Richard Paul Russo Books In Order

Publication Order of Lt. Frank Carlucci Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Richard Paul Russo is a best-selling science fiction and fantasy novelist. He published “Inner Eclipse” his debut novel in 1988 and has never looked back since. Russo now has more than half a dozen works to his name among them a collection and several single-standing titles.
He has asserted that, unlike other authors, he is not influenced by other authors. However, Paul Russo has said that he admires the works of certain authors and that he sometimes finds himself reading their works over and over again.

Some of the authors that he admires in science fiction include Gene Wolfe, Disch, James Tiptree JR, Ursula Le Guin, Delany, and Ballard among others. He also reads the works of the likes of John Le Carre, Cormac McCarthy, W.T. Tyler, and Ian McEwan when he feels like reading works not in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

While Richard Paul Russo is not your typical novelist, he still began reading when he was very young. Aged about 8 or 9 years he started reading a lot of science fiction and would continue to read in the genre through much of his teenage years.

At some point, he lost interest before it was reignited with the discovery of the likes of new-wave authors such as Zelazny, Ballard, and Le Guin. He found these new authors when he was about twenty years old and this was the time that he began writing too.
While he was learning the craft of writing, he penned all manner of stories including mysteries, science fiction, and literary fiction. During this time, he was interested in many different kinds of fiction but since he was not very good at writing, he never published anything.

Still, Richard kept learning and got better over time since he took his writing goals very seriously. For a time, he was huge on literary fiction and published several of his short fiction works in literary magazines.
But then he shifted to science fiction writing which he found more exciting and interesting. Still, he penned a ton of unpublishable stories and it was only in 1985 that he was good enough to start selling his works regularly.

Over the years, Richard Paul Russo has become one of the most underrated authors in American science fiction in his own dedicated and quiet manner.

His short stories and novels are usually characterized by unaffecting compassion and understated intensity. He usually writes detailed depictions of the extreme edges of human experience and emotion that are darkly accurate and realistic.
In the year 2000, he published “Terminal Visions” his first collection of short stories that underlined his contribution to science fiction in America.

In 1992, he published “Destroying Angel,” the debut novel of the very popular “Lt. Frank Carlucci” series of novels.

He loves to focus on bleak future urban realities in his single-standing titles while in his series, he usually writes about the melancholy heaviness of coming times.

Richard Paul Ruso’s novel “Destroying Angel” is set in San Francisco in a society that has fallen into disarray. Nonetheless, there is some order even in some of the untamed quarters of the city.
The lead in the story is a detective named Mr. Tanner that used to work with the San Francisco Police as a drug squad detective.

The wealthier residents that once lived in the city have migrated to satellites off the planet leaving the poorer residents to deal with crime and pollution. Crime and pollution are the order of the day and people struggle to make the best of a bad situation.
Mr. Tanner who is a former detective makes much of his money from moving between the satellite settlements where he smuggles drugs in exchange for exotic food. He usually passes much of the drugs he can get to ERs and needy hospitals, hoping he can help the most vulnerable.
But then a serial killer that had not been heard from for years starts killing again. As a former police detective, he still has some connections.

While he no longer has a passion for detective work, he reluctantly gets dragged into it and sets out to find the man that might be responsible while working alongside a thirteen-year-old homeless girl named Sookie.

“Carlucci’s Edge” by Richard Paul Russo is set in a future in San Francisco that has experienced cutting-edge technological advances while society is in decline.

Against the urban backdrop of crime and pollution, police detective Frank Carlucci is among the last honest law enforcement officers in the city.

He works with several other characters including the reporter Tremaine, the police informant nicknamed Mixer, and an early forties rock musician known as Paula.

At the opening of the story, he is trying to link a series of what seem like unrelated homicides. The police department and the officers he is working for are crooked beyond measure and try to thwart his investigations.
But he will not back down and soon discovers a huge pot of corruption as political officials have been running a black market.

It is the rock musician’s experiences and thoughts that make up most of the novel set in dystopian and gritty San Francisco.

The author also explores the Carlucci family life including his dying daughter and how Frank Carlucci makes decisions as a law enforcement officer rather than as a family man and father.

Richard Paul Russo’s novel “Carlucci’s Heart” opens with Francesco Carlucci the detective lieutenant investigating an interesting case.

The friend of one of his daughters had gone missing while San Franciso was battling a pandemic of hemorrhagic fever.

There is also the clash between “Cancer Cell,” a group of medical researchers inclined toward terror, and a New Hong Kong-based extra-planetary pharmaceutical organization.

The more the detective digs into the case the more he finds decay and corruption. However, this is nothing compared to the horror he will ultimately find which may have devastating implications.
The novel is a gritty and dark thriller in a science fiction setting. There is all manner of danger as the characters have to deal with all manner of unearthed secrets and find a balance between poverty and wealth.