Jane Riley Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jane Riley is a literary fiction author from New Zealand that is best known for her debut novel “The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock.” She is married to an Englishman but she still lives in Sydney, Australia. Riley got a degree in English and French Literature at the University of Auckland and has also worked in publishing, television publicity, and public relations. She attended Macleay College, Sydney where she got a postgraduate diploma in Book publishing and editing. Jane Riley currently volunteers at the Adult Migrant English Program in Sydney, where she is an English tutor. Her debut novel “The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock” made the shortlist for Kindle bestseller in the US and the UK. She has also published several nonfiction works such as “Flavored with Love” and “Solomon’s Porch.”

Jane has spent more than two decades as a writer and more than eight years as a freelance proofreader and editor. Before she decided to become a professional author, she was a feature writer and had her articles published in a wide range of magazines in Australia. She has also written website copy, press releases, and has been contracted to ghostwrite fiction works, council reports, and commercial documents for various parties. For four years, she worked at “Innovative Household” magazine where she was the Managing Editor before she moved on to work as a production editor at McGraw-Hill. In 2012, Riley founded an online store named “Who’d Have Thought” that she ran for six years. The store showcased upcycled and unique homewares and gifts made by artists and inventors from across the world. She was also the chief author and interviewer of a design inspired blog where she interviewed inventors, creatives, designers, and artists.

In 2018, Riley submitted the manuscript for her debut novel and it was so good that it went to auction. Lake Union a division of Amazon Publishing won the right to publish Riley’s debut. The feel-good and uplifting novel was published in 2020 to critical acclaim and positive reviews. The novel is also set to be published by Garzanti Libri in Italy and Piper Verlag in Germany. It tells the story of Oliver Clock, a lonely and love-struck funeral parlor proprietor whose fifteen-year-old crush dies before he has a chance to declare his love. Riley’s agent Ariella Feiner of United Agents UK said that while the author sent the manuscript as an unsolicited submission, it was so good that she was immediately won over. Jane writes a deeply special character that the reader wants to protect him from every bad thing happening in his life. Jane’s second novel “Geraldine Verne’s Red Suitcase” was published in 2021.

Jane Riley’s “The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock” is a beautiful novel about a funeral parlor operator that lost his way. Oliver Clock the lead is a man who always makes resolutions and in fact, his house is full of legal pads covered with them. But the thing is he never follows up on and has failed to achieve a significant percentage. He is now in his early forties and while he has inherited a profitable funeral home business, he has no children or family and feels that life passed him by. He has spent more than fifteen years secretly loving Marie a florist, though he had been late to propose and she had gotten married leaving him all alone. He believes that she is unhappy and vows to rescue her from an unhappy marriage but before he can declare his love, she tells him that she has only a few days left to live. When she dies, he learns that she had loved him when her husband comes to confront him. The realization that he could find someone to love him gives him hope of revitalizing himself. When he falls into a rut once again, his college roommate and friend drags him out and he gets back to making resolutions though he vows that he will try to achieve them this time around.