Catherine Jinks Books in Order

Where to Start with Catherine Jinks

Because Catherine Jinks writes across so many genres—spanning medieval adventure, urban fantasy, high-tech thriller, Victorian monster-hunting, and gritty modern suspense—the best place to start depends entirely on what you like to read. She does not write in a single massive universe, so there is no single master chronological order. Instead, you should choose one of her main entry points:

• For Historical Fiction & Adventure Fans: Start with Pagan's Crusade, the first book in the critically acclaimed Pagan Chronicles. It is witty, fast-paced, and highly detailed.
• For Psychological Thriller & Sci-Fi Fans: Start with Evil Genius, a dark, gripping story about a child prodigy being groomed to become a criminal mastermind.
• For Younger Readers (Middle Grade Fantasy): Start with A Very Unusual Pursuit (also published under the title How to Catch a Bogle), a fun, spooky adventure set in Victorian London.
• For Gritty Adult Suspense: Start with Shelter or Traced, two of her highly acclaimed contemporary psychological thrillers set in Australia.

The Pagan Chronicles

The Pagan Chronicles is Catherine Jinks’s most famous and beloved historical series. Drawing on her academic background in medieval history, Jinks crafts an incredibly vivid, humorous, and sometimes heartbreaking look at the Crusades. The first four books follow Pagan Kidrouk, a sarcastic and street-smart Christian Arab squire in 12th-century Jerusalem. The fifth book jumps forward in time and shifts perspective to his daughter.

Note on Regional Titles: The fifth book is known as Pagan's Daughter in the United States, but was published as Babylonne in Australia and the United Kingdom. They are the exact same novel.

1. Pagan's Crusade (1992)
2. Pagan in Exile (1994)
3. Pagan's Vows (1995)
4. Pagan's Scribe (1996)
5. Pagan's Daughter / Babylonne (2006)

The Genius Series

The Genius trilogy is a thrilling, dark science fiction and suspense series aimed at young adults and crossover readers. It follows Cadel Piggott, a brilliant child prodigy who specializes in systems abuse and hacking. He is adopted by a mysterious benefactor and enrolled in the Axis Institute, a university dedicated to teaching the fine art of deception and crime. Over the course of the trilogy, Cadel must figure out his own morality and try to escape the clutches of his creators.

1. Evil Genius (2005)
2. Genius Squad (2008)
3. The Genius Wars (2009)

City of Orphans / The Bogle Books

Set in a beautifully detailed Victorian London, this middle-grade historical fantasy series follows Birdie McAdam, a ten-year-old orphan who works as "bait" for a bogle hunter named Alfred Bunce. Together, they lure and destroy the child-eating monsters that infest the city's sewers and dark alleys. The series is packed with historical slang, Victorian atmosphere, and folklore.

Note on Regional Titles: This series went by completely different names depending on where it was published. In Australia and the UK, the books are known by the "A Very..." titles, whereas in the US, they were branded as the "Bogle" or "City of Orphans" series.

1. A Very Unusual Pursuit (also published as How to Catch a Bogle) (2013)
2. A Very Peculiar Plague (also published as A Plague of Bogles) (2013)
3. A Very Singular Guild (also published as The Last Bogler) (2014)

Allie's Ghost Hunters Series

This spooky children's series follows Allie and her family as they move into haunted places and learn to deal with various spiritual disturbances. It is a lighter, charming look at the paranormal, perfect for younger readers who want a ghost story without too many scares.

1. Eglantine (2002)
2. Eustace (2003)
3. Eloise (2003)
4. Elysium (2007)

Theophilus Grey Books

Another excellent historical mystery series, this YA duology is set in 1700s London. The protagonist, Theophilus Grey, is a young "link-boy" (someone who carries a torch to light the streets for wealthy citizens at night) who uses his unique access to London's dark corners and gossip networks to solve crimes and uncover conspiracies.

1. Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief (2015)
2. Theophilus Grey and the Traitor's Mask (2016)

Paranormal Support Groups

A satirical, humorous take on the traditional urban fantasy and paranormal romance genres, this duology treats classic monsters not as romantic heroes, but as people dealing with inconvenient chronic medical conditions. For example, vampires are portrayed as pale, sickly people who suffer from chronic fatigue and attend mandatory support groups to avoid feeding on humans.

1. The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009)
2. The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group (2010)

Catherine Jinks’s Standalone Novels

In addition to her multi-book series, Catherine Jinks is a prolific writer of standalone novels. In recent years, she has earned significant critical acclaim for her dark, tense psychological thrillers and crime fiction aimed at adult audiences. Here is a guide to some of her most notable standalone works:

• Shepherd (2019): A gritty, intense historical thriller set in colonial Australia during the 1840s, following a young convict shepherd trying to survive in a hostile landscape.
• Shelter (2021): An atmospheric domestic thriller about a woman running an isolated bush property as a safe haven for victims of domestic violence, who finds herself under siege.
• The Attack (2021): A suspenseful thriller set on a remote island camp, where a dark secret from the past resurfaces.
• Traced (2023): A timely psychological thriller centering on a COVID-19 contact tracer who intercepts a cry for help that mirrors a threat to her own family.
• Living Hell (2007): A tense, claustrophobic young adult science fiction thriller set aboard a living, organic spaceship.
• Saving Thanehaven (2013): A clever, meta-fictional fantasy novel that takes place inside the coding of a fantasy role-playing game.

What to Know Before You Start

Catherine Jinks is known for her meticulous historical research and her refusal to romanticize historical periods or supernatural creatures. Whether she is writing about the squalor of medieval Jerusalem in the Crusades or the drab realities of vampire life in a support group, her work features a distinct, down-to-earth realism balanced with sharp, sarcastic humor. Because she writes for different age brackets, always check the target demographic of a book before starting—her children's ghost stories are very different in tone from her gritty, adult psychological thrillers like Shelter.