Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Good Liar | 2016 | Nicholas Searle | Buy |
| 2 | A Traitor in the Family | 2017 | Nicholas Searle | Buy |
| 3 | A Fatal Game | 2019 | Nicholas Searle | Buy |
Nicholas Searle is a former British civil servant who spent his career in security-related positions before turning to fiction. He grew up in Cornwall, studied languages at the University of Bath and the University of Gottingen, and worked for both the UK and New Zealand governments before leaving the civil service in 2011 to write novels.
His debut, The Good Liar (2016), became a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. The novel follows aging con man Roy as he targets Betty, a wealthy widow, in a scheme that spans decades and ends with a surprise reversal. It was adapted into a 2019 film starring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. His follow-ups, A Traitor in the Family (2017) and A Fatal Game (2019), draw on similar themes of deception, loyalty, and the hidden costs of intelligence work.