Christopher Moore Books in Order (Pine Cove, Pocket the Fool, Noir, Razzmatazz…)
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All of Christopher Moore’s Books in Order!
Who is Christopher Moore?
Christopher Moore is an American writer known for his work in the comic fantasy genre, mostly stories of conflicted everyman characters who must comically deal with supernatural-or, at least, extraordinary-circumstances.
Moore’s first book, Practical Demonkeeping, was published in 1992, launching the Pine Cove series. He also wrote the “Shakespearian” Pocket the Fool series, the “romantic” Vampires in San Francisco series, the Death Merchant Chronicles, and half a dozen standalone novels.
How to Read Christopher Moore’s Books in Order?
The Pine Cove Series
- Practical Demonkeeping (1992) – The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and “roads” scholar Travis O’Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor facade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.
- The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (1999) – The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally-well, to be accurate, artificially-business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what’s wrong and what, if anything, to do about it.
- The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (2004) – Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit. But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle because he is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the 7-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead. But hold on! There’s an angel waiting in the wings. Unfortunately, our angel’s not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch…
The Vampires in San Francisco Series
- Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story (1995) – Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that’s where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door…and proceeds to rock Tommy’s life-and afterlife-in ways he never thought possible.
- You Suck: A Love Story (2007) – Being undead sucks. Literally. Just ask C. Thomas Flood. Waking up after a fantastic night unlike anything he’s ever experienced, he discovers that his girlfriend, Jody, is a vampire. And surprise! Now he’s one, too. For some couples, the whole biting-and-blood thing would have been a deal breaker. But Tommy and Jody are in love, and they vow to work through their issues. But word has it that the vampire who initially nibbled on Jody wasn’t supposed to be recruiting. Even worse, Tommy’s erstwhile turkey-bowling pals are out to get him, at the urging of a blue-dyed Las Vegas call girl named (duh) Blue.
- Bite Me: A Love Story (2010) – While some lovers were born to run, Jody and Tommy were born to bite. Well, reborn, that is, now that they’re vampires. Good thing theirs is an undying love, since their Goth Girl Friday, Abby Normal, has imprisoned them in a bronze statue. Abby is keen to be one of the undead, too, but first she and her PhD-candidate boyfriend Steve have to deal with the huge vampire cat, Chet, who is stalking the city – and creating his own minions.
The Grim Reaper Series ( aka the Death Merchant Chronicles)
- A Dirty Job (2006) – Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They’re even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie’s doing okay-until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.
- Secondhand Souls (2015) – Something really strange is happening in the City by the Bay. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone-or something-is stealing them and no one knows where they are going, or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Death Merchant Charlie Asher is just as flummoxed as everyone else. He’s trapped in the body of a fourteen-inch-tall “meat puppet” waiting for his Buddhist nun girlfriend, Audrey, to find him a suitable new body to play host.
The Chronicles of Pocket the Fool
- Fool (2009) – A man of infinite jest, Pocket has been Lear’s cherished fool for years, from the time the king’s grown daughters – selfish, scheming Goneril, sadistic but hot Regan, and sweet, loyal Cordelia – were mere girls. So he can see trouble brewing when Lear demands that his kids swear their undying love and devotion before a collection of assembled guests. Of course Goneril and Regan are only too happy to brownnose Dad. But Cordelia’s blunt honesty ends up costing her her rightful share of the kingdom and earns her a banishment to boot. The only person who can possibly make things right is Pocket, and he’s going to have to do some very fancy manoeuvring. Pocket may be a fool… but he’s definitely not an idiot.
- The Serpent of Venice (2014) – Venice, a long time ago. Three prominent Venetians await their most loathsome and foul dinner guest, the erstwhile envoy of Britain and France, and widower of the murdered Queen Cordelia: the rascal Fool Pocket. This trio of cunning plotters-the merchant, Antonio; the senator, Montressor Brabantio; and the naval officer, Iago-have lured Pocket to a dark dungeon, promising an evening of spirits and debauchery with a rare Amontillado sherry and Brabantio’s beautiful daughter, Portia. Teir invitation is, of course, bogus. But this Fool is no fool . . . and he’s got more than a few tricks (and hand gestures) up his sleeve.
