Nicholas Rhea books

Assured Reading Order

Constable Nick Mystery Reading Order

Detective Alec Ramsay Reading Order

Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton Reading Order

Maddleskirk Abbey Reading Order

Montague Pluke Reading Order

Non-Fiction

Standalone Novels

The Constable Files

Nicholas Rhea was the pen name of Peter Norman Walker (1936-2017), a retired police inspector from North Yorkshire. He left school at 16 to become a police cadet at Whitby and rose through the ranks to Inspector before retiring in 1982 to write full-time. His pen name combines Father Nicholas Postgate, a North York Moors martyr he admired, with Rhea, his mother’s maiden name. He wrote approximately 130 books under five pseudonyms across his career.

His best-known work is the Constable Nick Mystery series, 38 books of gentle, episodic stories drawn from his own experience as a rural beat bobby in the Yorkshire moors. The series was adapted into the ITV drama Heartbeat (1992-2010), which became one of the most-watched shows on British television. Beyond the Constable books, Rhea wrote several other crime series including the Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton novels, the comic Montague Pluke mysteries, and the Maddleskirk Abbey books featuring “monkstables.” He also wrote non-fiction about North Yorkshire history and folklore.