Castlemere Mysteries Books In Order

Publication Order of Castlemere Books

The Castlemere Mysteries series is a series of mystery, crime fiction, and thriller books written by one of the noteworthy British novelists named Jo Bannister. This series is comprised of a total of 7 books, which were released between the years 1993 and 2000. Author Bannister has set the series in Castlemere, England, The United Kingdom. Each and every book of the series follows the events in the life of the chief characters named Chief Inspector Frank Shapiro, Sergeant Cal Donovan, and Inspector Liz Graham. These form a team and go on to solve various mysteries that take place in Castlemere. Author Bannister began writing this series in the year 1993 and the same year he published its debut book titled as A Bleeding of Innocents. After contributing with a total of 7 books in this crime fiction series, author Bannister finished it in the year 2000. Its final novel war released under the title of Changelings. As the series begins, author Bannister has shown that the Castlemere’s forces are overworked and they include an angry Irishman named Cal Donovan and an ambitious lady named Liz Graham. These two form a team and begin to investigate a series of shotgun murders in the city. Both of them do not twice before putting their lives in the line of duty so as to put a deadly murderer behind the bars.

As the mystery series progresses, author Bannister has shown that a prostitute gets killed on Castlemere’s canal dock. Before this, one more murder had taken place in the city in a similar manner. Due to this, Donovan and Graham become suspicious that a vagabond preacher has arrived in the town and one of the old friends of Donovan, who was believed to be dead is also involved in it. Both the investigators move ahead in the investigation to catch a killer on the loose. It becomes necessary to catch him soon because he hides himself in plain sight and looks to kill again. In the next part of the series, Liz and Donovan are given the task of investigating about the fires that have been slowly burning down the Castlemere town. The case takes a new turn when the son of Frank Shapiro becomes one of the suspects. As a result, Frank goes to extreme ends to get the name of his son cleared of the crime. Donovan and Graham find out how desperate Frank is to save his son because he knows that he is innocent.

One of the books published initially in the Castlemere Mysteries series written by author Jo Bannister is titled as ‘Charisma’. It was released by Simon and Schuster in the year 1994. At the start of the book, it is depicted that no one in the Castlemere town seems to care much about a 16 year old prostitute named Charisma. Later, her dead body is discovered floating near the docks of Castlemere. The police finds out that Charisma was killed by slashing her throat. At this point, Liz Graham is introduced into the plot, who seems to have arrived very recently in Castlemere. She had not even unpacked her stuff and gets a call to join the leading team that is tasked to investigate Charisma’s killing. Her investigation into the hard life and gruesome death of Charisma allows Liz find some distressing facts about her. Later, Liz Graham comes to know at a distance of a few yards from the place of discovery of Charima’s body, a few workmen have been employed to raise tents. This is being done to house the week long revival meeting of a popular traveling evangelist named Michael Davey. Cal Donovan also joins the investigation and begins to question the workmen. He is not able to get any useful information until he comes across a known face from his childhood. This IRA official was presumed to be dead, but his shocking rise from the dead makes Donovan and Liz think that they are dealing with something big and dangerous. But, before they could take their next step, one more girl is found dead. In order to get to the bottom of the mystery, Liz decides to tackle the reverend himself, who seems to have become a sensation in the whole of Castlemere. In the process, she gets fascinated by the reverend. But, Liz does not leave behind her suspicion that he could be involved in the deaths of the young girls. And so, she and Donovan continue to investigate the case without getting distracted or pressurized by anyone.

One of the other popular books successfully written and published in this series is titled as ‘No Birds Sing’. It was released by the Worldwide Library in the year 1996. In the starting sequence of the novel, author Bannister has shown that the canal town of England named Castlemere seems to be a hard luck place as it constantly provides difficult challenges to its team of hardworking detectives, Cal Donovana and Liz Graham. However, this time the town puts the skills of Inspector Graham, Sergeant Donovan, and Superintendent Shapiro to test in some of the very personal manners. As the story of the book moves ahead, the detectives come to know that a string of crimes is violently taking place in the town. These include a ring of dog fighting, several train robberies, and brutal rapist roaming freely in the area. In order to deal with all these criminal activities, Frank Shapiro decides to put Cal and Liz undercover. This way, they can work efficiently without facing any personal problems at the time of duty. They find that the rapist is targeting only the successful, blond, and fortyish women. As Liz fits into the profit very well, she decides to act as a decoy. However, she seems to be rather unprepared for the repercussions in her marriage, the department, as well as herself. On the other hand, Cal Donovan tries to get his hands on the pit bull fighting circles by joining their vicious ranks. In the events that follow later in the plot, both the cases tend to take extremely shocking and brutal turns. And this makes both the detectives take some desperate measures as quickly as possible in order to solve the cases as well as save their own life in the dangerous circles of the criminal world.