Ted Riley
Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Front | 2002 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 2 | Forget Me Not | 2003 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 3 | Tainted Lives | 2004 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 4 | The Charmer | 2005 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 5 | The Game | 2005 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 6 | The Club | 2006 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 7 | Shafted | 2007 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 8 | Snatched | 2009 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 9 | Two Faced | 2009 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 10 | The Driver | 2010 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 11 | Lost Angel | 2012 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 12 | Broke | 2013 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 13 | Respect | 2014 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 14 | Afraid | 2015 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 15 | Run | 2016 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 16 | Save Me | 2017 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 17 | Brutal | 2019 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 18 | Witness | 2020 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
| 19 | Running Scared | 2022 | Mandasue Heller | Buy |
Heller’s nineteen standalone novels share common territory—Manchester streets, criminal enterprises, characters struggling against violence and poverty—but each tells its own story. Early books like The Front (2002) and Forget Me Not (2004) established her template: fast plots, authentic Manchester settings, and protagonists caught in dangerous situations. Later novels expand her range while maintaining the gritty realism her readers expect.
The books explore gang warfare, drug dealing, domestic violence, child abuse, and the sex trade, never flinching from depicting brutality. Many feature women trying to protect themselves or their children from violent partners or criminal associates. Characters include gang leaders, street dealers, desperate mothers, and people trapped in cycles of abuse and retaliation. Heller’s ear for Manchester dialect and slang gives the dialogue authenticity, making characters feel like real people rather than crime fiction types.
Titles like Tainted Lives, Snatched, Lost Angel, and Two-Faced show the variety within Heller’s consistent approach. Each book delivers revenge plots, betrayal, violence, and characters fighting to survive or escape, all set against Manchester’s grittiest neighborhoods. The standalone format allows Heller to explore different criminal scenarios without series constraints, giving each book its own intensity while maintaining the urban crime atmosphere that defines her work. Reading across the nineteen novels shows a writer who has found her subject and continues to find new angles on Manchester’s criminal underworld.