The Cat Who Books in Order: All 29 Novels by Lilian Jackson Braun

By T.L. BransonMystery

The Cat Who books in order follow prizewinning newspaper reporter Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, through Lilian Jackson Braun’s cozy mystery series. The early books begin with Qwilleran covering city newspaper assignments, while the later novels center on his life in Pickax and the surrounding Moose County community.

Koko has a habit of reacting to suspicious people, odd objects, and overlooked clues, while Yum Yum is the more affectionate of the pair. Together, the cats help Qwilleran unravel mysteries that stay light on graphic violence and focus on eccentric characters, community life, and plenty of feline personality.

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The Cat Who Books in Order

The Cat Who series contains 29 completed and published novels. The list below follows publication order, which is also the chronological reading order for the series.

Most of the mysteries have self-contained cases, so you can pick up a later book and follow its central plot. I still recommend starting with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. Qwilleran’s career, inheritance, move to Moose County, relationships, and connections with recurring characters develop from book to book.

There is an 18-year publication gap between The Cat Who Turned On and Off in 1968 and The Cat Who Saw Red in 1986. No novels are missing from that stretch.

  1. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966)
  2. The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern (1967)
  3. The Cat Who Turned On and Off (1968)
  4. The Cat Who Saw Red (1986)
  5. The Cat Who Played Brahms (1987)
  6. The Cat Who Played Post Office (1987)
  7. The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare (1988)
  8. The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (1988)
  9. The Cat Who Went Underground (1989)
  10. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts (1990)
  11. The Cat Who Lived High (1990)
  12. The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal (1991)
  13. The Cat Who Moved a Mountain (1992)
  14. The Cat Who Wasn’t There (1992)
  15. The Cat Who Went into the Closet (1993)
  16. The Cat Who Came to Breakfast (1994)
  17. The Cat Who Blew the Whistle (1995)
  18. The Cat Who Said Cheese (1996)
  19. The Cat Who Tailed a Thief (1997)
  20. The Cat Who Sang for the Birds (1998)
  21. The Cat Who Saw Stars (1999)
  22. The Cat Who Robbed a Bank (2000)
  23. The Cat Who Smelled a Rat (2001)
  24. The Cat Who Went Up the Creek (2002)
  25. The Cat Who Brought Down the House (2003)
  26. The Cat Who Talked Turkey (2004)
  27. The Cat Who Went Bananas (2004)
  28. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell (2006)
  29. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (2007)

The Cat Who Smelled Smoke

Braun planned a thirtieth novel called The Cat Who Smelled Smoke, but declining health prevented her from completing it. The manuscript was never published.

Braun also published three related volumes. They aren’t three additional series novels, and they don’t all contain new Qwilleran mysteries. I prefer to treat them as optional collections and companion books.

The Cat Who Had 14 Tales collects fourteen standalone cat stories that don’t feature Qwilleran, Koko, and Yum Yum.

Short and Tall Tales: Moose County Legends Collected by James Mackintosh Qwilleran presents local legends and stories in Qwilleran’s voice.

The Private Life of the Cat Who…: Tales of Koko and Yum Yum from the Journals of James Mackintosh Qwilleran is a retrospective companion centered on Koko and Yum Yum.

About Lilian Jackson Braun

Lilian Jackson Braun was born in Chicopee, Massachusetts, in 1913. Before becoming known for her mysteries, she worked in journalism for decades and served as the Detroit Free Press’s Good Living editor.

Braun published the first three Cat Who novels between 1966 and 1968, then stepped away from fiction for nearly two decades. She later explained that mystery publishing had shifted toward more graphic sex and violence, while she preferred gentler stories without explicit content or gore. After retiring from newspaper work and with encouragement from her husband, Earl Bettinger, she returned to the series with The Cat Who Saw Red in 1986. Twenty-five more novels followed that comeback book.

The first three novels take place in an unnamed Midwestern city. The series later centers on fictional Pickax in Moose County, the region described as “400 miles north of everywhere.” The setting draws heavily on northern Michigan, where Braun lived for many years. In my view, the move from city newspaper mysteries to the close-knit Moose County stories is another good reason to read the series in publication order.

Braun died in 2011 at the age of 97. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers remains her final completed and published novel.

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.

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