Inspector Jim Carruthers Books In Order

Publication Order of Inspector Jim Carruthers Books

The Inspector Jim Carruthers book series is a riveting series of mystery, cultural, crime fiction, and thriller stories. It is penned by a renowned Scottish writer named Tana Collins. This series started in 2017 and now consists of multiple titles. In every novel of this series, Tana Collins has depicted the central character in the role of Jim Carruthers. She has described Jim as a Detective Chief Inspector living in a Scottish town called Castletown. Jim Carruthers spends most of his time investigating horrible murders and trailing culprits in different criminal activities. In addition to the professional struggles, Jim Carruthers also goes through some personal problems, which he tries best to keep to himself. He has a wife who is estranged from him and he makes desperate attempts to win her back.

Jim feels that he is unable to do much to get rid of this personal problem as the piling number of cases in the town tend to keep him busy most of the time. Author Tana Collins has set this series in a small university town in Scotland. Besides Jim Carruthers, the other essential characters mentioned in the books of this series include Andrea Fletcher, McGhee, Ruiridh Fraser, Barry Cuthbert, Mairi Carruthers, and several others. Andrea Fletcher is depicted in the role of a Detective Sergeant and is the one who always provides a helping hand to Jim Carruthers in his hunt for criminals and murderous perpetrators. All the novels of this series have fared very well. They have succeeded in reaching out to a vast number of readers in all corners of the world.

The inclusion of the recently released novel, In Deep Water, has increased the excitement of the fans to a much greater extent. Many noteworthy critics have given their honest reviews about the storytelling, characters, plots, and various other aspects of the series. They have praised the efforts of Tana Collins in writing such intriguing stories. Several fellow writers have also come forward to congratulate Tana Collins on the success of the series and also her success as an author of mystery novels. Tana looks forward to creating many more interesting stories in the times to come. She is also hopeful of developing a new mystery series with a new chief protagonist. In fact, Tana has already started working on a few ideas and is expected to give shape to one of them soon. Until then, she wants her fans to keep reading her Jim Carruthers novel and help to make them more popular and successful.

An exciting book penned in the Inspector Jim Carruthers series by author Tana Collins is entitled ‘Care To Die’. It was released in 2017 by the Bloodhound Books publication. The important characters featured in this novel include Andrea Fletcher, Ruiridh Fraser, and Jim Carruthers. Initially, it is mentioned that Jim Carruthers gets demoted to the position of Detective Inspector and struggles to cope with it. He also seems concerned about the grieving Andrea Fletcher and doesn’t know what to do. With all this already happening, Jim Carruthers gets thrown to the extremity when an old man’s dead body is discovered in a nature reserve. The victim is found with multiple stab wounds. Jim Carruthers discovers that the killer had rammed a piece of cloth into the back of the old man’s throat.

The police are able to come up with just one suspect, who is a 15-year-old boy being notorious for his antisocial behavior. Jim is unable to prove that the teenager had anything to do with the brutal murder because his alibi checks out. Later, another victim is found murdered in the same area. He is also discovered to be an old man and murdered in the same manner as the previous victim. Jim Carruthers starts to think that there is a serial killer roaming freely on the streets of his town, who can victimize other innocent elderly people if he does not catch him in time. Upon investigating further, Jim establishes the identity of the first victim as Ruiridh Fraser and learns that he has a son, who is estranged from him and lives in Iceland.

Being convinced that the reason behind Ruiridh Fraser’s killing can be found in his past, Jim flies to Iceland to ask some questions to the son. During the course of the investigation, he comes to know about the interconnection between a few other cases, which include the mysterious disappearance of a 12-year-old boy 40 years ago, a local dispute about the nature reserve, and the brutal killing of an ex-journalist. Jim wonders what could be the possible connection of all these cases with the murders of the elderly victims. When DS Andrea Fletcher resumes duty and joins him to investigate the cases, Jim feels a sigh of relief as it was too much for him to handle alone. Both of them wonder if they will be able to unravel the mysteries while dealing with their demons. Something comes up during the investigation that makes Jim and Andrea suspect that there may be more than one serial killer. If this suspicion turns into reality then the level of difficulty in solving the cases would increase multiple folds, which Jim cannot afford to do because he desperately wants to increase the percentage of his solved cases so that he can be promoted back to DCI.

Another wonderful novel of this series is called ‘Mark of the Devil’. It was also published by the Bloodhound publication in 2018. This book opens by depicting that Jim Carruthers receives an anonymous tip about the discovery of a young woman’s body on a remote beach while investigating serial art thefts with his team. He finds some bizarre clues to establish the victim’s identity and speculate what she might have been through. They include a binocular set, a strange tattoo, and a meaty slab placed on the nearby cliff. With further investigation, Jim is lead to a shooting estate in the locality and its rich owner named Barry Cuthbert. His first interaction with Barry makes him suspect that he is not what he appears to be.

Jim even begins to suspect that the art thefts, the estate, and the woman’s murder are all connected somehow. Tensions rise to a much higher level when a young gamekeeper’s body is found near the sea. Jim follows the trail of discovered clues and is lead to an unlikely region called Tallinn and the sinister world of police corruption and international crime. With every step he takes, he finds more dangers in his path. This makes him believe that somebody doesn’t want him to get to the bottom of the truth. Jim doesn’t stop and rests only after unraveling the truths about the murders as well as the art thefts.