brothers die in an airship crash, he is thrust onto the throne and into a court full of enemies.
An Apprentice to Elves
by Elizabeth Bear
2015
Alfgyfa has grown up in the Wolfhall, but Iskryne's rules leave little room for a girl like her. Sent to the elf matriarch Tin as apprentice and ambassador, she steps into a tense world of diplomacy, danger, and forbidden possibility.
The Cobbler's Boy
by Elizabeth Bear
2018
Fifteen-year-old Christopher Marlowe wants a scholarship that will get him away from his brutal father. When the man who could help him is murdered, Kit is pulled into a fast-moving historical mystery of secrets, danger, and first love.
The Angel of the Crows
by Katherine Addison
2020
In an alternate 1880s London, Dr. Doyle falls in with the Angel of the Crows, a brilliant investigator with a very strange city to police. Angels, vampires, werewolves, and Jack the Ripper make the familiar story delightfully uncanny.
The Witness for the Dead
by Katherine Addison
2021
Thara Celehar can speak with the recently dead, and in Amalo that gift keeps dragging him toward trouble. What begins as quiet clerical work becomes a layered investigation into murder, corruption, and the city's buried pain.
The Grief of Stones
by Katherine Addison
2022
A murdered marquise sends Celehar into one of his most tangled cases yet. Following the trail into a school for foundling girls and the city's past, he finds cruelty, secrets, and losses that cut close to home.
The Tomb of Dragons
by Katherine Addison
2025
Celehar has lost the gift that once defined him, but duty refuses to let him go. As cemetery secrets, murder, political unrest, and dragons close in, he must decide who he is when certainty is no longer available.
Where to start with Katherine Addison
If you want hopeful court fantasy: The Goblin Emperor → The Witness for the Dead → The Grief of Stones → The Tomb of Dragons
If you want darker, denser secondary-world fantasy: Mélusine → The Virtu → The Mirador → Corambis
If you want fantasy mysteries in the same world: The Witness for the Dead → The Grief of Stones → The Tomb of Dragons
If you want gothic or gaslamp mystery: The Angel of the Crows → The Bone Key → A Theory of Haunting
If you want wolf-bonded epic fantasy: A Companion to Wolves → The Tempering of Men → An Apprentice to Elves
Series background & context
Katherine Addison is the name Sarah Monette uses for a different corner of her fantasy work. If the Sarah Monette books often lean darker and more jagged, the Addison books tend to be quieter on the surface, more formal in voice, and deeply interested in manners, duty, grief, and people trying to be decent inside systems that do not always reward decency.
The book most readers know first is The Goblin Emperor. It follows Maia, the half-goblin youngest son of an emperor, who unexpectedly inherits the throne after an airship disaster kills his father and older brothers. Maia has been kept far from court and treated badly for much of his life, so the novel becomes less about conquering enemies and more about learning how to survive power without becoming cruel.
That sounds gentle. It is also tense.
The court is full of ritual, faction, prejudice, assassination worries, and people who underestimate Maia because they mistake kindness for weakness. Addison makes the palace feel like a machine that runs on etiquette, names, clothes, servants, and old resentments. The pleasure of the book is watching Maia learn the machinery without letting it hollow him out.
The Cemeteries of Amalo books shift the focus to Thara Celehar, a Witness for the Dead. Celehar can read final impressions from the recently deceased, which makes him useful in murder investigations, inheritance disputes, and the kinds of private tragedies people would rather hide. The Witness for the Dead, The Grief of Stones, and The Tomb of Dragons are smaller in scale than The Goblin Emperor, but they are not small in feeling.
Celehar is a wonderful kind of detective because his work is spiritual, social, and practical all at once. He has to listen to the dead, but he also has to deal with families, police, opera singers, factories, schools, and people who want truth only when it is convenient. The city of Amalo becomes the real ongoing setting, full of neighborhoods, temples, gossip, and class pressure.
There is also The Angel of the Crows, a separate fantasy mystery that plays with Sherlock Holmes material in an alternate supernatural London. It is not part of Maia and Celehar's world, but it shows Addison's affection for investigation, partnership, and rules that are stranger than they first appear.
This page is best approached by mood. Start with The Goblin Emperor if you want court politics and emotional steadiness. Start with The Witness for the Dead if you want a quieter mystery series about work, grief, and doing the next right thing.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

































Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts