JOHN RICKARDS

Phil Durand is a low level functionary within one of Bostons organized crime outfits. A delivery driver, nothing more. When his girlfriend Evie goes missing three days before they were due to leave town together to start a better, clean, life down in Florida, he turns to the only man he knows with a reputation for helping guys like him...Alex Rourke was once a respected investigator, first with the FBI and then in the private sector. Now he battles a long-term mental illness thats seen him slide from doing respectable work to ekeing out a living helping those with no one else to turn to. Durands missing girlfriend looks like just a bread-and-butter job for him and his sardonic, secretive assistant Kayleigh.But they soon find that somethings very wrong with what theyve been told. Has Evie genuinely been missing for a few days? Was she really Durands girlfriend? Is their client lying, or deranged? And how does what happened to the missing woman tie in to the outfit Durand works for, not to mention a rival boss in a neighboring part of town?The race is on to find Evie, find the truth, and untangle the knots in Durands story before one side, or another, does it for them...Praise for John Rickards:"Rickards is a master of tension and pacing. In Rourke he has created a brilliant anti-hero lead on a par with John Connollys Charlie Parker." - Crimespree Magazine"Rickards is one author who doesnt pull punches." - Spinetingler"Rickards is definitely one to watch." - Peter Robinson (Watching The Dark, Aftermath)

Step through and it can give you back everything youve lost, or take away everything youve got.Jack Harkers a washed-up adventure junkie with a knack for languages and getting himself in trouble. But when armed strangers break into his house looking for his parents old notes on the legendary lost city of Huayacapo, they inadvertently draw him into a secret war thats been raging for a century and a half, a shadow conflict to unearth the past, and to control the future.His enemies are after a relic of a pre-human civilization, the gateway through which the gods themselves supposedly entered the world, a door to other worlds, other times. They have other artifacts bonded to them, enhancing their abilities and extending their lives. They have relentless, inhuman servitors who obey their every command. They have limitless wealth and wield vast influence over governments and civic authorities. Jacks only allies are revenge-driven thief Anya Martinez, his crazy uncle, and a secret group who may not even exist.Beating them to the prize will take luck and cunning, and the race will lead from the Florida swamps to the Andean foothills to a buried Nazi facility in Antarctica.And its not just the bad guys Jack and Anya have to deal with: this isnt the first time someones activated the portal, and the shadows of those who tried it last could slaughter them all if the gate is opened again.

Chase should be dead. The package he carried was supposed to blow up and take out the guy he handed it to. He was just the courier, the delivery mechanism for a hit. Collateral damage.But hes not.When his package starts ringing, he finds a loaded gun, a phone, and the defused remains of the bomb inside. The stranger on the other end of the line tells him that she saved his life.And that he now has the chance for revenge and the tools to take it, if he wants. For all he has, and all hed leave behind.REVIEWS:Fast paced, well structured plot and excellently written, All You Leave Behind is a great novella which proves difficult to not want to read in one sitting. Luca Veste, Guilty ConscienceThis is an impressively sleek novella, written in stripped down prose with not a word out of place. The characters are well drawn, the plotting pacy, and [Rickards] creates such a pervasive atmosphere that you can almost taste the smell of dead junky. Eva Dolan, Loitering With IntentAll You Leave Behind reminds me of the feel of good cyberpunk, particularly in the almost mythic aspects of Chases protector, and the way thats expressed around the city by rumour, whispers, mysterious paintings. Add in a breakneck pace and its an interesting mix and a very good read. Iain Rowan

Boston private investigator Alex Rourke has had to overcome personal tragedy and the emotional trauma its caused to him before. But thats nothing to what he faces when the disappearance of a young man from a tough part of town takes him to the back country of northern Vermont. Adam Webb wasnt the first person to vanish in this stretch of the Green Mountains, and he wont be the last. Ghost towns, drug trafficking, blood and violence - all secrets buried beneath the stark, clean white of the January snows.With everything Alex holds dear either taken from him or quickly slipping through his grasp, keeping his sanity - and his life - will mean getting to the root of the evil dwelling in the frozen state. If he still wants either of those things, that is...This novel is the first book in the newly-reworked Alex Rourke series of stories. The original was published by Penguin in 2003, but this version from 2012 has been very heavily re-edited and improved.Praise for John Rickards:"Rickards is a master of tension and pacing. In Rourke he has created a brilliant anti-hero lead on a par with John Connollys Charlie Parker." - Crimespree Magazine"Rickards is one author who doesnt pull punches." - Spinetingler"Rickards is definitely one to watch." - Peter Robinson (Watching The Dark, Aftermath)

