YOU WERE GONE (aka David Raker 9) is OUT TODAY!

17/05/18 – It's here! After months of toiling away at my desk, hours of staring out of the window, 3pm biscuit raids and a healthy mix of crushing self-doubt and absolute panic, You Were Gone (or David Raker 9, if you prefer) is finally available in the shops as a hardback. Early readers have been very kind about it (so far), for which I'm incredibly grateful, and I hope –– now that it's out there for everyone to grab –– that you enjoy its twists and turns. Please do get in touch if you've read it and liked it –– I'd love to hear from you! You can drop me a line on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or via good old email.

David Raker 9 is called…
​YOU WERE GONE​

14/03/18 – Well, here it is. After months of sweat and graft, some award-winning staring into the middle distance, and seven trillion cups of tea, David Raker 9 not only has an actual, living, breathing title, it has a cover and it has a release date. The brand new Raker thriller will be called You Were Gone, it'll look exactly like the image on the right when it hits the shops, and it'll hit the shops on –– get out your diaries! –– Thursday 17 May. I'm equal parts excited and terrified for you to get your hands on it, and if you want to read an exclusive, won't-see-it-anywhere-else-before-release chapter, two months before the rest of the world, you should probably sign up to my newsletter. Oh, and here's a quick checklist of what to expect after you rush down to the shops on Thursday 17 May:
YES –– Raker questioning his own sanity by the end of Chapter 2.
YES –– The return of a certain Irishman who goes by the name of Bryan Kennedy now.
YES –– One chapter that will probably make you cry, unless you have no feelings at all.
NO –– Boring bits.

Raker 9 is finished!

3/11/17 – When I first started out writing books, I naively thought that each one would get progressively easier… but turns out I was wrong. If I Am Missing was hard to write, David Raker 9 was even harder. In fact, I basically spent August, September and October locked in a dark room staring off into the middle distance like a Vietnam veteran having flashbacks. But, at least, it is (finally) finished. And by 'finished', I mean 'not really finished at all because it hasn't even been edited yet'. *Stares off into middle distance like aforementioned veteran.*

I AM MISSING is in the shops now!

27/07/17 – Well, after all the build-up, it's actually hard to believe that I Am Missing is now available in shops –– but apparently it is! And not just shops, supermarkets. And not just supermarkets, online. And not just physical editions, but ebook and audio versions. Basically, you can get it everywhere from today –– so thank you if you pick up a copy.

Introducing the new David Raker thriller…
​I AM MISSING

20/05/17 – So, it's finally here: the cover for I Am Missing, aka David Raker 8. If you're a newsletter subscriber, you will have already read the entire first chapter (and, if not, sign up now), but if you aren't, and you haven't, you can go in cold on Thursday 27 July –– which is when it goes on sale in all good bookshops and supermarkets –– or you can pre-order it right now by clicking here. 

Here's what you've got in store:

​When a young man wakes up bruised, beaten and with no memory of who he is or where he came from, the press dub him 'The Lost Man'. Naming himself Richard Kite, he spends the next ten months trying to find out who he is. But despite appeals and the best efforts of the police, he fails in all attempts to recover his identity.

Kite's last hope may be private investigator David Raker, a seasoned locator of missing people. But Raker has more questions than answers. Who is 'The Lost Man'? Why does no one know him? Where are his family and friends? And what links him to the body of a woman found beside a London railway line two years ago?

BROKEN HEART is longlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

19/05/17 – Totally unexpectedly, and really rather excitingly, it seems that Broken Heart has been longlisted by the Crime Writers' Association for its Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award. Previous winners include Gillian Flynn, Jeffery Deaver, Karin Slaughter and Don Winslow, and the longlist this year is insanely good so it's a little bit amazing to be selected alongside such a brilliant selection of thriller writers, and to be in with a shout for such a prestigious award.

RAKER 8 is finished!

05/01/17 – Yep, after ten months of blood, sweat and tears (mostly tears), the new Raker novel is finished. (Not that I'm trying to hard-sell my Newsletter or anything, honest guv, but if you signed up to it prior to December 20, you'd have already read an excerpt from the first chapter, because being a newsletter subscriber is ace like that.) I'll be talking about it more over the coming months, but as you can see from all the red lines on the picture to the left, I'm currently hard at work on the edits. Oh, and the working title is currently, er… Raker 8. 

BROKEN HEART is out today!

28/07/16 – Well, it's that time of the year again – a new David Raker novel is here, and it's up to you guys to save me from unemployment by buying a copy. Or three. No pressure. Seriously, though, I'm relieved, excited and absolutely terrified about the release of Broken Heart: relieved that all that work has finally made it onto shelves; excited about what people will make of it; and, er… well, also terrified about what people will make of it. If it goes to plan, it'll be available all over the country, in supermarkets, WHSmith, Waterstone's, independent bookshops, online, as well as in e-editions on Kindle and iBooks. A huge thank you to everyone who buys a copy!

Download three new MISSING episodes

20/07/16 – Missing, the podcast I made last year about why people disappear and the investigators who track them down, had almost 400,000 listens and was selected by iTunes as one of the best podcasts of 2015. This week, to coincide with the release of Broken Heart, we're kicking it off again with three brand new episodes. Please do listen to them – especially the second and third one. Why? Well, in a special two-parter, I find out what it's actually like to be a missing person – by disappearing myself. Catch it on iTunes and Soundcloud.

