Rod Reynolds Books In Order

Publication Order of Charlie Yates Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Rod Reynolds is a well known author from The United Kingdom, who likes to write mystery, thriller, crime fiction, and historical fiction novels. So far, he has written 3 standalone thriller novels in his writing career. All the three books feature the chief protagonist in the role of a reporter from New York named Charlie Yates. Author Rod was born in London. Prior to the start of his writing career, he used to work in the advertising field. Rod had quite a successful advertising career and worked as a media purchaser. He always had an interest in writing thriller stories, but did not take it seriously. And when he felt that the time was right, author Rod decided to have a change in career. He became serious about his writing and has now become a full time writer. Before attempting to write his first mystery-thriller novel, he completed a 2 year writing course of Crime Writing Masters from the City University in London. Following the completion of this course, author Rod penned his debut book, titled The Dark Inside. The book opened to great reviews from one and all, and helped author Rod to get an exciting start to his new career. The success of the first novel motivated him so much so that he did not waste any time to begin working on the next novels. He says that he has many stories lined up in his head, many of which will see the light of the day in the days to come and turn into successful books. Author Rod is happily married and resides along with his lovely wife and 2 beautiful daughters in London. While undergoing the masters course in crime writing, author Rod was the first one to earn a publishing deal and get a literary agent even before the completion of his course. Rod’s first book is loosely based on a real life serial killer case, which is called as the ‘Texarkana Moonlight Murders’. According to him, his book falls in the tradition of noir work very much. With numerous positive reviews in the early stages of the book’s publication, Rod was overjoyed with happiness. The joy and happiness went on to increase multiple folds when he learned that his style of writing has been compared with he likes of James Lee Burke and Raymond Chandler.

While growing up, whenever author Rod used to get a chance to choose something to read, he would always select thriller/crime genre above everything else as he held a great interest in the genre. And he believes that a writer is always attracted to what he likes the most. As a reader, he finds it very difficult to like a particular author or work because he feels that there so many of them available abundantly, offering different experiences of reading. However, he does like to mention that he is highly inspired by the works of Joseph Kanon and James Ellroy. As per author Rod, the requirement of a strong plot is one factor that sets this genre apart. The other is the efforts of the writers to keep the readers intrigued into the series for very long. Rod always tries to motivate himself for with his work so that he could produce more exciting books in future. The writing course helped Rod in a number of ways. It proved to be a perfect mixture of practical and theoretical. He was able to hone his writing skills with the regular feedbacks. Also, the course made author Rod learn how to make out time for writing. The structure of the course was very much needed by him and he realized it only after going through the course.

The debut book written by Rod Reynolds is entitled ‘The Dark Inside’. It was released by the Faber & Faber publication in 2015. Author Rod has mentioned the primary characters in this book as Charlie Yates, Lizzie, and Alice. The story takes place in Texarkana at the time of the year 1946. At the start of the book, Texarkana is described as a town located on the Texas-Arkansas border. Charlie Yates is introduced as a disgraced reporter hailing from New York. He is sent to Texarkana to report about several brutal murders. A few couples were mercilessly slaughtered at a dating point in the town. As Charlie begins his investigation, he finds himself attracted towards the fiery and beautiful sister of a victim. This girl is named Lizzie and is the sister of Alice, the only one to have survived the attack and seen the attacker closely. Charlie seems to be fighting against the demons of his own. His investigation about the murders results in the discovery of several secrets that were kept hidden by the town people for years. Soon, Charlie Yates realizes that the killer is being protected by some powerful forces. Charlie suspects that his pursuit of reality might cost him his job as well as his life. But, he does not stop and continues to investigate the murders. Overall, the book looks to be a pacy and compelling thriller. Its storyline and character description was highly praised by the audiences.

The sequel to the successful first novel by author Rod is called ‘Black Night Falling’. It was also published by Faber and Faber publishers in 2016. The story of this novel continues from where the first one had ended. At the beginning of this story, it is shown that Charlie Yates leaves for the West Coast from Texarkana to make a report on the reducing safety measures in the region. However, he gets drawn towards the South when one of his old acquaintances from Hot Springs, Arkansas, asks him for help. It looks more of making a desperate attempt, this time, for doing the right thing than chasing a story. Charlie Yates fears that he might not be able to do what is asked of him before time runs out. Just like the previous novel, this novel too looks very promising and exceptional. Once again, author Rod has displayed the feeling of atmosphere, period, and place that marked out the acclaimed debut with the previous book. The critics provided amazing reviews to the story and praised author Rod for his efforts in coming up with such an intriguing mystery once again. Many readers appreciated the book for being excellent all round. The characters looked brilliant once again and the location perfect for such a thrilling story. On the whole, the book looks to be a perfect thriller. The critics have recommended it as a must read for all the fans of mystery & thriller books.