Neely Tucker Books In Order

Publication Order of Sully Carter Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Neely Tucker is a well known journalist, author, and novelist from Washington, D.C., United States. He is particularly famous for writing the Sully Carter series. Author Tucker works for the Washington Post as a journalist. In the world of writing, his first novel was Love in Driest Season. Following the success of this book, author Tucker shifted his focus towards the mystery and suspense genres, and began writing the Sully Carter books. Prior to the start of his journalism career, Tucker was employed in Zimbabwe with the job of a foreign correspondent. The job required him to stay in Zimbabwe, where he was given company by his beautiful wife named Vita. The couple also adopted a kid from the place where they used to live in Zimbabwe. As of today, author Tucker enjoys his dual careers in the fields of journalism and novel-writing. He is currently employed to write for the Style section at Washington Post. In his free times from journalistic work, he sits down to develop the plots of his mystery books. Author Tucker was born on November 26, 1963, in Lexington, Mississippi, US. He was brought up by his parents Duane and Elizabeth Tucker in Mississippi. Author Tucker has a younger brother known as Duane Jr. Currently, author Tucker resides along with his family on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. He is actively involved in sports and has his favorite teams as New Orlean Saints and Mississippi State. Author Tucker his initial education from the Starkville Academy, where he used to write for the newspaper of the school and play football.

After the completion of his graduation, Tucker enrolled himself at the University of Mississippi State. However, he went on to obtain his degree from the Mississippi University. During his graduation year, author Tucker was chosen as the most outstanding student of journalism at graduation in the year 1986. Throughout his journalist career, Tucker has worked as a reporter in over 60 countries of the world. When he was studying in university, Tucker was working for Oxford Eagle based in Mississippi. And following his graduation, he received a job offer from Florida Today and gladly accepted it. Over the course of the next few years, Tucker worked for Miami Herald, national wire service of Gannett, etc. Later, he joined the Detroit Free Press with the post of foreign correspondent. A 7th generation Mississippian, Tucker has seen the poorest of times in his early days. During his reporting jobs in foreign countries, he used to cover violent uprisings or civil wars in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Tucker’s writing career started quite well with his debut memoir. It was included in the top 25 books’ list of 2004 by the Publisher’s Weekly. Besides this, it was also well received by the Library of New York City and the Association of American Booksellers. The memoir has also won a few prestigious awards. After the success of the memoir, author Tucker wrote a standalone novel called Life After Death. This novel was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Also, the first book of his Sully Carter novel series has earned praise from many literary critics. The Kirkus Review has stated that there is no other satisfying sight that an author who knows very well what he is doing, and keeps getting better at it. Author Tucker says that he received a great inspiration from the great authors like Toni Morrison, Ann Pratchett, William Faulkner, Richard Price, Dennnis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, Raymond Chandler, etc.

The Sully Carter series written by Neely Tucker is comprised of 3 books in total, which were released between the years 2014 and 2016. All the books depict the main character as Sully Carter, who is shown as a veteran journalist and an alcoholic. He served as a correspondent in war-stricken Bosnia and got injured. Now, he reports for the Washington D.C. Metro. Sully is known to look for the facts and reality, no matter how much difficulty he has to go through while doing so. The events in the books take place from late 1990’s to early 2000’s, when newspaper reporting was considered a real thing. The debut book of this series is entitled ‘The Ways of the Dead’. It was released in 2014 by the Viking publication. Author Tucker has introduced the primary characters in this book’s plot as Sarah Reese, Sully Carter, and several others. At the start of the book’s story, Sarah Reese is shown as a powerful judge’s teenage daughter from Washington DC. She is found dead in the slum, following which the police arrest 3 local kids. When Sully Carter comes to know about this case, he thinks that there is more to the murder case that what it looks like. He suspects that the slaying of Sarah Reese might be linked with a series of other cold cases that the police was unable to solve. The disappearance of a university student is one such case. Sully finds that the city is rife with the intrigue and treachery brand of is own. He searches through the shady back streets and broad avenues of the city on his motorcycle in search of the truth. And in spite of the tremendous pressure from the police brass, government officials, suspicious locals, etc., Sully continues to find the truth about the brutal murders.

The next thrilling novel of this series is called ‘Murder, D.C.’. It was also released by Viking in 2015. The principle characters described in this novel by author Tucker include Billy Ellison and Sully Carter. At the beginning of the story, Billy Ellison is introduced as the son of the most powerful Afro-American family in Washington DC. When his dead body discovered close to a drug haven, Sully Carter realizes that it is time for him to carry another murder investigation. The police seem quite unsuccessful in finding any lead in the case and Sully pressurized to leave the investigation. This makes him suspect that the murder case involves much more than just bad drug deal or a family misfortune. Later, he discovers that the actual story stretches into the most powerful and influential social circles of DC. Sully knows that he must bring out the truth as soon as possible so as to bring peace in the city. But, he receives continuous threats from the ones who do not want him to bring out the reality of Billy Ellison’s murder. Sully does not trust anyone but his old ally named Alexis. She is a fearless and sexy photographer, who works with Sully to reach out to the truth. But, even she finds it very risky to get involved in Billy’s case as she thinks that Sully has picked up a fight against the most deadly and powerful people from the city.