There is a unique thrill in discovering a universe where historical research, near-fatal accidents, tea-drinking routines, and catastrophic explosions go hand in hand. Jodi Taylor has captured the hearts of historical fiction and sci-fi fans alike with her signature blend of sharp British wit, deep emotional stakes, and fast-paced adventure. Her characters are rarely flawless heroes; instead, they are lovable, overworked professionals who routinely manage to trigger disasters while attempting to observe history in real-time.
While she has written contemporary supernatural thrillers and historical romances, her crowning achievement remains her interconnected time-travel saga. Navigating her expansive catalog requires a clear map, as she frequently punctuates her main novels with vital, festive novellas that move the grand timeline forward.
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s in Recommended Reading Order
This series follows Dr. Madeleine “Max” Maxwell and a wild crew of disaster-prone historians at the St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research. They do not call it time travel—they call it “investigating major historical events in contemporary settings”—and things go sideways fast. Follow this specific sequence to keep the character milestones and overlapping timelines perfectly clear.
1. Just One Damned Thing After Another (2013)
An eccentric academic institute recruits the broke and exhausted Max to join their highly secretive operations. She quickly discovers that their version of historical research involves dodgeballs, close escapes from dinosaurs, and a lethal internal rivalry.
2. A Symphony of Echoes (2013)
Max settles into her chaotic new career as a senior historian while dealing with escalating security threats to the institute. The team launches a series of high-stakes jumps to Victorian London and ancient Jack the Ripper eras while attempting to correct a massive internal betrayal.
2.5 When a Child is Born (2013)
This festive short story follows a quick jump back to the year 1066 to observe the official coronation of William the Conqueror. Predictably, the logistics go awry, leaving the historians scrambling to survive a cold winter night amid medieval chaos.
3. A Second Chance (2014)
The historians prepare an ambitious, elite expedition to document the dramatic fall of ancient Troy from a safe distance. The mission breaks down into a harrowing struggle for survival as the grim realities of the battlefield hit home for Max and her team.
3.5 Roman Holiday (2014)
An impromptu, highly illegal jump sends a small group of exhausted staff members to ancient Rome for a brief moment of relaxation. Their attempts at a peaceful vacation dissolve when they accidentally cross paths with high-ranking historical political figures.
4. A Trail Through Time (2014)
Max finds herself displaced and forced to navigate a series of highly volatile, unfamiliar parallel timelines to protect the people she loves. The journey takes her from the frozen streets of 17th-century London straight into dangerous corporate conspiracies.
4.5 Christmas Present (2014)
Max attempts to orchestrate a beautifully quiet, nostalgic holiday surprise for her husband by revisiting a sweet moment from their shared past. The emotional jump takes an unexpected turn when they run face-first into historical complications.
5. No Time Like the Past (2015)
An ancient, powerful enemy corners Max, forcing her to complete a grueling series of dangerous jumps through classical history. From the brutal training camps of Sparta to the magnificent courts of King Arthur, she must fight to preserve the timeline.
0.5 The Very First Damned Thing (2015)
Though structured as a prequel tracking the chaotic foundational days of the institute, this brilliant novella should be read here. It uncovers how a ragtag group of eccentric founders originally built the infrastructure of St. Mary’s.
6. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (2015)
With a fresh batch of young, highly undisciplined training recruits arriving at the institute, Max takes on a stressful supervisory role. The training jumps quickly live up to the book’s title, transforming basic exercises into chaotic fights for survival.
6.5 Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings (2015)
A highly sensitive, valuable artifact is accidentally left behind in ancient Egypt, threatening to rewrite regional history. The historians launch a frantic, stealthy recovery mission while trying to avoid the watchful eyes of ancient security forces.
7. Lies, Damned Lies, and History (2016)
Max faces deep personal and professional reckonings as hidden secrets within the institute’s upper management come to light. The historical narrative tracks a high-stakes investigation that spans centuries of hidden administrative corruption.
7.5 The Great St. Mary’s Day Out (2016)
The hard-working, battle-weary staff members are treated to a rare, peaceful day off to enjoy a local community festival. The domestic tranquility is short-lived as the team’s natural magnet for trouble turns a simple fair into a chaotic circus.
