Doug Richardson Books In Order

Publication Order of Lucky Dey Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Doug Richardson is an American author from Arcadia, California best known for writing blockbuster movies and a series of espionage novels. Richardson was born to a career politician and grew up for the most part in the outskirts of Sacramento. He first discovered James Bond paperbacks in his father’s book shelf when he was twelve. From that time on, he was soon obsessed with Ian’s Fleming’s Bond protagonist, movies, and the cinema in general. While Doug went to the USC School for Cinematic Arts looking to become some big time movie director, he soon found out that he loved writing movie scripts even better. After graduating from USC, Richardson went on to direct several educational films though he always wanted to go into Hollywood. He submitted his screenplays to several production houses and impressed Warner Brothers, who gave him a two-year deal.

Going back to his childhood, Doug Richardson’s childhood was a big influence on what he would later become in life. He loved movies and was always sneaking away from home and school to go to the local mall theaters to watch anything new. It was a time when there were no video or DVDs, and hence the theater was everything there was to it. Over time, he knew he wanted to be a movie maker, and hence went to the USC School, where he studied with the likes of George Lucas. Many of the directors that he draw inspiration from had once been writers, and so he believed that the best way to get into directing would be to become a writer. In time, he found the writing so much fun and the directing not as romantic or as sensual as he once thought it was. Unlike many other writers, he never had that Eureka moment that he knew that he was born to be or wanted to be a writer. It never did happen all at once though his sixth grade teacher believed that he would one day make a great author. Eventually he found movies to be very limiting and sought to expand his horizons from sound and sight to the more elastic traditional novel writing. He wrote his first novel “Dark Horse” in 1997 and has been writing ever since.

In 1989, Doug Richardson gained national notoriety when together with his partner Rick Jaffa, they sold “Hellbent…and Back” their spec screenplay for one million dollars. The same year Doug got hired by 20th Century Fox to re-purpose “58 Minutes”, Walter Wager’s blockbuster novel into a Die Hard sequel. The movie came out in 1990 as “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” and has been acclaimed as one of the most compatible and excellent follow-up to the first movie of the Die Hard franchise. Since then, Richardson has gone on to write several screenplays that include “Hostage”, “Money Train”, and “Bad Boys” that became a box office smash hit. Doug also ventured into comedy with “Welcome to Mooseport” the 2004 comedy. In between his movie screenplay writing contracts, Richardson penned his first novel “Dark Horse” in 1997. “Dark Horse” is a political thriller that was published by Avon/Morrow who also released his second novel “True Believers”. While he has had a lot of success writing movie screenplays, it is writing which he says gives him the greatest reward and satisfaction. In 2011, he published his first contemporary Noir thriller set in LA Titled “The Safety Expert”.

One of Doug Richardson’s best known characters is Lucky Dey who makes his first appearance in the 2013 published novel “Blood Money”. Lucky Dey provides an insightful look into the darkness of the hero and the instability and brutality of the criminal mind. As he often does whether it be on movies or on novels, Doug takes his readers into a world full of suspense and tension as they navigate a sinister Los Angeles landscape. His lead makes a comeback in “Reaper” and “99 Percent Kill” where he is just as efficient and menacing in how he deals with whatever challenges are thrown at him. In addition to his writing in print and on screen, Richardson also has a blog at dougrichardson.com, where he provides insights and personal anecdotes about his time in Hollywood that spans nearly three decades. In 2015, he collated his most popular stories from his blog into “The Smoking Gun; True Tales from Hollywood’s Screenwriting Trenches”.

“Blood Money” the first novel of the Lucky Dey series of novels by Doug Richardson is an enthralling story of a disillusioned marine that goes rogue. The marine has a plan to steal a refrigerated tractor trailer and drive it to Long Beach Nevada, where he will earn a million dollars from a willing buyer. But sometimes even the simplest of plans can go wrong as he turns into an idiot on the way south leaving behind a smidgen of dead bodies. One of the gunned down men is the younger brother to Lucas “Lucky” Dey, the Kern County detective. Lucky is now on the trail of the marine gone rogue, as he drives his huge semi into the city. But it is not only his brother he needs to avenge. He also has to deal with a multimillionaire entertainment bigwig that needs him to exact justice on behalf of his murdered daughter. Llily Zoller a federal attorney with high ambitions is determined to milk the situation as much as she can. Meanwhile, Rey Palomino a corrupt contractor has teamed up with the marine in hopes that they can split the loot which will make it possible for him to clear his massive debts. Throw in a beautiful detective, a couple of gang buster sheriffs and their deputies, some unwitting feds, and a detective determined to avenge his brother and we have an unpredictable and explosive thrill of a narrative.

“99 Percent Kill” the second novel of the Lucky Dey series sees Lucky make a comeback as an acerbic and willful Los Angeles County Sheriff deputy. While waiting for the higher ups in the police department to reinstate him to his job, he takes a contract from a Midwestern tycoon who needs him to find his teenage daughter that has disappeared. Determined to earn his reputation, he goes deep into the city’s darkest and dank streets to tangle with the lowest of the low. He winds his way from the lit up streets of Los Angeles to the dark corners of the inner city where reality is perilous and murky. He soon finds himself in the middle of a tangled web of human trafficking, where human predators rule the roost. Finding and bringing back the teenage girl might prove more dangerous than he had thought it would be.