Mike Ripley Books In Order

Publication Order of Fitzroy Maclean Angel Books

Publication Order of Albert Campion Books

Publication Order of Bloodlines Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Mike Ripley

Mike Ripley was born in the year 1952, who writes crime fiction and critiques it too, writing for The Guardian, The Times, and the Daily Telegraph. Ripley lectures at the University of Cambridge on crime fiction, as well. He also is an archaeologist.

He writes historical mystery and mystery novels. His debut novel, “Just Another Angel”, the first of the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, was released in the year 1988. The series stars his Angel character, a taxi driver and trumpet player in London, England. Ripley also wrote the fifth series of “Lovejoy”, a BBC comedy-drama series.

The books in his “Angel” comedy mystery series has won two CWA Last Laugh Awards, once for “Angel Touch” and again for “Angels in Arms”.

He helped finish a novel that featured Albert Campion, who is a detective character created by Margery Allingham, a crime writer and one of Mike’s personal heroes, created. He has worked on four additional novels featuring Albert Campion.

Some have said that he paints a picture of London that Dickens would have been able to recognize. It has been said that he writes like young Len Deighton, wonderful and weird info as well as being extremely funny.

“Just Another Angel” is the first novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1988. London during the late eighties, in the era of Loadsamoney and Thatcherism. It can be an exciting, if dangerous at times place to live in. Fitzroy Maclean Angel gets by in part by taking illegal fares in the de-registered black taxi he drives and gigging as a jazz trumpet player. The rest, is just him being in the right place at the right time. As he often says, it is better to be lucky than to be good.

The street smart Angel meets a mysterious and gorgeous blonde and this is just the start of his troubles. Hotly pursued by some jail-bird gangster and his thug of a henchman, as well as a maverick cop that is bent on revenge and a dogged Inland Revenue Inspector. The whole time, he finds that his life gets more and more complex with each passing minute.

Just how a women’s peace camp, an emerald pendant, and some French francs fit in, he is unable to figure that.

This novel is great fun, and features a wickedly funny group of characters. The writing is well paced and hooks you right into things, and the descriptions of the characters makes you begin to identify with all their little nuances.

“Angel Touch” is the second novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1989. The London Stock Exchange can be a dangerous and odd place when financial reputations are at stake. And there is no end of stunning scams and insider dealings that lurk underneath the surface.

Angel is a fun and engaging lead with his quirky buddies and roommates. The novel is pretty funny and well written.

“Angel Hunt” is the third novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1990. Angel has an old buddy from university drop in on him, literally, as he plummets to his death through the skylight window. This is just the start of Angel’s issues, while the police twist his arm to aid in their enquiries into some group of animal rights activists that may have something more lethal than a bit of foxhunt sabotage on their minds.

“Angels in Arms” is the fourth novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1991. Angel gets a call from an old friend and it sends him out on the road with a heavy metal band while in pursuit of a truck filled with contraband.

“Angel City” is the fifth novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1994. Angel is down on his luck and broke, which requires he get two jobs, one of them is definitely dodgy. He is pulled into a series of underworlds, out of the twilight world of the homeless in London to role-playing fantasies, where monsters become real all of a sudden and the games are not all that funny anymore.

“Angel Confidential” is the sixth novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1995. Angel is working his latest case. It includes an impoverished minor aristocrat that has a love for classic cars, a dubious religious cult, his own odd wife, and a shady solicitor. On top of all this, Angel must cope with Veronica Blugden, his partner in detection.

“Family of Angels” is the seventh novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1996. Angel has to turn his own streetwise talents so that he can solve problems deep inside the heart of his own family. Mainly on finding his missing brother and get him out of one of the most outrageous drug deals of the entire decade.

“That Angel Look” is the eighth novel in the “Fitzroy Maclean Angel” series, which was released in the year 1997. Angel gets more than he bargains for after taking up a job as an all-purpose assistant to a trio of sexy fashion designers.

“Double Take” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2002. This is set in London’s wild west frontier surrounding Heathrow airport and features a multi-cultural cast of people that are determined to make crime pay. The book is told from two different perspectives, the gang of crooks and the cops. The reader gets some idea there is something happening and how to steal from a major airport and get away with it.

The author keeps the plan away from the reader as the cops try to piece it all together, until it happens at the end. At the same time it deconstructs one of the most audacious plots that Agatha Christie ever wrote.

The book has a double dose of Ripley’s staples: tons of funny things, it’s filled with suspense.