Twelve people. One night. No way out.Troubled private detective Alex Rourke comes to Tennessee mountain country on a thin lead to a past killing, the deaths covered up and unavenged. When the night comes down and people start dying, its not just those around him hes looking to save in the storm-blasted valley in the middle of nowhere; hes desperately trying to hold on to his own crumbling sanity as he teeters on the edge of a complete psychotic break.Trapped in the run-down rest stop at the valleys heart, killers both outside and in, nowhere safe and no one to turn to, Alex is going to have to sort the real from the imagined, truth from fiction, fast if anyones going to live to see morning...Originally released by Penguin in 2008, this writers cut version has been almost completely rewritten from the ground up to turn it into the story it shouldve been, and not the story it was.PRAISE FOR JOHN RICKARDS:"Rickards is a master of tension and pacing. In Rourke he has created a brilliant anti-hero lead on a par with John Connollys Charlie Parker." - Crimespree Magazine"Rickards is one author who doesnt pull punches." - Spinetingler

It was a short note. Signed simply 'Sam'. But it was enough to send ex-FBI agent Alex Rourke on a search to an isolated valley in the American mid-West.And now he's trapped there - in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a ferocious storm. With him are a dozen other men and women, all seeking shelter in Isaac's Bar. However the night is about to turn deadly - when the nearby riverbank collapses, and spits out two badly decomposed bodies. The man and the woman were clearly murdered and buried there months before ...As secrets, recriminations and violent agendas come to the fore in the bar that's now cut off from the world, Alex races to find 'the crosses'. And then the deaths begin, one by one by one ...

Your mistake costs a young girl seven years of her life.How far would you go to put that right?Cody Williams was never charged with a string of child abductions and murders across New England, but everyone knows he was the man behind them. While the remains of some of his victims have been found down the years, several are still out there, buried in the Massachusetts wilds. Now Codys dying and the families want their childrens bodies recovered. And hell talk, but only to the man who put him away, former FBI agent Alex Rourke.Its an unpleasant task for Rourke, but it gets far worse when he finds out that one of the victims might not have been killed at all, as he and everyone else had assumed. That she might still be alive, seven years later, still held captive. That Williams might not have acted alone. That by bringing down Cody, Alex gave the true villain free rein.Alex gambled his soul on Codys guilt when he was in the Bureau, and it looks like he bet wrong. Now he could buy the lost girls freedom with his own, but will he? And if not, can he find her true captor and make up in some small way for the mistakes he made seven years ago, or will he - and she - die in the attempt?The Darkness Inside: Writers Cut is the second book in the reworked and updated series of Alex Rourke novels. The original was published by Penguin in 2007, but this version from 2012 has been heavily re-edited and (hopefully) improved.Praise for John Rickards:"Rickards is a master of tension and pacing. In Rourke he has created a brilliant anti-hero lead on a par with John Connollys Charlie Parker." - Crimespree Magazine"Rickards is one author who doesnt pull punches." - Spinetingler"Rickards is definitely one to watch." - Peter Robinson (Watching The Dark, Aftermath)

Murph and Rory Caulfield are two regular kids in the small town of Coombs in rural Virginia. When their uncle goes to fetch the local sheriff after finding "something bad" on his farm, the boys go to check it out for themselves. What they find is more than just bad, though - it could kill them and everyone they know.The race is on now. First to escape, then to find out whats happened to their family and their town. If they can do that, they can think about finding a safe place to hole up away from the horrors that pursue them.But day zero is here, and maybe there are no safe places. Not any more.Virginia Day Zero is a sci-fi short story about the end of the world.PRAISE FOR JOHN RICKARDS:"A huge talent" - Steve Mosby (Black Flowers, The 50/50 Killer)"[Rickards] writes breathlessly classy pulp" - Daily Telegraph"One of the most talented and original voices out there" - Jason Pinter (The Fury, The Darkness)

