Matthew Iden Books In Order

Publication Order of Marty Singer Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Matthew Iden is a horror, science fiction, fantasy, thriller and crime fiction author who loves to gives his novels a psychological twist. He is best known for the Marty Singer detective series of novels about a retired Washington DC detective, who is forced to quit the police force following a cancer diagnosis. Iden studied English literature in college and asserts that it was not the best training for his later fiction writing career. It made him compare his works with that of the master and left him feeling insufficient, that he took years before publishing anything he had written. While his writing was rotting in his drawers, he was working in the tech space boom of the early and mid-nineties where he made good money. He also worked a variety of jobs at the Forest Service in Sitka, Alaska, at an international nonprofit, and with the US Postal Service.

Iden believes that his work with the Semester at Sea Program has the most profound impact on his writing. He had always had a wanderlust and the program saw him visit six of the seven continents over a year. His travels have seen him carry a bear gun while working for soil scientists in Alaska, go horseback riding in Iceland and walk the cobblestones of the “Forbidden City” in China. When he came back from the Semester at Sea Program, the self-publishing space was blowing up and he immediately decided to self-publish his novels starting with “A Reason to Live,” which he published in 2012. Among his unusual writing habits is writing from any place he can including picnic tables by the Potomac, outside on a lunge, on his couch or in coffee shops. His classical influences include the likes of Henning Mankell, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard. His contemporary inspirations include the likes of Roger Zelazny, JRR Tolkien, Barry Eisler, and Lee Child. Apart from writing Iden’s other interests are sustainable living, history, wine, vegetarian cooking, jazz, world politics, and travel.

Matthew Iden has used his various experiences as an inspiration for the writing of his novels. From his Semester at Sea Program to the trips to Antarctica, Patagonia, Iceland, and jobs in Alaska, all have influenced his storytelling. His flagship “Marty Singer novels feature a retired homicide detective from Washington DC. Marty Singer is a fifty-something-year-old who got a life-threatening cancer diagnosis that changed his life as he was forced to leave the police force. He now lives to help his friends and righting wrongs done to innocents, while trying to find love and dealing with his cancer diagnosis. Iden has asserted that he found the challenge of writing such a believable protagonist to be highly inspiring. Moreover, he does not only make his lead a man with cancer but arms him with dry humor that delivers a lot of comic relief throughout the novels. Each of the novels is a standalone, though they tell the story of Marty as he resolves mysteries, deals with his condition and maybe finds love. Matthews’s 2018 novel “Birthday Girl” is not the usual crime caper but rather a suspense novel. It features an ex forensic psychologist named Elliot Nash that was brought into the police force to save a girl from a maniacal kidnapper. Iden balances dark humor, human frailty with the modern hard-boiled detective to write some of the best detective crime thrillers. Never depending on modern tools and forensics his detectives’ rely on their brains and wits combined with old fashioned police work to resolve their mysteries.

“A Reason to Live” the first novel of the series introduces Marty who just retired from the police department after being diagnosed with cancer. But then as he is getting used to his retirement, he is approached by a young woman named Amanda that he first met a decade ago when he was in charge of an investigation into her mother’s homicide. She is now an adult and is a professor at a local university. She has been getting unsolicited flowers from someone she thinks is an ex-police officer that had killed her mother. He seems to be obsessed with Amanda and even dropped off a map taunting her after he got away with the murder. Marty now faces a new set of challenges in his quest to protect Amanda and find the elusive Michael Wheeler. Since he is no longer in the police force, he does not have the connections or resources that would have been available to him otherwise. Marty has also started his chemotherapy and the after-effects are hitting him quite hard. As such he finds his old partner and working together they hope to keep Amanda alive. But opening up a decade-old case brings back long-buried memories to Marty. The prosecutor, the trail, disappearing evidence in Wheeler’s case raise a lot of questions. But he gets help from one of the most unexpected quarters who could just become the next target.

“Blueblood” the second novel of the Marty Singer Mystery series by Matthew Iden set in Washington DC. Marty is approached by Sam Bloch a lieutenant in the city police force who needs help solving a series of mysterious murders of police officers. Sam needs his help as nobody in the force has the skills to resolve such a case. Marty is convinced to join the investigation and goes straight into talking to people and getting facts from people that do not want to give him any information. But he will not give up as the case takes him from the deadly Southeast of DC right to the gangland heartland of Virginia. As a former police officer, he is going to do everything in his power to get justice for his colleagues that have been felled. There are several curveballs particularly with regard to his cancer that gives some good information on preventative testing and cancer prevention. All in all, Iden provides an intriguing narrative full of unexpected twists and turns.

“One Right Thing” is the third novel of the Marty Singer series by Matthew Iden. Marty just had a successful surgery and is in remission. Since his health situation is now under control, he can be more relentless and focused on his investigations. He is on a trip to Virginia to go visit an old friend when he sees a billboard of a criminal he had put behind bars years past. But the man has not become a model but rather he is dead and there is a reward for anyone who can unravel the mystery of his death. But the man’s sister and mother do not want to cooperate with him, given that he was responsible for putting him behind bars, to begin with. He is feeling guilty over his role in sending him to prison but now he is determined to stay in the small town until he finds the answers that he needs. But it is not only his family who are not cooperating as even law enforcement and his ex-wife do not seem interested in helping Marty. But he finally gets an ally that is willing to work with him on the investigation that will dig through JD’s past. Can he find JD’s killer?