Tim Bowler Books In Order

Publication Order of Blade Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Tim Bowler
Author Tim Bowler was born in Leigh-on-Sea in the year 1953 and studied Swedish and Scandinavian Studies at the University of East Anglia. He worked all kinds of jobs before he became a full time writer in the year 1994.

Since Tim was a boy, he has been writing stories. He finds that he is a storyaholic, and believes in the power that stories have to move us, transform, and entertain us. For him, writing is just as much about putting down words as it is listening.

It begins with a whisper, or a silent sound that flickers in the dark, then while you continue to listen, you find that the whisper turns into an idea, and the idea into an obsession. Before you know it, there are words down on the page, with settings and characters, with the plot bubbling all around them like white water.

Bowler speaks at schools, conferences, and book festivals. He also makes regular appearances on BBC Radio Five Live where he reviews books. He lives in Devon and writes in a tiny stony outhouse that he calls “Tim’s Bolthole”.

In the year 1998, “River Boy” won a Carnegie Medal for Best Book and an Angus Book Award. “Shadows” won an Angus Book Award. “Frozen Fire” won a Hull Book Award, Highland Book Award, and a Redbridge Book Award, among others.

Tim writes the “Blade” series of novels. His debut novel, called “Midget”, was released in the year 1994.

“Playing Dead” is the first novel in the “Blade” series and was released in the year 2008. No one knows the city like Blade does. You have to when you are all by yourself, when you are unable to trust anybody, when you have got a past that you need to hide. Blade is perfectly alone, pretty much invisible, and living just by his wits, the way he likes it. A chance encounter sends his world crashing down all around him and he is on the run once more.

He is not alone, this time. All of a sudden, he has Becky and her daughter, Jaz, weighing him down. Could he be running from his own past or from Becky’s? Blade realizes he should drop both of these two, but he is unable to. There are people depending on him, he is going to need to find a way to outsmart these thugs that are hot on their trail, looming around each corner.

Readers enjoyed getting to know Blade in this, and found him to be more than just someone with a tendency towards violence. He is also caring, quick, brilliant, and just a likable dude that readers found themselves rooting for through the entire novel. The book is very entertaining that made readers want to check out more adventures with this character.

“Closing In” is the second novel in the “Blade” series and was released in the year 2008. Blade, dizzy and bleeding, wakes up in the hospital. How did he even get there? Enemies come at him from all sides, and it is tough to really know who it is that attacked him. He knows that whoever did so is going to come back to finish him off. Quickly too. He has to go. He must break out of there.

Not just to save his own life, but there is kindly Mary and little Jaz to think about. Who would look out for them? On the run, gravely injured and grinks hot behind him, Blade is going to have to gather up all of his strength in order to survive. Without anywhere to hide, he has to run. This time, should he play dead, that is exactly how he is going to end up.

Blade’s humor, along with his vulnerability and his honest fears keep an emotional link to the main character during this adventure. Readers find that Blade is one of their favorite characters they have ever read about. The guy is complex, and readers get into the stories the more they learn about Blade’s back story.

“Breaking Free” is the third novel in the “Blade” series and was released in the year 2009. Blade has touched the very edge of death. His injuries left him both vulnerable and exposed. Now his enemies have been able to track him down, and Blade knows that they are going to show them no mercy.

Should he not get away, he is dead. He is still weak, however. He doesn’t know what scares him more. Breaking free from those that are hunting him, or breaking free from his own past.

“River Boy” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 1997. Jess, who is an obsessive and talented swimmer, finds it tough to come to terms with her grandpa’s looming death. At the same time, is unable to understand his refusal to just let go until he finishes “River Boy”, his final painting.

During a family holiday, which takes both Grandpa and Jess back to the places from his childhood days, Jess also becomes involved in the mysterious painting and finds that she is drawn to the real life River-Boy, who draws her into a challenge that she is required to finish before it becomes too late.

The novel is wonderfully written and is a beautiful story that Tim Bowler is telling. The storyline is a believable and very real one, and all of the supernatural elements mesh with the mundane parts with absolute ease.

“Shadows” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in the year 1998. Jamie’s dad is obsessed with the idea that Jamie is going to become a world squash champion and he will succeed where failed. Jamie does not share his father’s rather single minded ambition and is just desperate to escape from all of the physical and verbal abuse that comes when he fails.

Then Jamie finds a girl hiding out in his shed, and helping her to escape from her past and the danger that pursues her, he will be able to put his own problems in perspective and realize that he has to come out from the shadows and face his dad.