Douglas Watkinson Books In Order

Publication Order of Nathan Hawk Mystery Books

Publication Order of Plays

Douglas Watkinson is an English novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He specializes in crime and mystery and is best known for writing the Nathan Hawk series of books.

Watkinson has written hundreds of scripts for television during his 40-year career as a screenwriter. He has contributed to many great television shows during his time including Lovejoy, Boon, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, and Midsomer Murders.

Douglas was born on July 5th, 1945 into an army family. His father served throughout World War II and was killed in Palestine in 1947 by the Stern Gang. That death inspired Watkinson to write a play called The Wall which is about a middle aged man visiting a military cemetery in Israel where he meets a young British soldier who turns out to be his father.

Watkinson was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s before going on to attend East 15 Acting School, where his first plays were performed. It was there that he met his wife Lesley to whom he is still married. The two had four children together and now make their home in Buckinghamshire.

His writing career began by writing the backs of record sleeves for Decca. That paid the bills while he was trying to get into television by sending them his plays. The first one that he wrote to be produced was called Click that ended up starring Ray Brooks and John Paul. He has basically worked nonstop since as a writer. Some of his favorite work includes writing for Midsomer Murders, Boon, Forever Green and Maybury.

After a long career of writing plays and scripts, Watkinson made his way into writing novels in 2017 with the release of Haggard Hawk. That book was the first in the Nathan Hawk Mystery series which continues with Easy Prey and then Scattered Remains. The series is filled with modern murder mysteries written in the classic English style.

Haggard Hawk is the first book in the series. The book introduces us to Hawk, a a witty and volcanic English ex-copper with four grown up children scattered across the world. Hawk was “required to retire” as the British put it in their delicate way, but the truth of the matter is that he was fired. Being without work is about to send Hawk mad when one of his neighbors is murdered. This snaps him out of the doldrums and gives him some purpose as he seeks to investigate the case. The local police don’t take too kindly to Hawk interfering in their inquiry, but he can’t help himself. It turns out that solving crimes is exactly where he belongs and now Hawk is on the path to catch a killer.

The series continues with the second book, Easy Prey. The story begins when the daughter of an eldery barrister sees his daughter Teresa going missing. The distraught father decides to seek out Hawk for help. From his experience in cases like these, he figures that Teresa is likely dead so he declines the task. However, he is soon drawn into the case when his own daughter goes missing. At his age, he still worries about his four grown children. He wants to keep them together as a family, something he believes is hopeless, but his new ladyfriend believes otherwise. She is the voice of reason in his life and keeps him grounded. All of this reminds Hawk of the importance of keeping hope alive and sets off to find Teresa. The journey to find her will take him all Britain to the Outer Hebrides. His search unearths a world of lies and violent revenge that leaves him unprepared for the final outcome.

The third book in the series is called Scattered Remains. The book sees Hawk hanging with his farmer friend Martin when they find a titanium plate, just four centimetres long, one centimetre wide. It is the kind of plate used to heal broken bones and Martin asks Hawk to find the body that it was once attached to. Hawk’s son Jaikie is in town for the London premiere of a Hollywood film he’s starring in, but he’s far more interested in helping his dad find the body that Martin believes was dumped in his field. Hawk’s new girlfriend discovers some rom engraving on the side of it, which leads her to the Chiltern Clinic who inform her that it was made for a man named Patrick Scott. However, as she digs deeper into Scott; she finds that he has been wiped from the NHS computer. Hawk assumes it is because she asked questions about him and now he is out to find out why someone wants it to seem like he Patrick never existed in the first place.

Another book in the Nathan Hawk series is called Evil Turn. In this one, two trawlermen are murdered and one of Hawk’s old police acquaintances, Tom Blackwell, asks him to house the main witness. Hawk suspects that Blackwell’s motives aren’t all honorable and that proves to be exactly the case when Hawk is caught up in a huge drug deal and becomes a likely IRA target. Now, Hawk has severe doubts about the murder charge itself and enlists the help of a S.O.U. officer to re-investigate the murder. Hawk’s investigation puts them into danger which gets complicated when his eldest daughter, Fee, joins the party. She has just broken up with her boyfriend and has returned home for her father’s support.

Jericho Road begins with a stolen pocket watch that alleged once belonged to Heinrich Himmler. Hawk is giving the assignment of trying to find it which leads him to a girl. Within days of his investigation, she is murdered. Now, the watch’s current owner is the prime suspect and is charged with the crime. The police are delighted to have such an open-and-shut case, but Hawk feels guilty about his role in her death and decides to dig deeper. What he’ll uncover turns out to be far nastier than just murder.