Heather Burnside Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Manchester Trilogy Books
Born Bad | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Blood Ties | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Vendetta | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Riverhill Books
Slur | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Gangster's Grip | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Danger by Association | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of The Manchester Thrillers Books
Guilt | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Blackmail | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Redemption | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of The Working Girls Books
The Mark | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Ruby | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Crystal | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Amber | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sapphire | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Vengeance: A totally addictive and absolutely unputdownable gangland crime thriller | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
Crime, Conflict & Consequences | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Heather Burnside is a gritty urban fiction writer from Manchester in the United Kingdom. The author spent much of her childhood in the inner city suburbs of the city, in what was deemed the toughest estate of Manchester.
In the 1990s, her estate was the home base for one of the most dangerous gangs in the city. It was regularly in the press due to drug related shootings, gang crime and other undesirable happenings.
The mother of two first started writing after taking a creative writing course. It was during this time that she published several articles in well known publications. She also ran a writing service business before she decided to become a full time author.
Heather made her debut with the publishing of “Slur,” the debut novel of the “Riverhill” series in 2014. She has never looked back since and has gone on to write at a decent clip of about two novels each year.
She now has more than a dozen novels to her name across several series. With many of her novels becoming bestsellers, she decided to quit her day job and become a professional author.
While Heather Burnside had always dreamed of a career as an author, practical concerns took over and she studied credit management in college. She would become a member of the Institute of Credit management and worked for several years, before she decided to take a break and start a family.
Once her children were old enough, she decided that she would not go back to credit management and decided to take a creative writing course. She had dabbled in writing in her earlier years and thought she should try her hand at becoming an author.
To earn income while she studied creative writing, she set up a writing services company that has also done quite well. She had several of her articles published in a variety of British magazines before she published Slur, her crime thriller based in Manchester.
In addition to her long form fiction, she is also the author of “Crime Conflict & Consequences” which is a short story collection written in multiple genres.
As for her inspiration she does not particularly have any since. Heather Burnside’s novels do not resemble the works of any of her favorite authors such as Jeffrey Deaver, Minette Walters, Val McDermid, and Nicci French. However, her work most resembles that of the likes of Mandasue Heller and Martina Cole.
Her writing style probably comes from all manner of influences as she has been known to read anything from autobiographies to sagas and crime thrillers. However, her biggest influence is probably the city of Manchester, which is the setting for most of her work.
Having lived in Manchester all her life, many of her novels draw their inspiration from her experiences growing up in the suburbs. As for most of her characters, they are the people she has met and interacted with over the years.
She also includes events that happened in the inner suburbs of Manchester during the 1990s. These include the 1996 Manchester bombing, the plight of the homeless and the gang wars of the 90s.
Heather Burnside introduces “The Working Girls” series with “The Mark,” a brilliant and shocking novel. At the opening of the story, Maddy is a respected journalist that usually interviews whores in a decrepit pub in Manchester.
She never thought she would ever attract the attention of Gilly, a pimp who wants to use her for something but cannot figure out how yet. In the following weeks, Gilly increasingly becomes obsessed with Maddy, particularly when she starts dating Aaron, a successful businessman.
Her whole life is soon dominated by the love affair and she finds herself alienating people around her and losing control. It is not long before her successful and safe life starts crumbling all around her as she realizes she has a target on her back.
There is someone very dangerous who’s after her and she has to act before it is too late.
“Ruby” by Heather Burnside is the story of Ruby, a woman that has had to become strong. She had grown up with an absent father and a feeble mother and at times had to battle her siblings for supremacy. An incident during her childhood had left her with a lot of trauma and this had metamorphosed into a hatred of men.
At the opening of the novel, she has no place she can call home even as all she wants is to fit in with the tough crowd. She had spent many of her teenage years drinking at the park and sleeping around and she had become a prostitute by the time she turned sixteen.
But she is an ambitious woman and it is not long before she owns her own brothel as madam. However, there are downsides to being the boss and she has a huge nightmare on her hands when some enemy from the past makes a reappearance.
Meanwhile, her livelihood is being threatened by gangs who are intimidating her and could just destroy her business. Will she be able to come out of this by beating her tormentors?
Heather Burnside’s novel “Crystal” introduces the protagonist as a working girl that had been through a terrifying ordeal. She has now decided to put an end to using drugs and left her career as a prostitute so that she focus on raising Candice her daughter.
But before she can get out of the game, she will first have to take charge of her own life which starts with revenge. In her quest, she takes something that belongs to Justin, a very dangerous man that happens to have his fingers in a lot of pies.
She starts by blackmailing the people who have been the worst offenders and is wildly successful until she bumps into Justin. He is not your ordinary man and when she tries to take him down, he kidnaps her young daughter and Crystal realizes she may have bitten more than she can chew.
But can she turn things around before it is too late?
Book Series In Order » Authors »