Prolific Authors – 7 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. Since I’ve far surpassed my “normal” reading output the last three years, I thought it would be nice to once again take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through the start of October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  We continue today with the five authors I’ve read seven times, up five since 2021.

Michael Crichton

The prolific author, who died in 2008, first entered my bookshelf in 1989, when I was assigned to read The Andromeda Strain as part of my high school Biology class.  He continued to be a big part of my 90s reading, but has only added a single title, Airframe, in this century.

John Grisham

The former attorney, who I first read in 1993 with his smash hit The Firm, returned to my attention after a nine-year absence in 2022 thanks to The Judge’s List.

Jennifer McMahon

After feeling unimpressed after finishing my first of her works, Dismantled, in 2010, I eventually gave her another try and she has been a consistent presence ever since.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling

All seven entries in the Harry Potter series, which I read in 2016, make up Rowling’s total.  She continues to write under a pen name, so she may, one day, end up on this list twice.

Riley Sager

One of my newer favorites, I’ve read all of his novels as they’ve been released annually since 2017’s Final Girls through this year’s The Only One Left.

Book 34 (of 52) – The Only One Left

The Only One Left – Riley Sager

Kit, a caregiver accused of killing her own mother, gets a new job caring for the town’s most famous resident: Leonora Hope, also accused of murdering her whole family 50 years earlier.  The mystery of the Hope murders only deepens when the previous caregiver, thought to have left in the middle of the night, is found dead on the beach below the cliff where the manor resides.  Can Kit get to the bottom the mystery before she, or the house itself, befalls the same fate?

The Only One Left is the latest offering from Riley Sager.  In this outing, he pulls back on the supernatural aspects somewhat, and those that remain all get explained away by the end.  The setting this time is the mid-80s, with some forays back into the late 1920s, when the original murders took place.  The last reveal felt a little forced, especially since some ages needed to be explained in order to make the timeline work, but it was an overall good mystery.  This now makes seven books in as many years for Sager, who shows no signs of slowing down.