Mark Richards Books In Order

Publication Order of Best Dad I Can Be Books

Publication Order of Best Dad Books

Publication Order of Michael Brady Books

Publication Order of Michael Brady Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Written by Mark Richards – thanks Mark!

I spent the early part of my working life in the financial services industry. Suits, stripy ties, clients…

But I had a small voice inside me. “Let me out,” it whispered. “I’m a writer.”

Well, I did start writing a humorous weekly column about family life. But that was it. Then – a little over ten years ago – my brother died of cancer. And it made me think. I either did what I really wanted to do – or I forgot about it for good.

So I sold the business, sent the stripy ties to the charity shop and started writing. I built a new business as a freelance copywriter. But the small voice wasn’t finished with me. “You want to write a novel,” it whispered.

“No time,” I said.

Then, suddenly, I did have time. March 2020 and we were in lockdown. I had the time, and I’d run out of excuses. I started writing Salt in the Wounds.
I was, in some ways, trying to answer a question I’d kept asking myself. When my daughter was in her teenage years our relationship – like many father/daughter relationships – was rocky. At times, beyond rocky. I’d lie awake and think, ‘How the hell would I cope if anything happened to my wife?’
Michael Brady is going to find out. His wife’s been killed in a hit-and-run. Now the former high-flying detective is on his way home. Going back to Whitby, the town on the North Yorkshire coast where he grew up. He’s only got two things on his mind: putting his life back together, and being a good dad to his teenage daughter.

But then Brady’s best friend is murdered. He’s drawn into the investigation. And accepts there’s only one way to find the killer.

Going back to his old life. The one that cost him his wife…

Book 2 – The River Runs Deep

Six months later Detective Chief Inspector Michael Brady is back in the police – and Gina Foster’s body has floated down the River Esk. Is it murder? Or does Brady want it to be murder?

He’s starting afresh. He has to prove himself again. And he’s convinced the answer lies in Gina’s past. But his boss is determined to stop Brady uncovering the past.

Then Brady’s DS discovers the real truth about Gina. And suddenly there’s not one person who might have wanted to kill her – there’s a hundred-and-one…

Book 3 – The Echo of Bones

“Find her for me, Mr Brady. I know she’s dead. I know I’ll never see her again. But find her. Give me some where to go on her birthday. Christmas Day. Somewhere to take her teddy bear…”

Alice has been missing for 20 years. Then, one cold, bleak January morning, a walker finds some bones on the North Yorkshire Moors.

Is it Alice?

Or is it Becky, the other local girl who went missing a month earlier?

Brady has to tell one family their daughter’s been found. And tell the other family he’s still looking.

And he has to find the killer. The real killer. Because the town’s vigilantes are waiting for the long-supposed killer to come out of jail.
And Brady knows he’s innocent…

Michael Brady Short Reads

Brady is 42 when ‘Salt in the Wounds’ starts. Clearly, I needed to tell his back story. How did he start as a detective? What were the cases that shaped him?
I’m doing this in a parallel series of novellas/short reads. Each book is around 30,000 words long – about a third of a full-length book. They’re books designed to be read in one or two sittings. Over a weekend: whenever you’ve got some ‘me-time…’

The first one is The Scars Don’t Show, followed by Crossing the White Line.

I’m writing this in October 2021: by this time next year my intention is that there’ll be three more full-length Brady books, and two more novellas.

One Response to “Mark Richards”

1. Sue Tack: 3 years ago

   Love the Whitby books! Can’t wait for the next one!

   Reply