The Donna Andrews books in order are best known for funny, fast-moving cozy mysteries, especially the Meg Langslow series. Meg is a blacksmith, amateur sleuth, and professional-level wrangler of eccentric relatives who keeps stumbling into murder cases that are much less relaxing than they should be.
Andrews also wrote the Turing Hopper mysteries, edited Chesapeake Crimes anthologies, and contributed short stories to several mystery collections. If you’re starting from scratch, I’d begin with Meg Langslow. If you’re already a fan and want the full Donna Andrews bibliography, the other sections are worth checking too.
Jump to:
- Meg Langslow Books
- Turing Hopper Books
- Chesapeake Crimes Books
- Donna Andrews Anthologies
- About Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow Books
The Meg Langslow books are the main reason most readers search for Donna Andrews. They’re cozy mysteries with a strong comic streak, a big recurring cast, and plenty of bird-themed titles. Meg starts out as a blacksmith from Yorktown, Virginia, but the series grows into a much larger small-town mystery world.
You can enjoy some of these as standalone mysteries, but I’d read the Meg Langslow books in publication order. The family relationships, town history, running jokes, and character changes work better when you meet everyone in the order Andrews introduced them.
- Murder with Peacocks (1999)
- Murder with Puffins (2000)
- Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos (2001)
- Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon (2003)
- We’ll Always Have Parrots (2004)
- Owls Well That Ends Well (2005)
- No Nest for the Wicket (2006)
- The Penguin Who Knew Too Much (2007)
- Cockatiels at Seven (2008)
- Six Geese A-Slaying (2008)
- Swan for the Money (2009)
- Stork Raving Mad (2010)
- The Real Macaw (2011)
- Some Like It Hawk (2012)
- The Hen of the Baskervilles (2013)
- Duck the Halls (2013)
- The Good, the Bad, and the Emus (2014)
- The Nightingale Before Christmas (2014)
- Lord of the Wings (2015)
- Die Like an Eagle (2016)
- Gone Gull (2017)
- How the Finch Stole Christmas! (2017)
- Toucan Keep a Secret (2018)
- Lark! The Herald Angels Sing (2018)
- Terns of Endearment (2019)
- Owl Be Home for Christmas (2019)
- The Falcon Always Wings Twice (2020)
- The Gift of the Magpie (2020)
- Murder Most Fowl (2021)
- The Twelve Jays of Christmas (2021)
- Round Up the Usual Peacocks (2022)
- Dashing Through the Snowbirds (2022)
- Birder, She Wrote (2023)
- Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! (2023)
- Between a Flock and a Hard Place (2024)
- Rockin’ Around the Chickadee (2024)
- For Duck’s Sake (2025)
- Five Golden Wings (2025)
- Probable Caws (2026)
- Jay to the World (2026)
Turing Hopper Books
The Turing Hopper books are still mysteries, but they have a different flavor. Turing is an artificial intelligence personality based near Washington, D.C., and the series mixes computer-age sleuthing with Andrews’ usual humor.
I’d read these in order too. Each book has its own case, but the setup and supporting cast make more sense when you start with You’ve Got Murder.
- You’ve Got Murder (2002)
- Click Here for Murder (2003)
- Access Denied (2004)
- Delete All Suspects (2005)
Chesapeake Crimes Books
The Chesapeake Crimes books are mystery anthologies tied to the Chesapeake Bay area. Donna Andrews edits the series with other mystery writers, writes introductions, and contributes stories to several volumes.
These don’t have to be read in order like a novel series. Still, publication order is the simplest way to track the anthology line and Andrews’ short-story appearances inside it.
- Chesapeake Crimes (2004)
- Chesapeake Crimes II (2005)
- Chesapeake Crimes 3 (2008)
- Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’ (2010)
- Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder! (2012)
- Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays (2014)
- Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning (2016)
- Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies (2017)
- Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder (2020)
- Chesapeake Crimes: Magic Is Murder (2022)
Donna Andrews Anthologies
Donna Andrews has also edited anthologies outside the Chesapeake Crimes line and appeared in a range of short-story collections. These are more for completionists than first-time readers, but they matter if you want a fuller Donna Andrews list.
Donna Andrews Edited Anthologies
These are anthologies Andrews edited, co-edited, or presented outside the main Chesapeake Crimes list above.
- School of Hard Knox (2023) (edited with Greg Herren and Art Taylor)
- Three Strikes: You’re Dead! (2024) (edited with Barb Goffman and Marcia Talley)
- Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous (2025) (edited with others)
- Double Crossing Van Dine (2025) (edited with Greg Herren and Art Taylor)
Donna Andrews Short Stories and Anthology Appearances
Donna Andrews’ short fiction is scattered across magazines, themed anthologies, and a few collections connected to Meg Langslow. For Meg readers, the key stories to know are “Night Shades,” “Birthday Dinner,” and “A Christmas Rescue.”
- “An Unkindness of Ravens” in The Mysterious North (2002)
- “Night Shades” in Chesapeake Crimes (2004)
- “Birthday Dinner” in Death Dines In (2004)
- “Cold Spell” in Powers of Detection (2004)
- “A Rat’s Tale” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (2007)
- “The Haire of the Beast” in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008)
- “Spellbound” in Unusual Suspects (2008)
- “The Plan” in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’ (2010)
- “Normal” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (2011)
- “Mean Girls” in Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder! (2012)
- “A Christmas Trifle” in Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays (2014)
- “A Christmas Rescue” in The Two Deadly Doves (2015)
- “The Last Caving Trip” in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning (2016)
- “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire” in The Beat of Black Wings (2020)
- “A Night at the Opera” in Monkey Business (2021)
- “Something Dark and Dangerous” in Chesapeake Crimes: Magic Is Murder (2022)
- “Not Another Secret Passage Story” in School of Hard Knox (2023)
- “The Grim” in Black Cat Weekly #165 (2024)
- “When Even Waffle House Closes” in Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked (2024)
- “Cinderella” in Wish Upon a Crime (2026)
About Donna Andrews
Donna Andrews was born in Yorktown, Virginia, which also became the hometown of Meg Langslow. That local connection gives the early Meg books a lived-in feel, especially when Andrews is juggling family chaos, small-town politics, and murder in the same story.
Murder with Peacocks won major mystery awards for best first novel, including the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry Awards. The first Turing Hopper book, You’ve Got Murder, also won the Agatha Award for best mystery.
Mystery Writers of America named Donna Andrews a 2026 Grand Master, one of the mystery genre’s major lifetime achievement honors. That fits her career well. She’s been a steady voice in cozy mystery for years, and the Meg Langslow books remain the heart of her work.
Andrews lives in Reston, Virginia. When she isn’t writing, she has described herself as a computer person and a gardener, which feels exactly right for someone who created both Meg Langslow and Turing Hopper.
Looking for similar books in order?
If you want more mystery authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Mystery Books in Order index.