Complete Reading Order Guide:
Paul Michael Peters
Books
Whether you're discovering Paul Michael Peters for the first time or you've finished one book and want more, you're in the right place. With numerous page turners spanning history, sci-fi, thrillers, and suspense, choosing your next read can feel overwhelming. This guide will help you find the perfect starting point or next adventure based on what you love most – from heart-pounding action to thought-provoking historical fiction.
New Readers Start Here
Love space adventures? Clockwork Constellation is your starting point for the trilogy. Follow young clockmaker Millicent Gearwright as time itself begins unraveling. With space pirate Barnaby Blackwater and her robot companion Quark, she faces mind-bending enemies and cosmic adventures across the galaxy. Perfect introduction to my space opera fantasy world.
Are you a fan of historical fiction? Broken Objects is the place for you to start. A poor immigrant's daughter is sold into servitude, trapping her in a cycle of bad choices and broken people.
Looking for something easy to lose yourself in for the afternoon? Mr. Memory and Other Stories of Wonder is a collection of highly rated short stories that introduce you to the worlds Paul Michael Peters builds. You can download a free digital copy here [link] by joining the author newsletter.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Science fiction meets fantasy in epic space-faring adventures. The Clockwork Constellation series blends time travel, swashbuckling action, and intricate world-building into a saga spanning time-torn cities, celestial seas, and mechanical wonders.
Begin with Clockwork Constellation: Chrono Chaos, where brilliant clockmaker Millicent Gearwright joins a daring steeplejack, dangerous space pirate, and steadfast robot to repair the unraveling fabric of time—if they can outwit the creatures and conspiracies that stalk them. Continue in Clockwork Constellation: Crocodile Cult, as the crew faces cursed queens, monstrous crocodilians, and a war for control over reality itself.
Series order: Chrono Chaos → Crocodile Cult → Collision of Conscience. Space opera adventure and destiny await in every chapter.
Thrillers & Suspense
Paul Michael Peters crafts psychological thrillers and suspense steeped in danger, deception, and the unexpected. From the relentless tension of Combustible Punch, where a wounded survivor is drawn into a deadly game with a woman claiming to be a serial killer, to the dystopian thriller Right Hand of the Resistance, where a revolutionary's secret past could destroy the cause he leads, Peters delivers high-stakes crime fiction that keeps readers turning pages late into the night. In Confessions of an Efficient Cause, the frozen streets of 1992 Chicago become the hunting ground for a killer stalking young women, each twist plunging deeper into a chilling web of lies and survival. For fans of dark crime thrillers and pulp edge, Peters masters the art of the unputdownable page-turner.
Reading order: Combustible Punch → Right Hand of the Resistance → Confessions of an Efficient Cause.
Historical Fiction
Paul Michael Peters brings history vividly to life, blending meticulous period detail with emotionally charged storytelling. In Insensible Loss, he crafts a dual-timeline historical fantasy that leaps from a quiet hospital room in 2053 to the high seas of 1839, where a swaggering sailor and a beguiling companion chase treasure and the morally fraught promise of immortality. In Broken Objects, Peters delivers an American historical epic spanning the Civil War era to the dawn of the 20th century, following a Swedish-American girl sold into a Detroit textile mill who rises—through grit, intellect, and endurance—into a woman who shapes her own destiny. Whether navigating the moral sinkholes of eternal life or tracing the golden seams of a fractured past, Peters crafts period fiction that is immersive, morally complex, and deeply human, inviting readers to ponder what endures when time, war, and fate press hardest.
Short Stories and Collections
Paul Michael Peters writes short stories that fit perfectly into life's in-between moments—coffee breaks, train rides, flights—but linger long after the last page. His short story collections, from Mist and Moonbeams: Stories from the Great Lakes Edge to Mr. Memory and Other Stories of Wonder and Killing the Devil, blend mystery, speculative fiction, and human truth. Peters shifts effortlessly from the icy streets of 1992 Chicago to the wilds of the Big Two-Hearted River, from futuristic Toronto to shadowed criminal underworlds. Each standalone tale is an invitation to step out of reality and into a world where love, loss, and redemption collide with the unexpected. Whether it's a devil lurking in grief, a heist teetering between ambition and ruin, or a romance that reshapes identity, Peters's literary short fiction is intoxicating—relaxing and charming on the surface, yet edged with questions that haunt. In his hands, even the briefest read can feel like a journey worth taking.
Kindle Unlimited
Paul Michael Peters delivers three unforgettable novellas free with Kindle Unlimited, each a world unto itself yet united by his gift for weaving passion, peril, and profound human truth. In You Can't Start a Fire with Moonlight, the glow of a super blue moon over Lake Huron sets the stage for forbidden love, a vanished wedding ring, and a desperate quest to reclaim more than what was lost. Killing the Devil is a dark, mesmerizing journey into the nature of evil, where the devil appears in many guises—feeding on grief, stoking fear, and daring the living to seek redemption before it's too late. In Love in Her Big Two-Hearted River, a grieving widow sets out alone to navigate Hemingway's storied waters, braving rapids, wildlife, and her own shifting heart in search of something unnamed. Free to read with your KU subscription, these literary short novels are perfect for readers who crave contemporary fiction that lingers like a memory—rich, unsettling, and impossible to forget.
