Detective Zoe Finch Books In Order

Publication Order of Detective Zoe Finch Books

The “Detective Zoe Finch” series is a set of novels by mystery thriller author Rachel McLean. She always writes novels that make her readers’ brains tick and leaves their pulse racing.

Since she has always been a love of novels written at breakneck pace she has brought this into her writing aiming to fill that gap in the mystery genre. McLean published “Thicker Than Water,” her debut novel in 2018 and has never looked back since. She now has more than twenty titles across more than four series to her name.

As for how she came to be an author, Rachel has said that writing is something she has always done ever since she was old enough to hold a pen in hand. In every job she has had as an adult, she has been responsible for putting together training documents, briefing notes, press releases and anything to do with writing.

Now a full time author, she runs a book club and newsletter and usually updates her fans on her writing progress and research including bonus content and stories for her published novels.

For her novel “The Corfe Castle Murders,” Rachel McLean was selected the winner of the Kindle Storyteller Award in 2021. This is quite an achievement as the award usually includes submissions by tens of authors.

She published her first novel of the “Dorset Crime” series at the height of the pandemic, when there was a record number of submissions making her win even more of a feat.

In addition to winning $20,000 in prize money, Rachel is also the recipient of the highly prestigious Golden Kindle Award and marketing campaign sponsored by Amazon UK.

The “Detective Zoe Finch” series follows one of the newest detective inspectors in Midlands Police named Zoe Finch. She is an outspoken woman that is also damaged and very ambitious.

Given her previous successes, she often finds herself assigned to tough cases that may just cost her everything including her career and life. Even though she has worked on many cases over the years, she is often shocked to realize that not everything is as it seems.

Still, she usually finds herself in even more danger the more she and her team investigate a case. Zoe usually works with a ragged bunch of characters many of whom also have secrets to hide. It is not surprising to find oneself second guessing the motives of these characters as the story develops.

Zoe is the character that you would best describe as perfectly imperfect as she is quite the force to be reckoned with despite her many flaws.

The “Detective Zoe Finch” mysteries are well plotted and paced tales with an addictive quality. They explore contemporary issues concerning the modern police forces such as misogyny and corruption among others.

It comes with relatable even if complex characters and the suspense building is on point.

“Deadly Wishes” the first novel of the “Detective Zoe Finch” mystery series introduces the outspoken, and ambitious female lead.

All she wants is to prove herself capable in a very tough man’s world, where she will be required to work twice as hard just to show that no one is better than her. As the new Detective Inspector in the Midlands, she has her work cut out for her to prove her worth.

She had been posted to her latest station after she was very successful working on a corruption investigation. In fact, she had been acknowledged by Bryn Jackson the assistant chief constable that had also recommended her for promotion as Detective Inspector.

Following a raucous party, Jackson and his wife go home and in the morning Zoe is informed that the chief inspector was murder. The lead suspect in the case is his wife who it seems is hiding a lot of secrets.

David Randle, her new boss, is in charge of the case while she hands Zoe nothing more than paperwork. He had been close to her boss for many years and Zoe thinks that he may be hiding something.

She decides to go off the reservation and conduct her own investigations. But in her quest for the truth, she will have to put her career and the lives of her team on the line as she confronts demons from the past.

The second novel of the Detective Zoe Finch mysteries is “Deadly Choices,” a compelling crime thriller that rivals the best in the trade.
At the opening of the novel, Zoe and her team are informed that two children have been kidnapped and they have three days to recover them or lose them forever. The kidnapper is cruel enough to tell the mother to choose which child she would prefer to keep alive.

The deeper Zoe dives into the investigation, the more bizarre it becomes. The father of the children is a police officer suspended by the department. Meanwhile, a video has been unearthed that shows the supposedly distraught mother leading the children away from their home.

All the clues seem to indicate that the parents may have had a hand in the kidnapping even though she just cannot decipher what motive they would have. The investigation has also unearhted a link to a child sexual abuse ring.

The latter is hard to look into given that the people believed to have been involved won their case and were released a few weeks earlier.
It makes for a very baffling case but Zoe is never one to give up and is not going to start now.

“Deadly Desires” is the second novel of the “Detective Zoe Finch” series of novels by Rachel McClean. At the opening of the novel, some psychopath has been taking gay men and castrating them without cause.

Zoe Finch is put in charge of the investigation. She is working with Ian, a man that is under investigation as a police officer suspected of colluding with criminals.

There is no way she is going to trust her new partner, even if she has been forced to partner with her team as she believes he’s a bad fit. Most important, Zoe realizes her son is the lover of Connie’s little brother meaning he is gay.

As such when the homophobe continues killing, both Zoe and Connie get increasingly worried about their loved ones.