James Reasoner

When talking about the authors who used pseudo names and remained a mystery for decades, James Reasoner an American author tops the list. He used Jim Austin, Tabor Evans, Peter Danielson, Wesley Ellis, Terrance Duncan, Jake Foster, Tom Early, William Grant, Livia James, Matthew Hart, Justin Ladd, Mike Jameson, Hank Mitchum, Jake Logan, Lee Morgan and J.L. Reasoner as his alias. That is really a long list of pseudo names.

The best place to start is the Wagons West series, the earliest of James Reasoner's multi-book series: it opens with Independence! (1979) and runs to 25 books across 1979–2012, ending with Texas Freedom! (2012). James Reasoner's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

James Reasoner has 337 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1979 and 2026. 272 of them belong to 32 named series — the largest being the Stagecoach Station series with 52 books — and 65 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. James Reasoner's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Wagons West (1979–2012, 25 books), Children Of The Lion (1980–1995, 19 books) and Markham P.I. (1980–1982, 2 books), plus 27 more.

This guide splits James Reasoner's 337 books into 32 named series and 65 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Stagecoach Station (52 books, 1982–1991); Wagons West (25 books, 1979–2012); Children Of The Lion (19 books, 1980–1995); Abilene (16 books, 1988–1990); Cody's Law (12 books, 1991–1995), plus 27 further series.