Robert Ellis Books In Order

Publication Order of Detective Matt Jones Books

Publication Order of Lena Gamble Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Robert Ellis is one of the noteworthy authors of America who likes to writ his novels based on the crime fiction genre. Most of the books written by him are set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., etc. However, his novels are primarily set in Los Angeles, California, the place where he has spent most of his growing up days before shifting to the East Coast. Author Ellis was born in the year 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was very much encouraged by his parents right from his childhood days for pursuing his interest in art. During his teenage days, author Ellis used to play rhythm guitar in a number of garage bands and also used to look after and manage the kitchen at a night club called as The Main Point, located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. By doing so, he used to get the opportunity of meeting and hanging out with several greats of jazz and blues, including Chick Corea, Muddy Waters, Larry Coryell, Al DI Meola, as well as a few others.

When author Ellis was a small boy, he witnessed the murder of a 15 year old girl near his house and was very much haunted by the incident. He was still haunted when he grew up and began taking an interest in crime fiction novels. His interests in crime fiction began to evolve further after watching Alfred Hitchcock movies and novels written by popular writers such as John Buchan, Dashiell Hammett, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. After a few years, author Ellis decided to give up his interests in music in order to concentrate on his study in film-making and writing. In order to take an in-depth knowledge about the crime genre, he began attending murder trials by skipping his classes in school. The experiences that author Ellis gained from these events enabled him to write several short stories in the beginning. He also became successful in achieving the position of the co-editor of his school newspaper.

After completing his school studies, author Ellis joined the Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio, and majored in philosophy and film-making. Later, he graduated as a summa cum laude. During one point in his life, he involved in a catastrophic crash while traveling in his car, but survived somehow. After that, he decided to become a screenwriter and started studying with Walter Tevis, who is a well known author himself, having written the popular novels like The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Color of Money. Initially, author Ellis began to try and make a career in television, film, and advertising. The first film on which he worked was produced by National Geographic and was titled as ‘The Greta Lake States’. It eventually went on to receive the Best Educational Documentary award at the New York Film Festival. At one point in his career, everything changed when he was asked to gather the surveillance footage of a notorious mobster who was contesting for the political office in New Jersey. When he pointed his camera lens towards the subject, he froze for a moment, thinking that the lens was a rifle. From that moment onward, he realized that the horrific world that author Dashiell Hammett has perfectly described in his books was still alive and will always continue to be so. After that, Ellis started his work on the screenplay of ‘Access to Power’, which also went on to become his debut novel later.

One of the crime fiction series written by author Robert Ellis was titled as ‘Lena Gamble’. This series consists of 3 books which were published between the years 2007 and 2011. Each book in this series features Lena Gamble as a homicide detective located in Los Angeles. The initial novel in the series was published under the title ‘City of Fire’. It was released by the Minotaur publishers in the year 2007. At the start of the book, it is shown that a young woman is found dead in her bed beside her husband and brutally carved with a sharp knife from throat to belly. When Lena Gamble is asked to work on the case and find out the killer, he quickly responds to the best case scenario that the woman’s husband is the killer and asks to close the case. But, she very well knows that the best case scenarios do not work in real life.

The murder of Nikki Brant appears to be the first murder case involving beautiful and young women, which are believed to be committed by a single serial killer. Lena considers the case to be an important one for her because her promotion and downfall with disgrace both depend on whether she is able to solve the case or not. As she moves ahead with her investigation, a massive forest fire breaks out and fills the whole city with acrid smoke. This makes her realize that a conspiracy is going on to stop her from completing the investigation of the murder cases of young women and catching the serial killer. After a while, Lena comes to know that the web of the conspiracy is spread more intricately than she could have ever imagined. Now, she only wishes to complete the investigation and close the case as soon as possible by bringing the killer to justice.

The second book in the Lena Gamble series was released under the title ‘The Lost Witness’. It was published by the Minotaur publishers in the year 2009 and takes place in Los Angeles, California, United States. The book opens up with Lena Gamble shown as a cop. Even though she is seen as a hero by her colleagues for bravely catching the killer in her previous case, she feels rather disgraced by her department because of the way the case turned out. She is handed a punishment by not being allowed to investigate a real murder case for about 8 months. Lena feels excited when she learns that her chief has finally decided to hand over a murder case to her. But, when she takes a look at the crime scene, she realizes that the chief has tried to set her up for exiling her permanently from the police department. She found that the victim was unidentified and there were no witnesses or leads in the murder case. Only the dead body of a woman was found, which was chopped into several pieces by the murderer. It looked so much gruesome that Lena knew that once again the media is going to follow each and every move of her. With this book, author Ellis has once again delivered a commercial, high speed, and powerful plot, featuring the vibrant and engaging cop in the form of Lena Gamble.