Best Dad Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Best Dad, the Beginning |
2019 |
Buy |
| The Swimming Pool Years |
2019 |
Buy |
Best Dad I Can Be Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Best Dad I Can Be |
2012 |
N/A |
| Half Dad Half Fish |
2012 |
N/A |
Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Chronicles of a Desperate Dad |
2006 |
Buy |
| Walking Shorts: 25 Laugh-out-Loud short stories |
2018 |
Buy |
| Pepper: Tales of a Family Dog… |
2020 |
Buy |
Michael Brady Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Salt in the Wounds |
2020 |
Buy |
| The River Runs Deep |
2021 |
Buy |
| The Echo of Bones |
2021 |
Buy |
| Choke Back the Tears |
2022 |
Buy |
| The Edge of Truth |
2023 |
Buy |
| The Hanged Woman |
2023 |
Buy |
Michael Brady Short Stories/Novellas Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Scars Don’t Show |
2021 |
Buy |
| Crossing the White Line |
2021 |
Buy |
| The Ghost of Grape Lane |
2022 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Father, Son and the Pennine Way: 5 days, 90 miles. What could possibly go wrong? |
2017 |
Buy |
| Father, Son and Return to the Pennine Way |
2018 |
Buy |
| Father, Son and the Kerry Way: “Just one more hill, Dad…” |
2019 |
Buy |
Mark Richards writes in two distinct modes. His Michael Brady books are serious crime thrillers set in the Yorkshire coast and moors, following a detective whose cases pull him into the kind of grief and violence that leaves lasting marks. The series began with Salt in the Wounds in 2020 and ran to six novels by 2023, with a parallel strand of short stories and novellas filling in gaps between the main books.
His other work has a very different tone. The Best Dad and Best Dad I Can Be books draw on his own experience of fatherhood, and the non-fiction Father, Son series records long-distance walking trips with his son along routes like the Pennine Way and the Kerry Way. Those books are funny and self-deprecating, the kind of travel memoir that reads like a long letter home.
Richards has also published short story collections, including Walking Shorts and the dog-focused Pepper, which suggest a writer who enjoys experimenting with form. The contrast between the grim Yorkshire crime fiction and the warmhearted humour of the walking books makes his overall output harder to pin down than most authors, but both strands have found their readers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Mark Richards written?
Mark Richards has written nineteen books across six series.
What was Mark Richards's first book?
Mark Richards’s first book is Chronicles of a Desperate Dad, published in 2006.
What is the Michael Brady series about?
The Michael Brady series follows a detective in North Yorkshire investigating dark, emotionally driven cases. The books deal with themes of loss, grief, and justice, and the series runs to six novels plus three short stories and novellas.