Kate Bradley Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Kate Bradley is a bestselling mystery author best known for her debut novel “To Keep You Safe” that she published in 2019. As a person that has spent years in social services for marginalized communities and people in her society, she has been through it all. In her work, she has worked in mental health hospitals, with the homeless and in prisons. While she is now a part-time author, she also works a day job in education. She holds a first-class degree in English Literature, in addition to qualifications in creative writing and teaching. Kate lives in a small coastal town just outside of Brighton with her husband and sons. Having worked in both education and social care, her novels clearly show influences from that period in her life. She convincingly and passionately showcases the challenges faced by social services and schools only possible for someone who has worked in the system. In her novel, she tackles modern themes such as the growing divide between adults and teenagers with the fast-increasing pace of technology and the sexual exploitation of women. Most of all, she writes about the circumstances that make people make choices. Her lead protagonists are flawed and scarred as they are strong, and this makes for a convincing yet unpredictable narrative. Her debut is memorable, moving, and powerful even as it is a very contemporary and enjoyable thriller.

Kate has said that just like everyone she has several things that make her feel safe. In an article she wrote for “Female First” she said that she loves, prepping, crawling under her duvet, streetlights, prayers, environmental activism, and the “MeToo Movement.” Last but not least, she has asserted that love is the most important thing that makes her feel safe. The love she means is something broader and bigger and not just what we feel for close family and friends. It is the type of love that makes people do good things for strangers they never met or perhaps never will meet. It is like the love Greta Thunberg feels for the planet or the women who are angry about harassment that they do not want it to happen to others. Bradley says that the last type of love is the reason she wrote “To Keep You Safe” since she would go to any lengths to ensure the safety of her loved ones. She also wanted to ask the question, to what lengths would another go to keep the child of another safe? Her lead character in her debut is something of an Ellen Ripley from “Alien” or Sarah Connor from “Terminator.” These women go to extraordinary lengths to do what is right and Bradley has said she hopes there are more people like them out there.

The lead character in Kate Bradley’s “To Keep You Safe” is a former military woman who now works at a financially strapped and struggling school where she teaches mathematics. The school is run by George Danvers, a compassionate and kind man who is weighed down by the stresses and pressures of taking care of children without the money for it. Jennie is a socially awkward person who tends to take things literally, which makes reading people a very hard task. This has also made making friends and maintaining social relationships particularly difficult, as she is not proficient in small talk and this results in her getting nicknamed “Dalek.” She had not always been like that as she had been impacted by the death of Billy Smithson a young soldier. She had refused the offer of counseling and thus had been left with an overwhelming sense of failure and guilt. Jenni has taken up the iron man challenge encouraged by her father who believes it would help her to cope with life after military service. She had been very successful at it and won it several times before she decided to become a teacher as she craved the stability and structure she had enjoyed in the army. At the school, she has the opportunity to interact with Destiny Mills, an intelligent and clever pupil who she believes is destined for great things. But she comes from a troubled background since she had a drug addict and prostitute for a mother and had to be taken away from home and into foster care. When she reports to school with obvious signs of injury and is jumpy when someone calls the school asking for her, only to be abducted going back home, Jenni sees it as an opportunity to take care of the girl. She had failed with other children but she is not about to let Destiny be subjected to abuse. She will do everything in her power to save her and ensure she fulfills her destiny.