Introducing the new David Raker thriller… BROKEN HEART

07/06/16 – Not that I'm trying to hard-sell my newsletter here, but if you did happen to be a subscriber to it, you'll have known for a while that the new David Raker book is called Broken Heart and that the cover for it looks a bit like the one on the right. (Also, you'll have read the first chapter of it too – another bonus of signing up to the newsletter, which I'm definitely not trying to hard-sell.) If you have a phobia of newsletters, though, or you like missing out on exclusive stuff like sample chapters and competitions, I still hope the sight of the lesser-spotted Raker 7 will get you excited. We're only a month and a half out from release now, so my own excitement has long been tempered by pant-filling terror, but at the same time I'm looking forward to seeing what readers make of it. If you want to find out more about the plot, you can head to the Broken Heart page on the site – or you can even pre-order it to make sure you get it day one. If not, Thursday 28 July is the date you need in your diary. A big thanks, as always, for your support.

This is RAKER 7

19/04/16 – Admittedly, it doesn't look like much at the moment, but the screenshot on the left is the copyedited version of David Raker 7. What does that mean? It means my eagle-eyed copyeditor has been through it, corrected my appalling spelling, ironed out continuity errors and things that just plain don't make sense, and that this version here, complete with mark-up's (red are my corrections, green are hers) will be – near as damn it – the version that you pick up in the shops in July. There'll be much more on the new book – like a release date and the small matter of its name – over the coming weeks…

RAKER goes Stateside

26/01/16 – BOOM! Great news for anyone in the US (unless they hate my books), as four more novels in the David Raker series will be available, starting in May. Chasing the Dead kicks things off in paperback, then there'll be the hardback of Fall from Grace in July, and then The Dead Tracks and Vanished follow in autumn (or the 'Fall', if you prefer), also in paperback. Where's Never Coming Back? That's already out in the States, but it'll be getting a brand new, ultra-snazzy rejacket to tie it into the beautiful cover design on the right here. More details as they come in…

What Remains is OUT NOW

22/10/15 – It seems to have come around so fast, but today's the day that the paperback of What Remains hit shelves. In even better news, there are not one, but two versions of the paperback available. The one on top in the picture to the left has a beautiful finish, with super-sexy red-stained pages and is available in all supermarkets and book shops; the one underneath is a Sainsbury's exclusive version, which includes my short story 'Disconnection' (but not a red finish). Whichever one you go for, a big Weaver-shaped thank you!

MISSING – a brand new podcast series

03/09/15 – After what seems like months in the planning (probably because, well, it took months to plan), I can finally talk about a very exciting new project I've been involved in. MISSING is a new podcast series that launches TODAY on iTunes, and due to another obvious clerical error (see 'Raker is nominated!' below for more where that came from), I've somehow ended up front and centre of it. Over the duration of a season, I'll be charting the course of a missing persons investigation by talking to experts in the fields of law enforcement, surveillance, human behaviour, psychology, technology and more. It was an amazing thing to be a part of, and I hope you get as much enjoyment from listening to it as I did from making it. Oh, and if you aren't on iTunes, you can listen to it on Soundcloud by clicking here.

WHAT REMAINS is in the shops now

16/07/15 – It's hard to believe that another year has passed between Raker's, but I've checked my calendar and apparently it's not lying to me – which means the sixth (sixth!) in the series, What Remains, is on sale in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, WHSmith, Waterstone's, your local indie book shop, or digitally at Amazon and iBooks RIGHT NOW. Oh, and if you need any further persuading, here's what it's all about…

When all has been lost, what is there left to find?

Colm Healy used to be one of the Met's best detectives – until, haunted by the unsolved murders of a mother and her twin daughters, his life was left in ruins. His failure to find an elusive killer – or even a motive for such a merciless crime – consumed him and his career, and cost him his family.

Missing persons investigator David Raker is the only friend Healy has left. He's the only one who understands that redemption rests on solving these murders. As they re-open the investigation together, Raker learns the hard way how this case breeds obsession – and how an unsolvable puzzle can break even the best detective.

Their search will take them down a trail of darkness, unravelling a thread of tragedy spanning years, and force them to sacrifice everything they have left...

A huge thank you to everyone who goes out and buys a copy today and over the coming weeks. Your support is so appreciated.

Brand new events page – diaries ready

01/06/15 – Now you've got no excuse not to come and say hello to me IN REAL LIFE, as I'll be putting all up and coming events onto this very page, which I promise to keep up-to-date with all the bits and bobs I'm doing over the coming months. If you want to hear me blah on about my new book, What Remains, then there'll be events at Chichester and Bath (with more to come!); or if you just fancy seeking me out for a pint, I'll be wandering the mean streets of London at Crime in the Court, and hauling my backside  to Harrogate in July.

Raker is nominated (all thanks to you)

11/05/15 – Due to some sort of clerical error, I'm now doing all the eye-rubbing and double-taking in the world as it seems I've been longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. And do you know what the best bit is? The nominees were all voted for by the public, which means YOU are solely responsible for me being a part of this rather stellar-looking list of crime and thriller authors. So a massive thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for the Raker series – it really is such an honour to even be mentioned in the same breath of some of the other writers here. If I win (which I won't, so I know I'm safe), I'll do a Paddy Ashdown and eat an entire hat.

It's alive! (Ish.)

12/03/15 – Today, What Remains proofs arrived in the post, and they look belting. (An added bonus: they're big enough to be used as a weapon, so get a couple of copies on order for that special person in your life you've always wanted to 'accidentally' injure.) Believe it or not, despite it looking like a finished copy, it's actually not. This is an 'uncorrected proof' – which means it was taken from a version of the novel that had yet to go via my eagle-eyed copyeditor – and the idea is to give people a taste of the 100% perfect version that will arrive in bookshops on July 16th. Fancy reading What Remains months before anyone else? Well, I'll be giving one of these proof copies away to a lucky Newsletter subscriber – so sign up now if you haven't already!