Below is the complete list of Victoria Thompson books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Counterfeit Lady Books
with Ellen Thompson
Publication Order of Gaslight Mystery Books
- Murder on Pleasant Avenue (2020)
Murder on Pleasant Avenue is a 2020 release and appears as book #23 in the Gaslight Mystery series. 
Publication Order of Lady and the Cowboy Romance Books
Publication Order of Lady and the Scoundrel Books
Publication Order of The Tates of Texas Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
About Victoria Thompson
Victoria Thompson was an American author of historical mysteries and historical romance, best known for the Gaslight Mysteries and the Counterfeit Lady novels. Her fiction became closely associated with New York City during periods of rapid social and political change, combining murder investigations with questions of class, gender, wealth, poverty, reform, and justice. Before establishing herself as a mystery writer, Thompson published twenty historical romances, giving her a long apprenticeship in writing nineteenth-century settings before she turned to crime fiction.
Born Victoria Ellen Straface in Washington, D.C., in 1948, Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education from the University of Maryland. She later completed an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. Her involvement with the program extended well beyond her own studies: she taught there for twenty-three years, working with aspiring writers in popular genres. She also taught through Penn State’s continuing education program and became a frequent speaker at writing conferences.
Thompson began publishing historical romance in the 1980s. Her early books included Western and nineteenth-century romances, and she developed a substantial career in the genre before circumstances pushed her toward mystery. That shift proved decisive. Her fascination with New York intensified while one of her daughters attended New York University, giving Thompson opportunities to explore Greenwich Village and study the history of the city. When she learned of an opportunity to develop a historical mystery series about a midwife in turn-of-the-century New York, she created the characters who would define the largest part of her career.
Murder on Astor Place, published in 1999, introduced Sarah Brandt, a woman from a wealthy New York family who has rejected much of her privileged upbringing to work as a midwife. Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy becomes her initially reluctant investigative partner. Their contrasting social backgrounds allow the Gaslight Mysteries to move between mansions and tenements, examining the enormous inequalities of Gilded Age and Progressive Era New York while developing Sarah and Frank’s relationship across a long sequence of cases.
Thompson did not treat the historical setting merely as decoration. Midwifery, policing, women’s rights, immigration, settlement houses, labor conditions, social reform, medical practice, and the rigid expectations surrounding class and gender repeatedly shape the mysteries. Sarah’s work gives her unusual access to women and families across social boundaries, while Frank’s position in a notoriously imperfect police system provides another perspective on justice in a city undergoing dramatic change.
In 2017, Thompson launched the Counterfeit Lady series with City of Lies. Set several years later, around the First World War and its aftermath, the novels follow Elizabeth Miles, a skilled con artist from a family of swindlers. Elizabeth’s ability to manipulate appearances proves surprisingly useful after she enters New York high society. The series combines elaborate cons with historical mystery, social satire, and changing opportunities for women, while offering a protagonist very different from the principled and socially established Sarah Brandt.
Thompson’s mysteries earned numerous honors and nominations, including recognition from the Agatha Awards, Edgar Awards, Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, and Sue Grafton Memorial Award. She received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times in 2012 and was a Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2016.
Thompson died in August 2024 after a years-long battle with cancer. Her daughter Ellen Thompson, also a writer, subsequently undertook the continuation of her mother’s series. Thompson’s bibliography therefore carries an unusual living legacy: decades of historical romance evolved into two richly researched mystery worlds, both built around women finding unconventional ways to exercise independence and pursue justice within societies designed to limit them.