If you are new to my books, the best place to start depends on what kind of reading experience you enjoy most. My novels combine traditional crime-solving with strong characters, dry humour, and a steady pacing that keeps readers turning the pages long after they meant to stop. Whether you prefer police procedurals, private investigations, or darker psychological mysteries, there is a clear entry point into my work.
For most readers, the ideal starting place is The Freeman Files series. ‘Fatal Decision’ introduces Gus Freeman, a retired detective inspector who finds himself drawn back into investigations. Gus is not a superhero detective. He is experienced, stubborn, observant, and human, which makes him easy to believe in and follow throughout the series. Readers who enjoy intelligent investigations rather than flashy gimmicks usually settle comfortably into these books from the opening chapters.
Starting at the beginning allows readers to watch Gus’s character evolve naturally. Relationships deepen, old wounds resurface, and recurring characters gain importance over time. While many of the 24 books can stand alone as individual mysteries, reading them in order gives the strongest emotional payoff. It also helps new readers appreciate the subtle continuity and long-term character development that run quietly beneath the crimes themselves.
Readers who prefer something slightly darker may choose the Phoenix thrillers instead. The series follows a stone-cold killer and his role in the Olympus Project, a secret organisation fighting injustice. With hard, fast action and a cast of characters you can reach out and touch, this is the thriller series for which you may have been searching. The Phoenix believes criminals should pay for their crimes. The system often fails to deliver the correct punishment. He can redress the balance.
If you’re a fan of savage, underworld criminals, fast-paced action, and intense characters, then you’ll enjoy following the Olympus Project and its fight against evil. There are only so many outcomes for a man on a mission of vigilante justice. He succeeds. He gets caught in the process. He dies. Or he meets like-minded people who believe they must make criminals pay for their crimes. This series explores the consequences of vigilante justice in a modern world, where loyalty, betrayal, and moral compromise are constant threats. Phoenix is forced to confront not only external enemies but the personal cost of the choices he has made.
These books place ordinary people in extraordinary situations and explore how quickly lives can unravel under pressure. They retain the same clear storytelling style and grounded realism that appear throughout my work, but they tend to move with a sharper edge and greater emotional tension.
One reason many readers become loyal followers is the accessibility of the writing. The stories are straightforward without being simplistic. The mysteries are layered without becoming confusing. There is a confidence in the storytelling: clues are planted carefully, characters behave believably, and the endings feel earned rather than manufactured. New readers often discover that they intended to sample one book and suddenly find themselves several novels deep into the series.
Crime fiction works best when the reader is intrigued from page one. Some readers are drawn to cold cases, others to missing persons, murder investigations, revenge plots, or hidden secrets from the past. My catalogue covers a wide enough range that there is usually an easy match for different tastes within the mystery and thriller genre.
Another topic in next month’s blog. ‘Why The West Country Works So Well for Crime Fiction’.
Stay lucky. Best wishes.
Ted Tayler