Detective Fisher Books In Order

Publication Order of Detective Grace Fisher Books

The Detective Fisher series is a series of novels by suspense crime and psychological suspense thriller writer Isabelle Grey. Composed of three novels, it is by far the most popular series by Isabelle Grey, who has also made a name for herself writing nonfiction and autobiographical works. The first novel in the Detective Fisher series was Good Girls Don’t Die, which was first published in 2014. Grey went on to write two more titles in the series by 2017 that garnered much critical acclaim and became highly popular on both sides of the Atlantic. The idea for the series came to Isabelle when her editor at Quercus asked her to write something that had a strong female protagonist. D.I. Grace Fisher was conceived as a detective that was excellent at her job even though she has skeletons from her old workplace. She hates bullies with a passion having been bullied by her colleagues at her previous workstation. As such, much of the series examines the workings of institutions and their role in society through the eyes of Grace Fisher. Some of the important themes that the Detective Fisher tackles include the toxic male culture within the police force and the corruption that has become endemic and institutionalized. One of the most important contemporary issues that the author deals with is how institutions whose mandate is to protect the society tends to protect their own, when they are guilty of the very same evils they are fighting against.

The lead character in the series is Grace Fisher, who is best described as a determined, and unflinching homicide detective working with the Essex Major Investigation Team out of Colchester. DS Grace Fisher is relatively new in her post in the team having been demoted from D.I. with the Kent Police Force. When we are first introduced to Grace, she is fraught with worry about her new colleagues coming to know about the happenings in her Kent workplace. But she soon has to put her anxiety about what her colleagues may think of her in the rear view mirror and focus on doing her job. Even as her worries and neuroses throughout the novels are genuine given that her past in Kent seem to always follow her, she always finds a way to get past them and get her work done. Despite her personal tragedies, Grace remains a resolute and strong character, though she never for once lets her guard down. What makes Grace Fisher so good at her job is her attention to detail, which she uses to take the smallest of details on a crime scene and make them the most critical in the investigation.

Dealing with hot button contemporary issues in modern society, the author uses Fisher’s back-story to create anxiety, suspense, or dread through the creation of unexpected reversals, twists, hooks, and the withholding of information. Introducing other secondary characters such as Ivo Sweatman, Grey builds up Fisher as the champion against bullying and unfairness particularly in the police force that she loves. She draws in the reader by showing strength of character and is good at her job despite her neuroses. With regard to the writing, the novels are intricately written with the clash between the press and the police providing some great tension and suspense. Grey does a good job of making the red herrings far from obvious, coming up with believable motives and creating a cast of good secondary characters. Lance, Grace’s partner shows some understandable cautiousness towards Grace though he mellows over the books. The portrayal of the characters from the victims to the suspect to the journalists and the police officers is very realistic. One of the best secondary characters is Ivo Sweatman, a reporter that shows a ruthless streak in chasing stories. He later eases up and becomes Grace Fisher’s unlikeliest of allies in her fight against the corrupt system.

Shot Through the Heart is the gripping second novel of the D.I. Grace Fisher thriller series. Grace Fisher has just moved into a new house and is relaxing with Peter and Lance her colleagues, when she gets a call informing her of a mass shooting in town. By the time she gets to the scene, five people are dead and the gunman who had barricaded himself in a church has also turned the gun on himself. To complicate things even further, one of the victims of the mass hooting was a Police Officer. With one of their own dead, the police department will do all in its power to get to the bottom of the incident. Fisher’s investigations soon point to a toxic web of police corruption that likely leads to the very top. However, she finds her efforts at further investigations rebuffed at every turn, with colleagues politely blocking her efforts. Since she has a very good knowledge of the workings of the Police Force, she does not want to upset the Federation. But when an ex-con gets shot while going for a hospital appointment, she finally gets the break she has been looking for. He provides a pile of clues that Grace is sure will help find the killer and convict them, but with the enemy within the force, she is constantly losing friends and the trust of colleagues who are unhappy with her pursuit of the case.

The Special Girls is another intelligent thriller in the D.I. Grace Fisher series of novels by Isabelle Grey. Grace Fisher is called in to investigate the apparent murder of a young psychiatric registrar whose body is found dumped outside a summer camp. Professor Ned Chesham a world-renowned charismatic expert runs the camp on eating disorders. But she is soon pulled out of the case and assigned to a task force looking into the activities of Chesham. The task force finds out that Chesham had once been accused of sexual assault by one of his patients. Even as he was not found guilty at the time due to a lack of sufficient evidence, Grace tracks down another victim that the previous investigation did not interview. Could the original investigation have been bungled or could someone like her to believe that it was a genuine mistake? As she investigates the cover-up in the young doctor’s murder, she finds that even with the damage done to the Chesham girls, they were still in great danger if someone did not get them out of the evil professor’s hands.