David Raker Books In Order

Publication Order of David Raker Missing Persons Books

It took Tim Weaver ten years to get his first novel, “Chasing the Dead”, his first novel and his first featuring David Raker; the novel was released in early 2010. When the second book was released, the novel reached number one in sales on the Amazon Kindle charts.

Raker, the protagonist, is a former journalist who quit his job to care for his wife after they found out that she had terminal cancer. Her death left a soft spot inside him, so that whenever he meets someone who has had someone go missing, he cannot resist but to help them out to give them closure. Throughout the series, you get to see what has pushed Raker to look for people who have gone missing. The first novel in the series begins a year after she died. He looks into missing persons and tries to track them down, whether they are dead or alive. Even though he is based in London, the cases he works take him all over the world, and he goes to great lengths to try to find those who have gone missing.

Tim Weaver said that he decided to write a series about a guy who investigates missing persons in the modern times because he finds it interesting that in this day and age with all kinds of cameras recording everything on every street at all times as well as all day and night news that people still go missing. He also thought that it was interesting how many stories there have to be when someone vanishes.

“Chasing the Dead” is the first book in the “David Raker” series written by Tim Weaver. Mary Towne hires missing persons locator David Raker to look for her son (named Alex) whose body was found a year ago. He did not want to agree to help, but due to his own loss that he suffered (his wife died of cancer) he agrees to find him. She claims to have seen him just one month before she went to Raker for help. Raker thinks it is just another case of a woman who cannot let go and get on with her life and reconcile the fact that he is gone after her son died. The more Raker looks, the more her son, Alex, looks less and less innocent. The way she thought he was the whole time she knew him. There are big and nasty secrets in his life that other men will kill to keep hidden.

Fans of the novel really enjoyed the way the author allows Raker to grow and change and you feel like you get to know him as the story goes on. Raker behaves like a real person in the novel going through things that real people go through and reacting the way a real person would. Some thought the mystery in the book was fascinating and was well built and worked the whole way through the novel to an amazing finale. Some enjoyed the way the violence was described, saying that it was a good just right and skillfully written. Some found themselves riveted to the writing and kept up until the early hours finding out what happened, and even liked how everything was concluded.

Some readers did not like the book and found it to be too unbelievable to be real and some found that they had to leave their brains behind when they read the book. Some found that the book takes a turn at one point in the novel into territory that makes it not believable. Some found that even after they had finished reading the book, they could not remember any specific details of what had gone on in the book. Readers found that some of the escapes that David is able to make to be a little far fetched and unlikely, given the torture that he is put through.

“The Dead Tracks” is the second book in the “David Raker” series written by Tim Weaver. A straight- A student named Megan Carver (seventeen years old) makes for a very unlikely runaway; she rarely, if at all, got into trouble and did a lot of studying. But still, six months after she has gone missing, no one has seen or heard from her. David Raker knows what it is like to grieve over losing a loved one; so when Megan’s parents hire him, he sees their pain but also knows that there may be dark secrets here, secrets that may cost him his life. Yet again, there are a lot of secrets being kept by someone who everyone thought was squeaky clean. There are people around Megan who are dropping dead and others will not open up to David and tell him what they know about the case. From what he is able to piece together, he is led to a dark place with a horrifying past as a hunting ground for a certain serial killer. One who used the place and called it the Dead Tracks.

Some fans found that Tim Weaver delivers another winner with this book. They find themselves, even if they do not like violence, to be turning the pages, waiting to see what happens next. Some like the way you are able to learn more and more about David the more you read the books, especially when read in order. Some found that the novel started slow, but they were glad they stuck with it, because the novel picks up speed and leads them to a satisfying ending. Every time some fans read a book from this series, they feel as though they are part of the cast of characters in the book.

Some found that parts of the book could have been taken out and the book would have been the right length, and that some of Raker’s partner’s behavior was on the annoying side of things. Some found the novel not to be as good as the two installments before and after it. Some felt that they did not care about the characters and the story was not very believable to them.

“Never Coming Back” was shortlisted by the Specsavers National Book Awards for their Crime Thriller of the Year Award, and iTunes included it in their best novels of 2013. The novel was also chosen by Richard and Judy for their Autumn 2013 book club.

One Response to “David Raker”

1. Margaret Daly: 1 year ago

   In the Irish language when two consonants come together in a word both are pronounced. So, the Irish name Colm is pronounced Col – M. In the audio books Colm Healy’s name is pronounced very strangely. Love your books. Thanks

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