Rick Reed Books In Order

Publication Order of Jack Murphy Thriller Books

Rick Reed is a renowned American writer of thriller, suspense, crime fiction, detective fiction, and mystery novels. He is famous for writing the Jack Murphy series of novels. Reed is a former detective sergeant, who was employed as a Homicide Detective with the Indiana Police Department. He started his writing career with the true-crime novel called Blood Trail in 2004. In 2009, he shifted his focus towards writing fiction. Reed likes to write police thrillers that are somewhat based on his own experiences of working as a Detective Sergeant in the Violent Crime/Homicide Unit. Reed has penned and published a total of eight thriller novels in Jack Murphy series so far, all of which have been released under the banner of Kensington Publishing. He has also finished the writing part of the ninth novel, which is expected to be released in 2019. Also, he has plans to add several more titles in this series in the coming years.

Reed’s novels have been translated and sold in numerous countries of the world. They are available in paperback, audiobook, and ebook editions. His first book was influenced by the investigation and subsequent capture of a serial killer named Joseph Weldon Brown. Reed was a part of the investigation team that captured Brown. When Reed was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and made the Internal Affairs’ head, he felt that his career was in the police department of Evansville started to go off the rails. After questioning about his sudden transfer into the Internal Affairs department, the Police Chief told him that he was already being hated everyone around and he thought IA would be the perfect place for him.

In the Jack Murphy novels, Reed has depicted the chief protagonists in the roles of Detective Liddel Blanchard and Detective Jack Murphy. These two detectives pursue brutal killers in Evansville and later become team members of a Federal Task Force for hunting down thrill and serial killers. In addition to writing novels, author Reed organizes presentations and reading sessions of his books. He is an active member of the MWA and the ITW. He is also a contributing editor to a webzine called The Big Thrill. Reed holds dual masters degrees and is involved in teaching Criminal Justice. Reed was born in Phoenix and currently resides in Nashville along with his loving wife and a couple of baby dogs named Luthor and Lexie.

Author Reed says that he has always had problems with following rules. While his friends in school were fearful of being drafted into the military for the Vietnam tour, he was more than willing to join. After working in the Sheriff’s Department for a while, Reed joined the city police and stepped into the shoes of a detective. He worked in this field for a period of twenty years. Some of the cases that he worked on during his tenure include Juvenile, Bunco Fraud, Burglary, Violent Crimes, Sex Crimes, Homicide, etc. He retired as being the Internal Affairs in charge.

While he carried out the investigations, Reed also attended numerous specialized schools, undertook the role of a hostage negotiator, became a handwriting expert, and several other things. He had also joined the Secret Service Academy of the United States in Glenco. Throughout most of his career, Reed used to work third shift and kept a low profile. He used to burn off his stress by writing an underground newspaper anonymously and publishing them. One of the articles written by him was called The Monkey Boy Gazette, which dealt with the roasting of politicians, fellow officers, and all those who gave him a reason to roast them. Now, Reed enjoys his days as an established author and spends his time in the company of his wife, his daughter, and a couple of grandchildren.

The Detective Jack Murphy series written by author Rick Reed is comprised of 8 books in total, released between 2010 and 2019. Some of the essential characters depicted in the books of this series by Reed include Liddel Blanchard, Jack Murphy, Nina Parsons, Mr. Smith, Marie Leveaux, etc. The debut book of this crime thriller series is entitled ‘The Cruelest Cut’. It was released in 2010 by the Pinnacle publication. The setting of this book takes place in Evansville, Indiana. Initially, it is mentioned that a serial killer is roaming freely in Evansville and victimizing innocent young women. The first victim was attacked and killed in her home. She was tied and gagged on her bed and killed with utmost brutality.

The killer had made her watch each and every act of cruelty that he performed on her body. Shortly after, a second victim is killed and this time in an even more twisted manner. This time, the killer wrote a note and left it in the throat of the victim for the police to find. When Jack Murphy comes across the note, he finds a nursery rhyme written in it that ended with a deadly warning. Murphy takes this warning as more than just a threat. He thinks that the killer is trying to invite him to a play that involves mind games. Sadly for the killer, he is unaware that Jack Murphy likes to play such games very much and there is no one who can play rougher than him. He makes the killer fall in his trap, captures him, and makes him pay for his violent crimes on innocent victims.

Another exciting novel of this series is known as ‘The Deepest Wound’. It was published in 2013. This novel opens by mentioning that the parts of a young lady’s body show up in the landfill of the town and quickly comes to the notice of Jack Murphy. He starts working on this unusual case as soon as he receives information about the discovery of body parts. When the identity of the victim is established, the deadly crime turns out to be a darker and more personal one for Jack Murphy. Nina Parsons was employed as a deputy prosecutor. She was the rumored girlfriend of the man that Jack Murphy’s former wife is going to marry. And when the man in question turns out to be the Chief Deputy Prosecutor, things become a lot more difficult for Jack Murphy. He is required to fight not only his demons and fears, but also the ensuing political interference. When nothing seems to be going his way, Jack Murphy becomes determined to do whatever it takes to expose the power and greed of the men in power, who end up performing evil acts on innocent victims.