Antony Maitland Books In Order

Publication Order of Antony Maitland Books

The Antony Maitland book series is a popular series of mystery, suspense, and thriller novels. It is written by a renowned English novelist named Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd under the pseudonym of Sara Woods. The series consists of 49 books in total, starting from 1961 and ending in 1987. Some of the important characters depicted by Sara Woods in the books of this series include Alfred Baker, Antony Maitland, Vera Langhorne, Lydia, Jeremy Skelton, Emma Anstey, Ellen Gray, Malcolm Harte, Nicholas Harding, Kevin O’Brien, Harry Charlton, Mrs. Seldon, Victoria Buckley, Leonard Buckley, Elizabeth Coke, John Ryder, Veronica Proctor, Samuel Keats, Simon Winthrop, Oliver Linwood, Inspector Mayhew, William Cassell, Barbara Wentworth, Michael Godson, and several others. Sara has set the novels in different villages in the English countryside.

An excellent novel of the Antony Maitland series written by author Sara Woods is entitled ‘This is Fatal Writ’. It was released by the St. Martin publication in 1979. The novel opens by depicting that Harry Charlton has a strong and simple case going on against him. He works as an investigative journalist and is charged with gaining a Top Secret project’s knowledge from the Fenton Laboratory in London without proper authority. Also, the prosecution says that Harry Charlton sold that sensitive information to an agent from Russia. The charges against Harry Charlton were based on three different items: some incriminating papers discovered in his apartment; a large amount having been transferred to a bank account in his name, and an independent witness overhearing a conversation involving and another suspicious person.

One of Harry Charlton’s well-wishers approached Antony Maitland to defend him in court saying that neither he has not sold any information to any agent nor he acquired any top-secret information. But, Antony refused to take the case and represent Charlton. Later, after the involvement of an old friend, Antony Maitland decides to change his mind. Even though he agrees to defend Harry Charlton, he still did not like the case as he doubted the innocence of Harry Charlton. So, Antony did not want to fancy taking on the country’s security services when his own client might turn out to be guilty. Later, an important witness in the case gets murdered and the suspicion goes to Harry Charlton once again. The murderer knew that the laboratory staff will be interrogated in the case of information leak and so he decided to close his mouth permanently. This incident makes Antony take a different approach to the case. For the first time, he thinks that Charlton might not be guilty and so, he takes up a detective’s role again with the intention of getting to the bottom of the mystery and revealing the name of the real culprit.

Another mindblowing novel written in the series is known as ‘Enter the Gentlewoman’. This book was also released by St Martin in 1982. The lead characters depicted in this novel include Elizabeth Coke, Antony Maitland, Nicholas Harding, and Edward Coke. This book opens by mentioning that Elizabeth Coke has filed for divorce from her husband Edward Coke, who works as a solicitor. But, she is not ready to wait for 3 years for the process to complete. Elizabeth claims that Edward has treated her with exceptional depravity and so she wants the divorce process to get completed as soon as possible. To prove her claims in court, Elizabeth Coke hires the services of a well-known barrister named Nicholas Harding.

Edward Coke is also ready to fight the case against Elizabeth in court, but he has filed for a libel case. He claims that his wife talked about the exceptional depravity in a letter written to one of her friends and explained it in great detail. And, as the letter was shown to many friends, it comes can be treated as being published. To defend his case in court, Edward Coke hires Antony Maitland, the nephew of Sir Nicholas Harding. Now, it is not just the husband and wife fighting against each other in court, but a nephew and his uncle as well. Both of them are experts in this profession and the case becomes a matter of reputation for them. Neither of them is ready is back as each thinks that their client right and so, the other one should back out. Finally, the case opens in court and the trial begins to find out who is the culprit and who is the victim.

Sara Woods was a well known British author of thriller, suspense, and mystery stories. Her real name was Lana H. Bowen-Judd. She is particularly famous for creating the character of English barrister and detective Antony Maitland, who features in her long-running series of the same name. In addition to using her own name for writing mystery novels, Sara used other pseudonyms such as Margaret Lee, Mary Chillis, and Anne Burton. Sara’s husband, Antony G. Bowen-Judd, always supported her in her writing projects. He used to proofread her work and suggest important corrections and edits be made so that her story would appear more convincing.

Sara was born on March 07, 1922, as Eileen Hutton. Her hometown was Bradford, Yorkshire; where she completed her school education. When the Second World War was going on, Sara Woods was working in a clerical position in London. She was also employed in a bank for some time. The information she gained while working in these jobs was used to write her novel later. Sara met her and married Antony in 1946. From 1948 to 1954, she lived on a farm with Antony, where they reared pigs. In 1957, the couple changed their residence to Nova Scotia in Canada. Sara took the job of a registrar and worked there until 1964. It was in the early 1960s that Sara had started writing stories in her free time. She published her first book in 1961.

Following the worldwide release of the book, Sara quit her day job and settled down to write full time. Sara Woods was a proud member of several writers’ associations during her career, including the Society of Authors, MWA, Authors League of America, and the English CWA. Even though Sara resided away from her country of birth for a large part of her life, she liked to set her novels there. Sara’s death occurred on November 6, 1985. She was buried in Toronto, Canada. Many noteworthy critics hold high regard for her work and see her as one of the revolutionary authors of her time.