James Ellson Books In Order

Publication Order of DCI Castle Books

Publication Order of Cops Writing Crime Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

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James Ellson used to be a police officer, ten years in the Metropolitan Police in London, and five years in Greater Manchester Police. He finished as a Detective Inspector at Moss Side, and has been known to say, Moss Side finished him!

When he left, he wrote a memoir called From Cop to Coppicer. It wasn’t published but his agent suggested he write a crime thriller. His website describes how he dug out an old envelope that everyone has lying about, and wrote down on it the three things he knew about: the police, Nepal (where he’s climbed and trekked extensively) and beekeeping (he has four beehives). The result a year later was The Trail, the first in the DCI Castle series, and he’s never looked back.

James is a keen mountaineer and lives on a smallholding in the Peak District. He now wears three hats of writer, smallholder, and speaker.

The Trail was published in 2020. A missing person enquiry leads Manchester DCI Rick Castle to Nepal.

The sequel Cold Dawn came out in 2022. The action sees DCI Castle return to the Himalayas, but the book opens and finishes in Manchester. Both The Trail and Cold Dawn were longlisted for the Boardman Tasker award for mountain literature.

Cold Summer, the third book in the DCI Castle series, is the final part of the Nepal trilogy. It’s a race against time set in Manchester.

All three books can be read as standalone stories, but they are also a proper trilogy with an overall story arc.

Base Line (2024) is the fourth in the DCI Castle series. A routine traffic incident leads to a Russian cell operating in Manchester.

(Thanks to James for this bio!)