Mr. Rogers:
I would suggest 2 books, neither of which were written by Catholics, but both personally find are well done. First, “The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine: Vol 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600), by Jaroslav Pelikan. For the record, he was a Lutheran when he did the work, but later in life became an Eastern Orthodox Christian, due to his ancestry on one of his parents side being Eastern European. He had a great respect for the Western Catholic Tradition and wrote a moving editorial about John Paul II, after his death, and the workd JPII did to heal the breach between Rome and the East.
The second work, much more pithy, is a work by the Anglican Church History scholar Henry Chadwhich called The Early Church published in The Penguin History of the Church.
Hope this helps
I’ve ordered The Early Church ($6.50 including shipping from Amazon), and have bookmarked The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine: Vol 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)...$15.64.
However, I need to build a horse shelter this week, so I’m going to fall behind in all the books FReepers have recommended for me...