🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Robert Traver
About Robert Traver John D. Voelker, better known by his pen name Robert Traver, worked as a prosecutor in Michigan before becoming a state Supreme Court justice. Under his writing alias, he shared his deep understanding of law and human nature through fiction. His stories often featured well-drawn characters who felt real, with flaws and strengths that made them relatable. Readers enjoyed his knack for blending legal insight with engaging storytelling. Traver’s writing stood out because he made even complex legal situations easy to follow and exciting. His protagonists were often sharp, thoughtful, and full of personality, pulling readers into their world. He had a talent for crafting narratives that balanced tension, humor, and authenticity.
All Book Series by Robert Traver
Trout Streams of Michigan
Book 4 of 5 · published 1985 Co-authored · Janet D. Mehl,Mitch Smith
Independent Man: The Life of Senator James Couzens
Series opener · book 1 of 78 · published 1958 Anthology · Harry Barnard,David L. Lewis
The Detroit Riot of 1967
Book 2 of 78 · published 1969 Anthology · Hubert G. Locke
Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence
Book 3 of 78 · published 1972 Anthology · B.J. Widick,Horace L. Sheffield Jr.
Waiting for the Morning Train
Book 4 of 78 · published 1972 Anthology · Bruce Catton,William B. Catton
Call It North Country
Book 5 of 78 · published 1986 Anthology · John Bartlow Martin
Danny and the Boys: Being Some Legends of Hungry Hollow
Book 6 of 78 · published 1987
Michigan Voices: Our State’s History in the Words of the People Who Lived It
Book 7 of 78 · published 1987 Anthology · Joe Grimm
Seasons of Grace: A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Book 8 of 78 · published 1990 Anthology · Leslie Woodcock Tentler,Edmund Cardinal Szoka
Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit
Book 9 of 78 · published 1991 Anthology · Richard Bak
John Jacob Astor: Business and Finance in the Early Republic
Book 10 of 78 · published 1991 Anthology · John D. Haeger
Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit, 1919-1933
Book 12 of 78 · published 1994 Anthology · Richard Bak
The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes
Book 13 of 78 · published 1994 Anthology · Charles K. Hyde,Ann Mahan,John Mahan
Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit
Book 14 of 78 · published 1997 Anthology · June Manning Thomas
The Long Winter Ends
Book 15 of 78 · published 1998 Anthology · Newton G. Thomas,William Mulligan
All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement
Book 16 of 78 · published 1998 Anthology · Carlotta R. Anderson
Toast of the Town: The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson
Book 17 of 78 · published 1998 Anthology · Sunnie Wilson,John Cohassey
Father Abraham's Children: Michigan Episodes in the Civil War
Book 18 of 78 · published 1998 Anthology · Frank B. Woodford,Arthur M. Woodford
Huron: The Seasons of a Great Lake
Book 19 of 78 · published 1999 Anthology · Napier Shelton
A Sailor's Logbook: A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters
Book 20 of 78 · published 1999 Anthology · Mark L. Thompson
"Expanding the Frontiers of Civil Rights": Michigan, 1948-1968
Book 21 of 78 · published 2000 Anthology · Sidney Fine
Graveyard of the Lakes
Book 22 of 78 · published 2000 Anthology · Mark L. Thompson
Great Lakes Journey: A New Look at America's Freshwater Coast
Book 23 of 78 · published 2000 Anthology · William Ashworth
History of the Finns in Michigan
Book 24 of 78 · published 2001 Anthology · Armas K.E. Holmio,Ellen M. Ryynanen
Uppermost Canada: The Western District and the Detroit Frontier, 1800-1850
Book 25 of 78 · published 2002 Anthology · R. Alan Douglas
Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors
Book 26 of 78 · published 2002 Anthology · Joe Grimm,Ivan Walton
Michigan's Early Military Forces: A Roster and History of Troops Activated Prior to the American Civil War
Book 27 of 78 · published 2003 Anthology · Leroy Barnett
Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation
Book 28 of 78 · published 2003 Anthology · Charles K. Hyde
The French Canadians of Michigan: Their Contribution to the Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840-1914
Book 29 of 78 · published 2003 Anthology · Jean Lamarre
Beyond the Windswept Dunes: The Story of Maritime Michigan
Book 30 of 78 · published 2003 Anthology · Elizabeth B. Sherman
A Hanging in Detroit: Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution under Michigan Law
Book 31 of 78 · published 2003 Anthology · David Gardner Chardavoyne
Roy D. Chapin: The Man Behind the Hudson Motor Car Company
Book 32 of 78 · published 2003 Anthology · Charles K. Hyde,J.C. Long
Angels in the Architecture: A Photographic Elegy to an American Asylum
Book 33 of 78 · published 2004 Anthology · Heidi Johnson
Pulling Down the Barn: Memories of a Rural Childhood
Book 34 of 78 · published 2004 Anthology · Anne-Marie Oomen
To Keep the South Manitou Light
Book 35 of 78 · published 2004 Anthology · Anna Egan Smucker
"I Hope to Do My Country Service" : The Civil War Letters of John Bennitt, M.D., Surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry
Book 36 of 78 · published 2005 Anthology · Robert Beasecker,William M. Anderson
The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy
Book 37 of 78 · published 2005 Anthology · Charles K. Hyde
Songquest: The Journals of Great Lakes Folklorist Ivan H. Walton
Book 38 of 78 · published 2005 Anthology · Joe Grimm,Ivan H. Walton
Under Michigan: The Story of Michigan's Rocks and Fossils
Book 39 of 78 · published 2005 Anthology · Charles Ferguson Barker
My Forty Years With Ford
Book 40 of 78 · published 2006 Anthology · John Kenneth Galbraith
House of Fields: Memories of a Rural Education
Book 41 of 78 · published 2006 Anthology · Anne-Marie Oomen
A Pocketful of Passage
Book 42 of 78 · published 2007 Anthology · Loraine Campbell
Detroit on Stage: The Players Club, 1910-2005
Book 43 of 78 · published 2007 Anthology · Marijean Levering
A Badger Boy in Blue: The Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke
Book 44 of 78 · published 2007 Anthology · William H. Mulligan Jr.
