Chris McDonald Books In Order

Publication Order of DI Erika Piper Books

Publication Order of Stonebridge Mysteries Books

Chris McDonald is a popular English writer of thriller, detective fiction, police procedural, crime thriller, mystery, and action thriller stories. He is particularly famous for writing the DI Erika Piper series. McDonald originally hails from Northern Ireland’s north coast and currently resides in South Manchester. He claims to have been an avid reader all his life. The habit of reading was developed by him when he was in school. Author McDonald was exposed to The Hardy Boys during primary school, which gave rise to his interest in adventure. Later, he got acquainted with the works of Chuck Palahniuk and indulged a deep interest in reading stories about the gritty criminal world.

Other than reading and writing, McDonald likes to play and watch a 5-players-a-side football. He is also quite enthusiastic about music and likes almost all the popular singers and musicians. McDonald loves dogs very much. He has a few of them in his house and spends time with them whenever he is alone or not working on any writing project. After toiling for several years and struggling to get his work published, McDonald managed to get a 2-book contract with the Red Dog Press publication. Subsequently, he was able to publish his debut book, A Wash of Black. This book is also the first one to introduce his chief protagonist named Erika Piper.

Author McDonald has depicted Erika Piper as a strong and dedicated detective inspector hailing from Manchester. Another excellent character shown in the series is Liam, who works as Erika’s partner and assists her in all her investigations. McDonald developed high hopes after the initial success of the series and is hopeful of developing it into a long-running and widely successful series. Since the introduction of Erika Piper’s character in his first book, McDonald has been compared with the likes of Val McDermid, Cara Hunter, and Ian Rankin. His writing style, character developments, plot settings, etc., are quite similar to those of these authors. That is why the fans of all three authors have started to like McDonald’s work very much.

Following the tremendous success of the first Erika Piper novel, author McDonald quit his former job as a Hezlett Primary School teacher. He relocated from Castlerock to Manchester and settled there permanently with the hope of making a career in the world of writing. McDonald has said that he was inspired to write his first book while he was feeding his infant one night while his wife was resting. As soon as the idea struck his mind, he began working on the character and plot developments and came up with the first draft in no time.

Several edits and changes later, McDonald succeeded in coming up with his debut novel. In the book, he has described the story of a popular actress’ brutal murder at the hands of a dangerous killer, who recreated a scene from a famous movie that the actress starred in several years ago. As soon as Erika learns about the brutal murder, she springs into action and begins investigating the case. During the process of the investigation, a few more dead bodies turn up that later get linked to the actress’s murder, but Erika manages to solve the mystery and catch the culprit in the end. The book went on to attract praise from the prominent personalities of the literary world and developed the hopes of a successful writing career in McDonald’s heart and mind.

The debut book written by author Chris McDonald is entitled ‘A Wash of Black’. It was released by Red Dog Press in February 2020. The setting of this book takes place in Manchester and features DI Erika Piper and Liam in the lead roles. Initially, it is mentioned that the mutilated dead body of a well-known female actor is discovered on an ice rink. Erika Piper is asked to take charge of the investigation and find the culprit. The first lead that she gets in the high profile case is that the killer had recreated a murder scene from one of the movies of the victim. As the case begins to get more media attention, Erika Piper is pressured to catch the murderer and solve the case as soon as possible. She has recently recovered from a near-fatal attack and has just returned to her job to see such an important case land on her desk.

Erika Piper sees the case as a challenge to prove that she is still capable of doing her duties as a detective inspector efficiently and is highly determined. But, her hopes get shattered when she learns about the discovery of another dead body. It appears as if the killer knows what Erika is up to and is determined to prove that catching him is not going to be a walk in the park. The killer even threatens Erika personally, forcing her to put everything else aside and focus all her energy on solving this case. It is also important for her to get to the bottom of the mystery as her capability is being questioned by her superiors. If she is not able to hunt down the culprit soon, she fears that she might have to deal with the unfavorable consequences.

Author McDonald has created a psychopathic cocktail by combining art’s subjective form and murder’s brutal form. The readers are forced to get glued to the book right from the first page of its first chapter. They liked the character description of Erika Piper as a strong, straight-talking, no-nonsense woman. What stands out about her is that she has likable traits. Erika carries her emotions with her all the time. She doesn’t shy away from crying when she feels hurt or things go from bad to worse. Throughout the story, it is seen that Erika keeps trying to get rid of her past. The readers get to know about her past slowly and McDonald reveals it part by part in different chapters throughout the story. Another interesting thing to see about Erika in the novel is her camaraderie with her detective partner Liam. They share a good tuning and have each other’s back all the time. This novel showcases a fast-paced story with excellent chapters and powerful scenes. All these factors led to the immense success of the novel across the globe.