- Shakespeare for Squirrels (2020) – Egeus, the Duke’s minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed . . . or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool’s impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke’s guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape.
The Sammy “Two Toes” Tiffin series
- Noir (2018) – San Francisco. Summer, 1947. It’s not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy ”Two Toes” Tiffin tends bar. It’s love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. ‘Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he’s got the connections on the street. Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast in Washington State near Mount Rainer, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. But the real weirdness is happening on the streets of the City by the Bay.
- Razzmatazz (2022) – San Francisco, 1947. Bartender Sammy “Two Toes” Tiffin and the rest of the Cookie’s Coffee Irregulars-a ragtag bunch of working mugs last seen in Noir-are on the hustle: they’re trying to open a driving school; shanghai an abusive Swedish stevedore; get Mable, the local madam, and her girls to a Christmas party at the State Hospital without alerting the overzealous head of the S.F.P.D. vice squad; all while Sammy’s girlfriend, Stilton (a.k.a. the Cheese), and her “Wendy the Welder” gal pals are using their wartime shipbuilding skills on a secret project that might be attracting the attention of some government Men in Black. And, oh yeah, someone is murdering the city’s drag kings and club owner Jimmy Vasco is sure she’s next on the list and wants Sammy to find the killer.
Other Novels & Graphic Novel
- Coyote Blue (1994) – As a boy, he was Samson Hunts Alone-until a deadly misunderstanding with the law forced him to flee the Crow reservation at age fifteen. Today he is Samuel Hunter, a successful Santa Barbara insurance salesman with a Mercedes, a condo, and a hollow, invented life. Then one day, destiny offers him the dangerous gift of love-in the exquisite form of Calliope Kincaid-and a curse in the unheralded appearance of an ancient god by the name of Coyote. Coyote, the trickster, has arrived to reawaken the mystical storyteller within Sam…and to seriously screw up his existence in the process.
- Island of the Sequined Love Nun (1997) – Take a wonderfully crazed excursion into the demented heart of a tropical paradise-a world of cargo cults, cannibals, mad scientists, ninjas, and talking fruit bats. Our bumbling hero is Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy’s body, who makes a living as a pilot for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation. But when he demolishes his boss’s pink plane during a drunken airborne liaison, Tuck must run for his life from Mary Jean’s goons. Now there’s only one employment opportunity left for him: piloting shady secret missions for an unscrupulous medical missionary and a sexy blond high priestess on the remotest of Micronesian hells. Here is a brazen, ingenious, irreverent, and wickedly funny novel from a modern master of the outrageous.
- Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (2002) – The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his 30th birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years – except Biff, the Messiah’s best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in this divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work.
- Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings (2003) – Whale researcher Nathan Quinn has a problem. It’s not a new problem; in fact, it’s been around for nearly 20 million years. And Nate’s spent most of his adult life working to solve it. You see, although everybody (well, almost everybody) knows that humpback whales sing (outside of human composition, the most complex songs on the planet) no one knows why. Nate, a Ph.D. in behavior biology, intends to discover the answer to this burning question―and soon.
- The Griff: A Graphic Novel (2011, co-written with Ian Corson and illustrated by Jennyson Rosero) – Get ready for thrills, chills, and a chain-smoking professional squirrel, in this high-octane tale of the infestation of Earth by extraterrestrial interlopers and the motley crew of humans who save the world…sort of.
- Sacré Bleu (2012) – In July 1890, Vincent van Gogh went into a cornfield and shot himself. Or did he? Why would an artist at the height of his creative powers attempt to take his life… and then walk a mile to a doctor’s house for help? Who was the crooked little “color man” Vincent had claimed was stalking him across France? And why had the painter recently become deathly afraid of a certain shade of blue? These are just a few of the questions confronting Vincent’s friends – baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec – who vow to discover the truth of van Gogh’s untimely death. Their quest will lead them on a surreal odyssey and brothel-crawl deep into the art world of late 19th century Paris.
If you like Christopher Moore, you may also want to see our Carl Hiaasen reading order or our Jason Pargin reading order. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.
