Books

Black Reed Bay

2021

When a young woman disappears from an exclusive Long Island neighbourhood in the dead of night, Detective Casey Wray fears there can only be one outcome. But a discovery in nearby marshlands turns the case on its head, plunging Casey into a darkness she could never have imagined. Targeted from all sides and stretched to breaking point, Casey finds herself caught between a killer and the truth...

Blood Red City (Standalone)

2020

*Video footage of an apparent murder on a London train thrusts crusading journalist Lydia into a terrifying web of money, politics and power. A witness but no victim. A crime but no crime scene…

*Longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger*

‘Brutal, brilliant and razor sharp. Blood Red City is pure adrenaline rush from the first page to the last’ -- Chris Whitaker, Author of We Begin At The End

Cold Desert Sky (Charlie Yates book 3)

2018

No one wanted to say it to me, that the girls were dead. But I knew.

Late 1946 and Charlie Yates and his wife Lizzie have returned to Los Angeles, trying to stay anonymous in the City of Angels.

But when Yates, back in his old job at the Pacific Journal, becomes obsessed by the disappearance of two aspiring Hollywood starlets, Nancy Hill and Julie Desjardins, he finds it leads him right back to his worst fear: legendary Mob boss Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel, a man he once crossed, and whose shadow he can't shake.

As events move from LA to the burgeoning Palace of Sin in the desert, Las Vegas, Charlie is caught between the FBI and the mob. Can he possibly see who is playing who, and find out what really happened to the two girls?

'An evocative vision of a nascent Las Vegas, the perfect backdrop to the menace of the narrative.' -- Barry Forshaw, Guardian

Black Night Falling (Charlie Yates book 2)

2016

Having left Texarkana for the safety of the West Coast, reporter Charlie Yates finds himself drawn back to the South, to Hot Springs, Arkansas, as an old acquaintance asks for his help. This time it's less of a story Charlie's chasing, more of a desperate attempt to do the right thing before it's too late.

'Although Rod Reynolds set the bar extraordinarily high for himself with his debut novel, The Dark Inside, it s fair to say that his second book more than lives up to the promise of its predecessor ... Smart plotting, immaculate research, a tersely precise style and a protagonist with a touch of the knight-errant about him add up to pitch-perfect American noir.' -- Laura Wilson, Guardian

The Dark Inside (Charlie Yates book 1)

2015

1946, Texarkana: a town on the border of Texas and Arkansas. Disgraced New York reporter Charlie Yates has been sent to cover the story of a spate of brutal murders - young couples who've been slaughtered at a local date spot. Charlie finds himself drawn into the case by the beautiful and fiery Lizzie, sister to one of the victims, Alice - the only person to have survived the attacks and seen the killer up close.

But Charlie has his own demons to fight, and as he starts to dig into the murders he discovers that the people of Texarkana have secrets that they want kept hidden at all costs. Before long, Charlie discovers that powerful forces might be protecting the killer, and as he investigates further his pursuit of the truth could cost him more than his job...

*Longlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger*

'This is a debut novel by a young British writer but reads like an authentic piece of good old-fashioned Southern noir...There are echoes of Chandler in washed-up journalist Charlie Yates's terse, cynical narration but this is more than a mere pastiche: it's subtle, original and enthralling.' -- Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express