R.J. McMillen Books In Order

Publication Order of Dan Connor Mystery Books

R.J. McMillen is a renowned Canadian author of mystery, thriller, suspense, and crime fiction novels. She is particularly famous for writing the Dan Connor Mystery series. Her books are widely popular and have helped her to establish herself as a prominent author of the mystery genre. McMillen is considered a nomad of sorts as she manages her time equally at her residences in Mexico and Canada. After being born in England, McMillen was brought up in Australia. She has worked for 3 years in Greece. McMillen met her Irish-Canadian life partner in Greece and got married to him in India. Following her marriage, she moved to Canada with her husband to raise her happy family.

McMillen says that she has spent numerous with her husband exploring British Columbia’s beautiful west coast. She owns a sailboat called Maquinna, which she uses for all her explorations. In addition to writing full-length novels, McMillen has penned numerous articles, essays, and short stories for newspapers and magazines. She has also written a travel guide called Driving Baja for Baja California, Mexico. After traveling and spending time in multiple countries, McMillen arrived in Canada for the first time in 1968. Over the course of the next 30 years, McMillen explored the waters and the surrounding region of British Columbia. Her vast knowledge about sailing as well as the environment of the west coast and the people living there helped her to come up with the authentic and vivid settings for her mystery novels.

McMillen’s respect for Canada’s indigenous culture can be seen as embodied in one of the endearing and enduring characters of her novels named Walker. Every book written by McMillen in the Don Connor series has been edited under the supervision of a local indigenous editor so as to ensure cultural accuracy. Before writing this series, McMillen worked on several nonfiction projects, poetry, freelance articles, and short fiction. Some of the publications in which her work has frequently appeared include WordWorks, Outdoors, Season Magazine, Pacific Yachting, Greyzine, Ojo de Lago, B.C., etc. As of now, McMillen is employed as a teacher of Creative Writing in Jalisco, Mexico. So, she has to divide her time between her family in British Columbia, and her job in Jalisco.

In between, she manages to take out some spare time to work on her novels and other stuff. McMillen mostly uses her free time in editing manuscripts and delivering presentations and workshops. She likes to wander a lot and visit various places of interest. Originally, she is trained as an adult educator and teacher. She considers herself blessed to have found a career path in the field of novel writing as well. McMillen’s family is comprised of her loving husband, three children, and seven grandchildren. There are also several pet dogs, parakeets, and fishes in her house which are treated as a member of her family.

Author McMillen is highly active on social media. She likes to use the various platforms of social media to get in touch with her fans and interact with them. Mostly, she keeps her Facebook page updated with the news about the recent happenings in her writing career. McMillen is a proud member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. She is grateful to her fans for supporting her and liking her work. Even numerous critics have praised McMillen’s novels and have given reviews about her stories, characters, writing style, and storytelling abilities. McMillen hopes they continue to do so for all her upcoming novels. Currently, she is at work on her next Don Connor book and is hopeful of publishing it very soon.

The Dan Connor series written by author R.J. McMillen began in 2014. This mystery fiction series takes place in British Columbia, Canada and revolves around a retired policeman named Dan Connor. Other essential characters mentioned by McMillen in the series include Walker, Claire, and several others. Walker is depicted as a former criminal, who forms an unlikely bond with Dan Connor and the two go on to solve various cases of mystery happening in and around British Columbia. The debut book of this mystery series is entitled ‘Dark Moon Walking’. It was released in 2014 by Touchwood Editions. The book opens by showing that eight years have passed since former cop Dan Connor put Walker, a troubled criminal, behind bars. And it has been just one year since he handed over his police badge after he lost the love of his life. He looks forward to spending his retired life on a distant island near the Pacific Southwest coast. But, his peace gets disrupted by a series of sinister events.

One such event comes to his notice in which a marine biologist disappears mysteriously. To look into this case, Dan Connor is forced to join hands with Walker, who has recently come out of prison and is facing troubles from his own demons. Both of them know that they do not have any business with each other, but when the innocent lives hand in the balance, they realize that their skills and knowledge form the perfect mixture to save them. Overall, this novel is filled with an eclectic set of characters and contains a riveting plot that keeps the readers on the edge of their seats throughout.

The exciting second installment of the series is known as ‘Black Tide Rising’. It was also published by TouchWood Editions in 2015. Initially, it is depicted that a period of one year passes after Dan Connor and Walker formed an unlikely partnership to find the missing marine biologist named Claire. After successfully locating and rescuing her, Connor feels drawn towards her. He feels that the time has come when he can enjoy his retirement along with being in the arms of the woman he has started loving. Connor makes up his mind to visit Claire’s village located in a remote location in British Columbia’s Pacific Northwest. During his journey, he comes across an island called Nootka Island and decides to rest for some time with the island dwellers. Connor’s hopes of a peaceful journey get shattered again when he gets pulled into another case of a missing lady. But, this time the case looks even more sinister as Connor comes across a sacred totem’s mutilated remains covered in blood. An unexpected visit from Walker brings some relief for Connor. They join hands again and use their wisdom and logic to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of the woman and unravel it in time to save her life.