John Barlow Books In Order

Publication Order of Joe Romano Books

Publication Order of LS9 Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

John Barlow
John Barlow was born in 1967 and is an English writer. He was born in the Yorkshire village of Gomersal, close to Leeds. He studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge and has a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hull. Before studying at the university level, he worked as a musician. He is a food writer, novelist, and translator.

After he taught English for several years, until the year 2004 when he moved to Spain in order to write full time, and has lived there ever since. He is married to Susana, with whom he’s got two sons.

Apart from writing fiction, he also works as a journalist and a ghost writer. He has written for The Big Issue, the Washington Post, Penthouse, Slate.com, and Departures Magazine. John’s a feature writer for the award winning food magazine Spain Gourmetour.

“Everything But the Squeal” was a finalist in the Best Food Book Selection of the Cordon Bleu World Food Awards, 2010. His first published work “Eating Mammals” won the Paris Review’s Discovery (Plimpton) Prize in the year 2002.

“Intoxicated” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2006. Yorkshire in 1869. When Isaac Brookes, a self-made Victorian businessman, comes back home from his wool mill in France, he never could have suspected that some chance encounter on the train would change the entire gastronomical landscape of the whole world. However when he meets, and almost kills a hunchback midget dressed in rags, named Rodrigo Vermillion, Vermillion sees a grand chance to improve his lot in life in pragmatic Isaac. So he becomes bound and determined to go into business with him.

Enter a band of righteous social moralists, known as the Temperance Soldiers, who offer Vermillion the inspiration as well as the idea that he so desperately needs. Just one taste of his first Temperance Ale, which is worse he felt certain than the ancient slime at the bottom of the pond, duck droppings and old frog juice scooped into a glass. And this savvy schemer with a genius for persuasion is off and running and quickly convinces Isaac and his son to invest their whole fortune on an idea that is sure to appeal to Victorian sensibilities: Rhubarilla, which is a fizzy and fruity drink which will sweep the entire world in ways that even the irrepressible Vermillion could’ve imagined.

“Hope Road” is the first novel in the “John Ray” series and was released in 2011. You cannot change your past. However what about your future?

John Ray is the son of Antonio “Tony” Ray (a crime boss), and he is the straight one in the family. With a successful business and a lifestyle that matches, he wants absolutely nothing to do with his dad’s criminal world. However what does that world want with him?

A young hooker is discovered dead in John’s car, and his best friend and employee, Freddy Metcalfe, is framed for her death. Freddy denies it all yet it’s still an open and shut case: he will go down for her murder. John sets to track down the actual killer.

However things start to get complicated. This stash of counterfeit money was also discovered in John’s car, and the cops seem to be more interested in that than they are the dead girl. Then Lanny Bride shows up: one of the north’s most ruthless criminal (and is an old family friend of the Ray’s) and is desperate to know who murdered the girl. Why? Freddy’s too scared to talk to anybody, even his attorney.

John’s detective girlfriend, Denise Danson, has been warned off this case by her boss. However she does not believe Freddy’s guilty, and secretly helps John out in looking for the killer. Problem is that revealing the shocking truth about the girl’s dying is going to force John to confront his own criminal past and risk ruining his own future and the one woman he’s ever loved.

“What Ever Happened to Jerry Picco?” is the first novel in the “Jack Storm Mystery” series and was released in 2012. Jack Storm, PhD is a disgraced former college professor and an unlicensed PI. Since getting turfed out of Berkeley for his violent misconduct, he has at last found his true place in life: the gutter.

Jerry Picco, the world’s greatest erotic actor, has vanished, leaving behind a heap of debt, a career that was in a nosedive, and one screen partner that had plenty of reasons to want the dude gone. Jack works to find him. The sole clues that he has got: a story about a princess and a Polaroid of seven small guys in the woods.

“Right to Kill” is the first novel in the “Joe Romano” series and was released in 2021. On a Thursday night in February, DS Joe Romano finds he is back on his home turf. He is following up on Craig Shaw, a drug dealer, going missing. This is the beginning of a case which could make or break his career. Because Shaw is soon going to go from missing to murdered.

Romano believes that every life counts, even though some do not even think that Shaw’s killer should be brought to justice. The killer is soon going to strike again. And Romano is going to be forced to question whether or not anybody’s got the right to kill.

“To the Grave” is the second novel in the “Joe Romano” series and was released in 2022. Is the truth going to be buried with the dead?

When DS Joe Romano meets Ana Dobrescu for the first time, she is nervous, clearly in need of help, and in serious danger. The next time that Joe sees her, she is dead. There wasn’t too much more that he could have done for her, however that is just cold comfort to Romano. He is determined to catch her killer. Even though the prime suspect, her millionaire boyfriend, is in a coma.

With the help of Rita Scannon-Aktar, his larger-than-life partner, he starts piecing together a puzzle which places Ana right in the middle of something a lot bigger than they could have imagined. However as they are hunting down a killer, those higher up are more concerned about the money.

So it is all up to Romano to get some justice for Ana. And whatever she knew, he will just have to hope and pray that she did not take her secrets with her to the grave.