7.6 My Name is Markham (2016)
The beloved, highly eccentric security chief Mr. Markham takes center stage in this fast-paced, hilarious side adventure. The story provides a deeper look into his unique philosophy, hidden protective instincts, and bizarre logic.
8. And the Rest is History (2017)
The St. Mary’s crew is thrown into complete disarray when one of their own is captured and stranded deep in the past. The team mounts an incredibly risky, unapproved rescue operation that challenges the core rules of their profession.
8.5 A Perfect Storm (2017)
A routine observation jump into a historic meteorological event goes completely out of control due to unexpected atmospheric shifts. The historians must use every ounce of their field survival training to hold the team together.
8.6 Christmas Past (2017)
The extended St. Mary’s family gathers for their traditional, highly illegal holiday jump, choosing Victorian London as their festive destination. The nostalgic trip quickly transforms into a riotous, fast-paced chase through snowy alleys.
9. An Argumentation of Historians (2018)
The ongoing, bitter ideological war between St. Mary’s and a dangerous rogue faction reaches an absolute boiling point. Max has to coordinate multiple field teams across disparate eras to prevent the total weaponization of time travel.
9.5 The Battersea Barricades (2018)
This action-packed historical novella dives deep into a major political upheaval mentioned throughout the main books. It details how the regional security forces originally held their ground during a crucial turning point.
9.6 The Steam Pump Jump (2018)
With Max temporarily sidelined in the medical bay, the rest of the historical team must pick up the slack on a complex assignment. The resulting narrative shows how the institute functions when its main catalyst is out of commission.
10. Hope for the Best (2019)
Following massive structural shake-ups, Max struggles to find her footing in a rapidly changing world. The narrative blends deep personal grief with high-stakes jumps, illustrating the profound resilience of the remaining crew.
11. Plan for the Worst (2020)
Max takes a temporary step back from active field leadership to focus on mentoring a sharp new generation of students. However, a sudden, unprecedented global systemic threat forces her back into the field for a grueling rescue mission.
11.5 The Ordeal of the Haunted Room (2020)
A fun, atmospheric holiday jump sends a small team to investigate a legendary historical haunting inside an ancient English manor. The historians approach the mystery with cold logic, only to encounter unexpected atmospheric surprises.
12. Another Time, Another Place (2021)
The narrative explores the profound, unintended butterfly effects of past operations on modern relationships. Max is forced to complete a sequence of highly delicate corrections to ensure her own domestic timeline stays intact.
12.5 The Toast of Time (2021)
Max prepares to celebrate her very first holiday season away from the familiar, chaotic walls of the institute. The domestic experiment proves to be far more challenging than tracking ancient warlords in the field.
13. A Catalogue of Catastrophe (2022)
An absolute administrative nightmare unfolds as multiple historical eras begin to bleed into one another due to structural damage to the timeline. Max leads a frantic, cross-era cleanup operation to prevent total temporal collapse.
14. The Good, The Bad and The History (2023)
The core cast faces an epic, high-stakes showdown against entrenched corporate and political entities determined to dismantle their research program. The resulting battle tests every alliance built over the course of the series.
14.5 Christmas Pie (2023)
A lighthearted, highly chaotic holiday interlude that finds the staff dealing with an absurd internal prank war that escalates into an official historical crisis. It highlights the joyous, resilient spirit of the survivors.
14.6 Lights! Camera! Mayhem! (2024)
A strange, high-profile modern media production arrives at the institute to document their work, creating massive security hazards. Max and her team must keep their secret operations hidden while dealing with demanding actors.
14.7 Murder at Martingale Manor (2025)
The team takes a traditional holiday jump to a historic country estate, only to stumble straight into a classic, real-time murder mystery. Max has to channel her inner detective to solve the crime without altering regional history.
15. Twelfth Night (2026)
Set during a bitterly cold winter season, this latest installment finds the institute dealing with an intricate historical puzzle tied to old Elizabethan political theater. Max must navigate a web of classical deception to secure the safety of her youngest recruits.
