Every Penrose Street novel stands alone. You can pick up any of the four and get a complete story with a real ending. But Aberly is a small town, and the people in it keep turning up in each other’s lives. Reading in order is the best way to watch the town fill in.
The reading order
- The Last Stop on Mill Row: Maggie Lisowski and Leo Ferrante (August 2025 – August 2026). A school-bus contractor finds her grandchildren on her own route sheet, and the man she can’t stand on the other side of a custody fight.
- The Year Rita Got Lucky: Rita Szabo and Vince Pagano (November 2025 – September 2026). A night-shift clerk wins $3.2 million, and finds out who needs her, who loves her, and the difference.
- Sing It Back to Me: Roz Bevan and Huw Jenkins (March – December 2026). The chapel organist is losing her hearing; the choir’s loudest bass can’t read a note.
- Before the Creek Rises: Diane Oberholtzer and Wes Kemmerer (January – September 2027). A new councilwoman holds the deciding vote, and she’s falling for the farmer selling the land.
Books One through Three overlap in time, so a moment that is in the background of one book may be front and center in another. The recommended order is publication order, as listed above.
Familiar faces
Without giving anything away: the bus contractor from Book One finds Book Two’s heroine a lawyer, the chapel organist turns up at everyone’s big moments, and nobody in Aberly gets to keep a secret for long.
Where to start
Start with Book One, The Last Stop on Mill Row. You can read the first chapter free right here on the site.
More Penrose Street novels are on the way. Newsletter readers will hear about them first.