Reading Order & Other Book-ish Questions

Welcome, lovely reader!

So you’re interested in tea-drinking, crime-solving dragons collaborating with women of a certain age in The Beaufort Scales Cozy Mysteries (with dragons)? Or more intrigued by the idea of a snarky feline PI and his scruffy human sidekick in The Gobbelino London, PI series?

Perhaps you’d prefer a detective sergeant discovering there’s more to the world (and bridges) than her training has prepared her for in the DI Adams Mysteries? Or perhaps you'd like to get started with some short stories, just to see where that goes?

But where exactly to start? What comes first?

Well.

I can help with that.

Which series comes first?

Whichever one you prefer. While Beaufort and Gobbelino inhabit the same world, they occupy very different parts of it. You can read either series without worrying about spoilers for the other.

The DI Adams series begins in a prequel that takes place before the events of the first Beaufort book, but there’s no spoilers in it. In fact, What Happened in London can be read entirely as a standalone (but you should probably read it before reading the rest of the DI Adams books).

And the short stories can be read at any time. Some of them take place in the same world as the books, some are even tangentially connected, but many of them inhabit their own mysterious pockets of time (and, of course, should you want to read all the short stories, before anyone else, you can join the membership site. A brand-new story every month, before anyone else gets to see it!).

Do I have to read the series in order?

Eh. Not really, but I’d still recommend it. While each book is as much a standalone as I’ve been able to make it, they build on the preceding ones as the characters develop and the world grows. So if you want to really know the characters and the nuances of the world, I’d read them as they were published.

The only exception to this is the last Gobbelino book – if you read that without reading the others, you’re going to have a lot of questions, mostly regarding cats, custard, and baby ghouls.

 

Fine. So how do I know what order to read them in?

You can read any series at any time. As for the books within each series, well. Here’s something I prepared earlier …

All the books in reading order

 

Are the series complete?

As of August 2023, the Gobbelino London series is finished. You can grab all seven books (and their accompanying short stories) and devour to your strange little heart’s content without waiting for painfully slow authors to deliver the next instalment. Will there be another Gobbelino series in the future? Well. It's possible. I loved writing Gobs, and my subconscious is a murky place where characters get up to no good. I rarely know what's going to come crawling out of it ...

The Beaufort Scales series is on-going, at a very slow and dragonish timeframe. I promised myself I would only keep writing those books as long as they stayed fresh and true to their own gentle souls, and I would hate to put one out into the world that didn’t stick to that. Which means that I have moved to take generous breaks between them, to allow the stories to grow. I do believe there shall be a new tale in 2026, though.

The DI Adams series is currently occupying far too much of my headspace (also, ducks are taking over my house), and while I thought it would be a six-book series, it's already looking like seven. I have little to no control over my characters, so this seems very on-brand.

Wait, why is What Happened in London called book zero? Where does it fit in?

Oof. Yeah. That's because this author has zero forward planning ability, and at the point she wrote What Happened in London, she did not consider there would be a whole series to spring from it, and now the numbering system is completely nonsensical. Ahem. 

Anyway, it takes place before the events of the Beaufort series, and is the story of why a London detective sergeant decided to head north (spoiler alert: she did not factor dealing with Women’s Institutes and dragons into this decision. She might have stayed down south if she’d known). It doesn’t contain any actual spoilers for the Beaufort series, though, so you can read it at any point. The reading order page has details on how the two series fit together, should you wish to alternate them.

 

Tell me more about the short stories!

Okay! If you would like a whole collection of slightly offbeat and strange little tales, the first volume of Oddly Enough is available now. Otherwise, you can have a browse of the short stories here on the site, which you can purchase individually (they will eventually become Oddly Enough Volume 2, if you prefer to wait a little). They are strange little snippets that have been precursors to stories, or offshoots, or mysterious growths that have surfaced in the night. They can also be read whenever you fancy.

Plus! If you would like to get your talons on a new short story every month, before it's available to buy here or anywhere else, I have a membership site over on Ko-fi. As well as the stories, you'll get weekly posts on things like travel and food and the behind-the-scenes mayhem of a writer’s life (it’s less exciting than it sounds). Different tiers also include ebooks and paperbacks!

 

Hang about, don't you have a whole other series, The Hollowbeck Paranormal Cozy Mysteries?

Yes! There is a whole other series! It’s co-written with Amelia Ash and published by Sterling & Stone, and you can jump over to learn more about it on their website. There are snarky cats, and inept witches, and a whole plague of ferrets. Not to mention the frogs. There really are a lot of frogs …

 

How do I get my books onto my reader?

Glad you asked ;) Ebooks are delivered in ePub format, which is used by all ereaders, and you can find exact instructions on how to get them onto your device at the link here.

 

What about free stuff?

Of course! Try before you buy and all that ;)

For a taste of the world of Beaufort Scales, you can grab The Tales of Beaufort Scales.

Or discover the secret lives of cats in The Cat Did It.

Plus every book has some bonus material, be it short stories or recipes (because how can one solve mysteries without cake?).

Or you can check out some free stories over on my old blog, as well as a selection of recipes.

Hey, I’ve got a book club! Do you have a reading guide for that?

Well, sort of? I don’t know. Look, book clubs scare me, but I would love for my books to be featured in yours! So I have a made a list of some suggested questions, should you like to do that, and you can download them below:

And if you’d like me to get involved at all – to feature your club on social media or in my newsletter, or if you’d like to ask me any questions directly – please ask away in the contact form below!

And that is all for this little whirlwind tour, lovely people. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch either by using the form or emailing me at kim@kmwatt.com.

Happy reading!