Michelle Spring Books In Order

Publication Order of Laura Principal Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Michelel Spring is a renowned Canadian writer of thriller, mystery, and suspense stories. She is particularly well known for writing the Laura Principal book series. Also, there are several academic books to her credit. The crime thriller novels of author Spring are known to combine forensic interest and psychological insight into social issues. Her debut book, Every Breath You Take, was nominated for two prestigious international awards. The fifth in the series Laura Principal is the winner of the Arthur Ellis award. Prior to beginning her career in the field of novel writing, Spring worked as a sociology professor at Anglia Ruskin University. She has also worked as a lecturer on political and social issues at Cambridge University.

Under her birth name of Michelle Stanworth, Spring has written and published 4 volumes of academic books based on social issues. She has also co-written a textbook on Introductory Sociology. Spring has held RLF Fellow posts in 3 colleges of Cambridge. This has enabled her to combine her writing expertise with her teaching experience to help students develop a more effective form of communication. Even today, Spring tutors undergraduate students at Newnham & Christ’s and postgraduates at the Jesus College in Cambridge. Author Spring takes a keen interest in developing new literary writers. She has mentored a number of them in completing their first book.

Spring holds a chair in the judging and mentoring panel of the Writers’ Center’s Escalator project in Norwich. This project is aimed at promoting and supporting emerging writers. Currently, Spring is working on her latest novel, a historical tale set in Canada in the last years of the nineteenth century. Spring was born as Michelle Stanworth in 1951 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was brought up in Victoria, Vancouver Island, and became hooked to the books of Nancy Drew as early as six years of age. She was down with tuberculosis and undergoing treatment at the hospital when her father filled her room with her favorite food items and Nancy Drew novels. Spring claims that she fainted with excitement when she was about to read her first mystery book at the age of eight. So, her mother forbade her from reading crime stories unless she reached her teenage years.

As Spring reached adolescence, her interest in reading crime and mystery books deepened as she became more involved in reading the books of authors such as Daphne Du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, etc. In 1969, Spring relocated to England to join the Anglia University as a professor of sociology. She has spent over 20 years of her life in classrooms, teaching sociology and carrying out experiments to understand the teaching’s inequity based on students’ gender. In her investigation, she found that the teachers of elementary school were attached to male students more than the female students. Later, Spring discussed the implications of her social experiment and its findings in her first academic book.

As of today, Spring resides in Cambridge along with her loving husband and two kids. She spends most of her time writing stories and working towards the mentoring and development of aspiring writers. In her spare time, Spring loves to be in the company of her family and spend some quality time with them. All of her books have been published under the banner of Orion publication in the United Kingdom, Random House publication in Canada, and Ballantine publication in the United States. Spring’s crime novels have been translated into several foreign languages such as Dutch, German, French, Russian, and Finnish. Besides her independent works, Spring has collaborated with Laurie R. King in 2013 to write Crime & Thriller Writing: A writers’ and artists’ companion, which contains 26 essays filled with insights from some of the top writers of the genre. She has previously collaborated with King in 2012 to write another nonfiction book.

The Laura Principal series written by author Michelle Spring began in 1994. It is comprised of a total of 5 books so far, with the last book having been published in 2001. Every book of this series features the chief protagonist in the role of Laura Principal. She is depicted as an academic living in Cambridge, England, who turns into a private investigator to solve the mysterious cases of murder in and around Cambridge. Several other important characters mentioned in the series by Spring include Thomas Butler, Daryll Flatt, May Ball, Katie Arkwright, Timmy Cable, etc. The debut book of this series is entitled ‘Every Breath You Take’. It was originally released in 1994 and released in 1999 by Ballantine Books. Initially, it is shown that 3 career women consider Wildfell Oasis as their serene weekend place. Their lives seem to have taken strange turns all of a sudden.

The three of them are not properly acquainted when one of them turns up dead. Laura Principal, who is the other woman in the group, is determined to get to the bottom of the woman’s mysterious death. It turns out that someone entered the life of a woman while she had all her focus on her career and killed her out of rage. In her investigation, Laura Principal important clues that lead her to untangle a web of hypocrisy and secrets.

Another mind-blowing book of this series called ‘Running for Shelter’. It was published by the Fawcett publication in 2000, after its first release in 1995. This book opens by depicting that Laura Principal visits the mansion of a theatrical producer named Thomas Butler in London. She is greeted by a young maid at the door and asked to come inside. As soon as Laura steps inside the mansion, she is plunged into a deep-rooted mystery and fears to get involved any further. Laura is asked by the maid to help her located some missing money. But, the same night, she disappears mysteriously. When Laura inquires the neighbors, she comes to know that the maid was abducted. But, the Butlers are not willing to accept that any such person lived in their mansion. Laura’s determination to help the innocent maid enables her to unravel the terrible truth and make the culprits pay for their heinous crimes. However, she has a tough time proving the crime and the involvement of the main culprit.