Get home. Get free. Get revenge.A five-year-old boy has been snatched from the worst housing project in the US and taken halfway round the world to the poisonous ruins of an abandoned city. But hes no ordinary kid; hes the rumored heir to a gangland empire like no other on Earth. And the race is on to take him back.A nineteen-year-old assassin created by that very same empire and now on the run in Manila. For her, finding the boy could be her ticket home.A professional thief hiding from the mob father of the woman he loved. For him, finding the boy is his path to safety and redemption.A teenage gang member from one of Manilas worst slums. He doesnt want the boy - he wants one of the Americans turning the city upside down to find the kid, an American who killed his little brother. But beating him to the boy might give him a chance to take revenge.From the typhoon-blasted toxic neighborhood they call the Concrete Sea to the abandoned street-gang dueling ground of Murder Park, to find the kid they may have to pay a heavy price. And even if they can beat the bad guys to the child, will they turn him over to their employers to free themselves, or will they do the honorable thing - and risk it all against an individual whose influence courses through each and every dark street of near-future Manila?PRAISE FOR JOHN RICKARDS:"A huge talent" - Steve Mosby (Black Flowers, The 50/50 Killer)"Breathlessly classy" - The Telegraph"One of the most talented and original voices out there" - Jason Pinter (The Fury, The Darkness)"Smart and original" - Allan Guthrie (Two-Way Split, Kiss Her Goodbye)"Tight and brutal as a clenched fist" - Ray Banks (No More Heroes, Donkey Punch)"Intense, intelligent, engaging" - Elizabeth A. White"[Rickards] has a definite flair for noir" - Adventures Of A Bookonaut"Tight and fast-paced" - The Fringe"Viscerally realized but also broodingly symbolic" - Crimeculture

Theyre here, but not for us...When an alien race known as the Surge arrives on Earth with deadly force, three high school kids in Philadelphia find themselves fighting for survival in a city tearing itself to pieces in panic. Pursued through the heart of the horror shattering their ordinary world by creatures hell-bent on dragging them away to a fate they can only guess at, the teenagers must deal with their shock and grief at losing everyone they held dear even as they struggle to stay one step ahead of both the invaders and the forces of a wealthy corporation which seems to know more about the assault than it should.Kyles dad worked for the company. His last contact with his estranged, rebellious son was to send him a gift which could now prove the key to unlocking the aliens plans, as well as giving the kids the means to fight them. With his friend Stef, whose own tragic past gives them an unlikely edge against the aliens, and street-smart runaway Alex, theyre in a race where theres no prize for coming second.If the three sixteen-year-olds are going to learn the truth, about themselves as well as the aliens, find out why the Surge came, and maybe determine whether or not humanity has any hope of holding them off, theyll have to trek of a thousand miles across country from the ruins of Philadelphia to the Gulf Coast and Kyles dads final posting.But thats all in the future; right now they cant afford to look that far ahead.First they have to get out of the city. First they have to survive day zero.PRAISE FOR JOHN RICKARDS:"A huge talent" - Steve Mosby (Black Flowers, The 50/50 Killer)"Breathlessly classy" - The Telegraph"One of the most talented and original voices out there" - Jason Pinter (The Fury, The Darkness)"Smart and original" - Allan Guthrie (Two-Way Split, Kiss Her Goodbye)

But the truth about Adam Webb isn't the only secret buried in the Green Mountain woods. Hikers have gone missing, a prostitute has been murdered and something sinister is happening in the ghost-town of North Bleakwater. It soon becomes clear that in the mountains, who you trust can means the difference between life and death. And Alex will have to make decisions with his heart as well as his head.

They have the body of a slaughtered woman. They have a half-naked man standing over her. They have no idea how to make him talk. And so they call in ex-FBI interrogator Alex Rourke to the traumatized Maine town of Winter''s End. But as Rourke probes the mind of the enigmatic ''Nicholas'', he is forced to re-examine his own past . . . Strange things have been happening in Winter''s End. The question is why. And if the man in custody does hold the answers to crimes both present and past, then Alex will have to get to them and quickly. Because it soon becomes clear that what Nicholas has been waiting for from the beginning is Alex Rourke.

They have the body of a slaughtered woman. They have a half-naked man standing over her. They have no idea how to make him talk. And so they call in ex-FBI interrogator Alex Rourke to the traumatized Maine town of Winters End. But as Rourke probes the mind of the enigmatic Nicholas, he is forced to re-examine his own past .... Strange things have been happening in Winters End. The question is why. And if the man in custody does hold the answers to crimes both present and past, then Alex will have to get to them - and quickly. Because it soon becomes clear that what Nicholas has been waiting for from the beginning - is Alex Rourke.