Tom Palmer Books In Order

Publication Order of Conkers Books

Publication Order of Defenders Books

Publication Order of Football Academy Books

Publication Order of Football Detective Books

Publication Order of Roy Of The Rovers Books

Publication Order of Rugby Academy Books

Publication Order of Squad Books

Publication Order of Wings Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Chapter Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer is an author, husband, father, a football fan, and a reader. In fact, it was reading about football that changed his life.

He wasn’t much of a reader when he was younger. His mother was worried about him because he had been struggling at school. She encouraged him to read about football in books, newspapers, and magazines. Gradually he came to absolutely love books.

From that point on, his life changed. He wanted to know everything there was to know about books. He went to night school to do A levels when he was 21, and then he did a degree in European Literature when he was 24.

After graduating, he went to work in a bookstore, winning a Bookseller of the Year Award while working for Waterstone’s in 1997, and then a library, where he put on book promotions and author talks. Then he managed book festivals. All that time he was writing his own stories, diaries, poems, and books for adults. Then, after a few years, he was lucky enough to get one of his football books for kids accepted by Puffin.

One of his first jobs was working for the Royal National Institute for the Blind. His job was to record books for the blind students to listen to. Blind characters are rare in books, which is why he made Danny’s father blind in “Foul Play”. He wanted Danny to read books to his dad. Danny’s father loves crime fiction, and this is how Danny knows all about how crimes get solved in crime fiction. He has read so many of them to his dad.

Tom had many other jobs before becoming an author, having also worked as a milkman and worked in a warehouse.

He visits more than 150 schools each year to run his Football and Rugby Reading Games, which tie in together with his long-term work in reader development. From 2019 his range of school events includes history workshops ranging from Roman, WWI, WWII, Iron Age, Anglo Saxon, and Viking.

He has worked all around the UK and the world for the British Council, Reading Force, the National Literacy Trust, the Reading Agency, the Premier League, England Rugby, and the FA.

“After the War” and “Armistice Runner” were both nominated for the Carnegie Medal. “Foul Play” was nominated for a Blue Peter Book Award for Book of the Year. He has won a total of twenty-one children’s book awards, all of which have been voted on by children.

“Foul Play” is the first novel in the “Football Detective” series and was released in 2009. Danny Harte is obsessed with two things: tackling crime and watching football.

So when Sam Roberts, his hero and a legendary footballer, gets kidnapped, Danny jumps on the case, and fast. Danny was chased through the streets in the dark of night when Roberts vanished, and was the very last person to see Roberts before he disappeared.

Now Danny wants to get an answer to the question on everyone’s lips: who would hold England’s star striker for ransom, and why?

“Dead Ball” is the second novel in the “Football Detective” series and was released in 2009. England’s star goalie has a suspicious accident only days before the team’s World Cup qualifier against Russia, Danny realizes that something much more sinister is under way.

One ruthless Russian billionaire has got his eye on this match. His country is going to win, no matter the cost. Danny’s determined to tackle this match-fixing mystery, and he will have to go to Mascow in order to do it.

However unbeknownst to Danny, there is also an old enemy watching too, and is ready to settle up this score.

“Off Side” is the third novel in the “Football Detective” series and was released in 2009. Danny Harte learns there has been an anonymous foreign buy out of his favorite club, City, he is angry because the fans were close to buying it themselves. The club’s being very secretive and Danny’s determined to figure out what is going on, until he gets caught staking the club out by the cops and warned. His parents are angry, as well and so are his friends. Nobody’s talking to him.

However when Danny finds Adam, a kid from Ghana, who was dumped by his agent that had promised him a place as a junior at City, and lost in some foreign country that he knows nothing about, Danny knows there are worse ways of being all alone. He decides he will take Adam’s story to the media, with horrifying consequences for each of them.

“Killer Pass” is the fourth novel in the “Football Detective” series and was released in 2010. There has been a crime wave of burglaries at the houses of City FC players, Danny’s favorite football team. Danny’s determined to figure out who the culprit is. However his investigations lead to reports about a young boy that has been hanging around the crime scenes.

Danny has to learn who is behind these crimes, and fast. Otherwise he may just become the biggest suspect of them all.

“Own Goal” is the fifth novel in the “Football Detective” series and was released in 2011. Danny loves supporting City FC, his local club. Everybody begins supporting Forza FC, the Italian team, Danny’s angry. His club’s in jeopardy and needs their support. Danny decides to investigate the sudden popularity of this new team, beginning with Forza’s billionaire owner, and that is when the danger truly starts.

Can Danny reveal the sinister reasons behind the success of Forza, and save City at the same time?

“Arctic Star” is a stand alone novel and was released in 2021. Winter of 1943. Teens Stephen, Frank, and Joseph are Royal Navy recruits on their very first mission at sea during World War Two. Their ship is part of an Arctic Convoy sailing off to Russia to deliver supplies to the Soviets.

These convoys must navigate treacherous waters, sailing through this narrow channel between the Arctic ice pack and the German bases on the Norwegian coast. Faced with horrifying enemy attacks from both sea and air, as well as life-threatening storms and cold, are all three boys going to return home again?