Nicholas Searle Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Bestselling author Nicholas Searle grew up in Cornwall, studying languages at Bath and Gottingen universities. He taught for four years, and later moved to London, where he joined the Civil Service.

Searle had an enjoyable twenty-three years, working in many different jobs that dealt with security matters before he started work in a similar capacity for New Zealand’s government in Wellington. Searle went back to the UK in the year 2011, and left Civil Service and started to write for real. Nicholas lives in Yorkshire with his wife.

While working in Civil Service, he wrote in a dispassionate way. Although he did learn how to write concisely and succinctly with quite a bit of precision. Writing fiction, however, allows him to write with a lot of feeling and expression.

As a young kid, he wanted to be a writer, and at the ages of seven and eight would write storybooks for his little sister. English was always one of Searle’s favorite subjects while in school. After university, he followed the path of his career, and wrote fiction during his spare time, but was unhappy with the results each time.

The writers he likes have the ability to achieve great impact with each word and economy of expression. Many of the authors he likes write hybrids, books that cross genres. They are not writing in any one genre in particular, but just write excellent books.

When he writes, Nicholas Searle tries to act like a prospective reader, and ask himself if he wants to read the words, sentences, paragraphs, or page. He has become better at this by reading novels from a writer’s point of view, and pick apart what the writer is truly doing. This is something, though that can pull you out of the book, since you must keep some distance and hover some up above the page rather than become immersed in the tale being told.

He came across a man that wound up being the model for Roy, the main character from “The Good Liar”. A distant relative met him online, and charmed her quite a lot. By the time Nicholas met him, he had moved into this woman’s home. Searle found himself both horrified as well as fascinated by the guy, because he was both an established liar, but a pretty poor one too. The lies he told were easy to pick up, and the guy was quite inconsistent. Needless to say, Nicholas did not like him one bit.

Once he started writing, he had met the guy’s kids, who had quite a few tales to tell him about his life. Each of these confirmed the assumptions Searle had about him.

None of the real “Roy’s” history is anything at all like the Roy in the book. Besides the core of chapter one, everything else comes from Searle’s imagination.

Searle published his first novel in the year 2015, which was called “The Good Liar”. His novels are from the genres of thriller and mystery.

“The Good Liar” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2015. Roy, a con man, lives in a small English town, and is about to pull off his last job. He will meet and woo some gorgeous woman and take off with her entire life savings. Who is the real guy behind the con? What must he do to survive his life of lies? Who has had to pay the price for what he has done?

Roy meets a wealthy widow on the internet, and is hardly able to believe his luck. Just like Tom Ripley, the Patricia Highsmith character, Roy is a guy that lives to deceive. Everything he has learned about Betty points to her being an easy mark. Roy is sure that his scheme to take all of her money is going to work. After all, he has done this kind of thing before.

And it starts off working just fine. Betty quickly allows Roy to move into her gorgeous home, apparently blind to all the lies he has woven near her. Who is Roy, actually?

This an assured and intriguing debut novel. Once you get into the book, you will invest in the characters and story line rather easily. The way the book starts goes a long way in hooking the reader, and the presentation lets you know you will be engaged by this one. This book is able to often surprise some, and you never really know what will happen until it actually does.

“A Traitor in the Family” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2017. Francis O’Neill is a terrorist and was trained to murder for his cause. Bridget, his wife, is expected to stand by her husband and be loyal. Bridget has learned to not hope for a whole lot more than that.

Then she gets a glimpse of a chance for a new start, the first one she has ever gotten. It would be a life without violence, secrets, or knocks on the door in the middle of the night. A life without her husband. What if Bridget’s freedom spells grave danger for Francis?

Searle’s vision and writing style are straightforward and uncomplicated. This one focuses more on the gray areas, which for some is great. This is a gripping book, that you can read quickly, yet is highly enjoyable and thought provoking all the while.

“A Fatal Game” is the third stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2019. A terrorist attack just occurred at a busy railway station. The British intelligence officer in charge of making sure the attack did not happen is Jake Winter. Now his conscience, and his career are currently in free fall.

The next anti-terror operation must be a success. Jake’s got a new source, named Rashid (a British Asian man) who came back from battle apparently disillusioned. He hopes Rashid is the key to stopping the next attack from happening and getting him to the network’s leader. Is Rashid actually working for British intelligence, or did Jake put his faith in the wrong guy once more?