Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Playing Dead | 2008 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 2 | Closing In | 2008 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 3 | Breaking Free | 2008 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 4 | Running Scared | 2009 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 5 | Fighting Back | 2009 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 6 | Mixing It | 2010 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 7 | Cutting Loose | 2010 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
| 8 | Risking All | 2010 | Tim Bowler | Buy |
The Blade series is a set of eight short urban thrillers published between 2008 and 2010. They follow a 14-year-old boy known only as Blade, who is on the run from both the police and the criminal gangs connected to his violent past. The story is set in a city Blade calls “the Beast,” and each book picks up where the last one left off, creating a continuous narrative across all eight volumes.
Blade is street-smart, observant, and secretive about his history. His skill with a knife earned him his nickname, but the series does not glamorize that violence. Tim Bowler has said the books are meant to show the harsh reality of knife culture, not to romanticize it. Alongside the action, the story explores themes of guilt, exploitation of young people, and whether someone with a dangerous past can find a way to start over.
The series was originally published in the UK as eight individual books and was later consolidated into four omnibus editions by Oxford University Press: Enemies, Flight, Firestorm, and Endgame. The books are listed below in their original publication order.