Jack Slater Books In Order

Publication Order of Blake Larson Books

Publication Order of DS Peter Gayle Books

Publication Order of Gideon Ryker Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Note: the Jack Slater who writes the Jason Trapp series is a different author.

Jack Slater is a crime, mystery and thriller author from Northamptonshire England best known for the “DS Peter Gayle” series of novels. He was born and raised on a farm in rural England and held jobs in a variety of industries before he decided to make a career in biomedical science. Jack worked in factories, farming, shops, and forestry and spent five years working as a service engineer. By the time he was thirty-three, he was a widower having lost his wife to cancer. Slater moved to the Channel Islands in 2012 and it was while he was working there that he got remarried. He has always loved writing ever since he was a child and dabbled in both nonfiction and fiction works. He published “Nowhere to Run” his debut novel in the “DS Peter Gayle” mysteries in 2017. He turned prolific averaging two novels a year and by 2020 the series had eight titles. Slater believes the best thing about being a professional author is just being a storyteller since this is something he has always loved since he was a child. He loves that he gets to share things that interest him and connects him with other people across the globe through his novels.

While it looks like Slater came out of nowhere to become a bestselling author, he had been working in publishing for several years. As such, he has a lot of experience on what readers want and what sells and what does not. He started out writing mysteries in his first series of novels the “DS Peter Gayle” mysteries but shifted gears with his second series the “Jason Trapp” series which he launched with “Deep State” published in 2020. He writes in a fast-paced hair-raising style that combines aspects of Flynn, Ludlum, and Clancy to make for some thrilling reads. Slater explores amazingly realistic scenarios and writes leads with a never die response in both his series. While he published the “DS Peter Gayle” series at a trot, he has promised to gallop with the latest “Jason Trapp” series, with a novel scheduled to be released every six weeks for at least a year.

Jack Slater gets the inspiration for his novels from a lot of sources that include history, personal events, true crime shows, the news, and many other places. He has asserted that he never knows when inspiration will hit but that there is rarely a day when he wakes up and does not do some writing. However, he is like every author and there are days when the desire to write is there but the muse/inspiration is missing or very low. What keeps him going is the belief that writing is something he is rather than what he does. The inspiration for the “DS Peter Gayle” series struck when he was working on a manuscript for a thriller that had a police detective as one of the secondary characters. He was still working as an editor at a publishing house and when his boss saw the work, he encouraged him to try his hand at writing crime fiction. She provided some ideas on how to move forward and thus was born the series. Nonetheless, it took a while before he owned it as he did not believe the character of Gayle was his own. It was only when he published the work in 2017 and it became a huge success that he finally believed he could become a professional author. He has never looked back since.

Jack Slater’s debut novel “Nowhere to Run” introduces detective sergeant Peter Gayle. He is on leave from the Exeter CID as his son has gone missing and he asked for permission to try to resolve the mysterious disappearance. But on coming back to work, the first assignment is the case of Rosie Whitlock, a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl that has gone missing. Her mother had driven her to the gates of her school but she had never made it inside and has not been seen since. Gayle is guilty as he feels he was responsible for his son’s disappearance given that he was late to collect his child when he vanished. He is determined to make things right for Rosie’s parents to salve his guilt and to make sure that the parents of the girl do not go through the same pain he and his wife are going through. He wants to find the child and to find it alive but his superiors believe that it may be too soon for the detective to investigate the case. Peter is insistent that he is best for the assignment and wants to take the lead on the case. A compromise is reached when he agrees to share his findings with Detective sergeant Phillips that is the lead in his son’s missing case. Unlike Peter, Phillips has made a lot of progress on his case and this leaves Peter desperate and frustrated with his own case. But things get interesting when it becomes apparent that several other children are missing and the answer to the mystery may lay closer to home.

Slater’s “No Place to Hide” sees DS Peter Gayle make a comeback after he had decided to take well-deserved time off. This time he has to investigate a mysterious house fire that at first glance indicates an accident but on further investigation points to murder. And this is not the only body doomed to fall when the real investigations get underway. Meanwhile, there is some information coming through that suggests that a police officer may be helping a drug dealer by informing on investigative activities. Gayle wants the investigation to stay secret and, in the meantime, try to find the young men that are sticking homeless men with needles full of drugs. But his wife has become depressed and desperate which just puts more pressure on him to find his son before things get out of hand. It balances between the disappearance of Tommy and a serial killer to make for a compelling mystery.

“No Way Home” the third novel of the “DS Peter Gayle” series by Jack Slater opens to a dead body, a bizarre homicide and a serial killer on the streets. The novel is set in Exeter where a taxi driver got murdered in a bad part of town. It is a strange murder as the deceased is a family man with hardly any enemies. To make matter worse is the fact that there is no evidence to be found save for thousands of fingerprints in his car. DS Peter Gayle has one of the hardest cases he has ever had on his hands. Things get interesting when another cabbie is found murdered and he believes this could be a case of a serial killer. It is a well-written story with a lot of turns and twists and full of action.

One Response to “Jack Slater”

1. buddy reidgreat writer: 1 year ago

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