The Time Police Spin-Off Series
This high-octane spin-off series focuses on the elite, highly structured international organization tasked with enforcing temporal laws and cleaning up the messes left behind by rogue time travelers and St. Mary’s historians. It is best started after completing Book 10 of the main series.
- Doing Time (2019) – Introduces a brilliant, highly mismatched trio of young recruits from completely different backgrounds who are forced to work together as a freshman field unit for the strict Time Police force.
- Hard Time (2020) – The young team faces their first major corporate conspiracy as they track an advanced cell of high-tech temporal smugglers operating across major metropolitan centuries.
- Saving Time (2021) – A high-stakes operation goes completely wrong, leaving the freshman officers stranded across disconnected eras without communication, forcing them to rely on pure individual grit.
- About Time (2022) – The team is pulled into a highly sensitive internal investigation that reveals deep, systemic corruption at the absolute highest levels of the police command structure.
- Killing Time (2024) – A ghostly, unmapped train car begins hurtling wildly through random centuries, forcing the officers to mount a high-speed temporal intercept mission before it causes a major collision.
- Out of Time (2025) – The definitive, high-stakes culmination of the young officers’ initial operational arc, forcing them to choose between institutional loyalty and real-world justice.
About the Author: Jodi Taylor
Jodi Taylor is an internationally bestselling British novelist who achieved massive success through an incredibly unconventional path. Born in Bristol, England, she spent many years working a regular corporate job in local government facilities management before deciding to sit down and write the story she always wanted to read.
When traditional publishers initially passed on her debut manuscript, she took a calculated risk and self-published Just One Damned Thing After Another online. Within weeks, her distinct voice, rapid-fire dialogue, and infectious humor sparked a massive word-of-mouth phenomenon that rapidly climbed the digital charts, catching the attention of major publishers. She currently lives in a beautiful, quiet corner of North Yorkshire, where she continues to expand her vast sci-fi and historical universes.
Why This Order Matters
While individual books feature self-contained historical missions that reach a clear conclusion, skipping around Jodi Taylor’s universe will completely ruin your experience. The true engine of the series is the profound, slow-burn evolution of the characters’ personal and professional lives.
Over the course of nearly two dozen books, characters fall in love, face devastating battlefield losses, get married, raise children, move up into management, and deal with long-term psychological trauma. Furthermore, the Time Police spin-off series relies heavily on global political shifts that are triggered directly by the events of the main St. Mary’s books. Following the sequence ensures you watch this incredible community grow up naturally without running into massive spoilers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “The Chronicles of St. Mary’s” a traditional sci-fi time travel series?
Not exactly. Jodi Taylor intentionally avoids spending pages explaining complex quantum physics or mechanical schematics. The time travel mechanics serve purely as a narrative vehicle to drop contemporary, deeply human characters into authentic, accurately researched historical settings like ancient Rome, the Blitz, or the Cretaceous period.
What is Jodi Taylor’s latest book?
Her latest mainline entry is Twelfth Night (Book 15 of the St. Mary’s series), published in late 2026. This follows her high-stakes 2025 releases, Murder at Martingale Manor and the Time Police thriller Out of Time.
Do I need to read the novellas to understand the main St. Mary’s plot?
While you can technically understand the core plots of the main novels without them, it is highly discouraged to skip the short stories. Jodi Taylor uses her festive novellas to introduce critical character relationships, resolve minor cliffhangers, and showcase important personal milestones that directly impact the start of the next main book.
Verdicts and Recommendations
The Final Verdict: For the ultimate, mind-bending ride through historical chaos and British humor, start immediately with Just One Damned Thing After Another. Stick strictly to the publication checklist to ensure you experience every single cheer, laugh, and heartbreak exactly as the author mapped them out.
This universe is a perfect match for: Fans of Connie Willis’s time-travel books who wish the characters had a bit more snark, devotees of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next adventures, and anyone who appreciates a smart, fiercely resilient protagonist who knows that the best response to a temporal crisis is a hot cup of strong tea.
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