Life with Mae: A Detroit Family Memoir
Book 45 of 78 · published 2007 Anthology · Neal Shine
When You Come Home: A Wartime Courtship in Letters 1941-45
Book 46 of 78 · published 2007 Anthology · Neal Shine,Robert E. Quirk
Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson, and American Motors
Book 48 of 78 · published 2009 Anthology · Charles K. Hyde
Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation
Book 49 of 78 · published 2009 Anthology · Anthony J. Yanik
The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights
Book 50 of 78 · published 2010 Anthology · Steve Babson,Dave Riddle,David Elsila
Monopoly on Wheels: Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent
Book 51 of 78 · published 2011 Anthology · William Greenleaf,David L. Lewis
Iron Will: Cleveland-Cliffs and the Mining of Iron Ore, 1847-2006
Book 52 of 78 · published 2011 Anthology · Terry S. Reynolds,Virginia P. Dawson
The Fall and Recapture of Detroit in the War of 1812: In Defense of William Hull
Book 53 of 78 · published 2011 Anthology · Anthony J. Yanik
Lake Superior Profiles : People on the Big Lake
Book 54 of 78 · published 2012 Anthology · John Gagnon
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan: People, Law, and Politics
Book 55 of 78 · published 2012 Anthology · David G. Chardavoyne
Among the Enemy: A Michigan Soldier's Civil War Journal
Book 56 of 78 · published 2013 Anthology · Mark Hoffman,William Horton Kimball
The Political Activities of Detroit Clubwomen in the 1920s: A Challenge and a Promise
Book 57 of 78 · published 2013 Anthology · Jayne Morris-Crowther
Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II
Book 59 of 78 · published 2013 Anthology · Charles K. Hyde
"Old Slow Town": Detroit during the Civil War
Book 60 of 78 · published 2013 Anthology · PaulTaylor
Great Girls in Michigan History
Book 61 of 78 · published 2015 Anthology · Patricia Majher
Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Rev. Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit
Book 62 of 78 · published 2015 Anthology · Julia Marie Robinson
Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years
Book 63 of 78 · published 2015 Anthology · Sidney Olsen
Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845-1933
Book 64 of 78 · published 2015 Anthology · Michael W. Nagle
A Beaver Tale: The Castors of Conners Creek
Book 65 of 78 · published 2016 Anthology · Gerald Wykes
Lake Invaders: Invasive Species and the Battle for the Future of the Great Lakes
Book 66 of 78 · published 2016 Anthology · William Rapai
Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture
Book 67 of 78 · published 2017 Anthology · MichaelG.Smith
To the Copper Country: Mihaela's Journey
Book 68 of 78 · published 2017 Anthology · Barbara Carney-Coston
Roads to Prosperity: Economic Development Lessons from Midsize Canadian Cities
Book 69 of 78 · published 2017 Anthology · Gary S. Sands
Survival and Regeneration: Detroit’s American Indian Community
Book 70 of 78 · published 2017 Anthology · Edmund Jefferson Danziger Jr.
Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company
Book 71 of 78 · published 2018 Anthology · C. Roger Pellett
Bold Boys in Michigan History
Book 72 of 78 · published 2018 Anthology · Patricia Majher
John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age
Book 73 of 78 · published 2018 Anthology · Brian C. Wilson
Rosie, A Detroit Herstory
Book 74 of 78 · published 2018 Anthology · Bailey Sisoy Isgro
Greening the Black Urban Regime: The Culture and Commerce of Sustainability in Detroit
Book 75 of 78 · published 2020 Anthology · Alesia Montgomery
What the Chickadee Knows
Book 76 of 78 · published 2020 Anthology · Margaret Noodin
A Lincoln Legacy: The History of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan
Book 77 of 78 · published 2020 Anthology · David Gardner Chardavoyne,Hugh W. Brenneman Jr
I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier’s Account of World War I
Latest in the series · book 78 of 78 · published 2020 Anthology · Hilary Connor
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Robert Traver?
About Robert Traver John D. Voelker, better known by his pen name Robert Traver, worked as a prosecutor in Michigan before becoming a state Supreme Court justice. Under his writing alias, he shared his deep understanding of law and human nature through fiction.
Which Robert Traver series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Great Lakes series, the earliest of Robert Traver's multi-book series: it opens with Independent Man: The Life of Senator James Couzens (1958) and runs to 78 books across 1958–2020, ending with I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier’s Account of World War I (2020).
How many books has Robert Traver written?
Robert Traver has 89 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1954 and 2020. 78 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Great Lakes series with 78 books — and 11 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Robert Traver's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Robert Traver's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Great Lakes (1958–2020, 78 books).
How are Robert Traver's books organised into series?
This guide splits Robert Traver's 89 books into 1 named series and 11 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Great Lakes (78 books, 1958–2020).