Evan Buckley

Created by James Harper

Here comes another of those breathlessly hyped, independently published series that seem to spring up overnight, fully formed, that I keep stumbling upon.

It’s not that any such series is automatically bad, of course–but there’s also a breathless sameness about so many of them, from the obligatory centre-aligned sans serif typefaces used for the covers to the pages of court-mandated wisecracks and relentlessly fast-paced action, all quickly churned out, loosely edited (if at all) and offering little credible (or even consistent) character development. 

Harper distances himself from the horde by writing slightly heftier novels, and apparently devoting a little more time to each book than most–only eleven books in three years! And his Amazon pages aren’t crammed with dubious five-star “reviews” that seem to have been scribbled by people who never completed high school.

But I digress…

When we first meet him in the series kickoff, Bad to the Bones (2017), EVAN BUCKLEY is a “maverick” private eye struggling to keep things afloat, and who’s still haunted by the disappearance of his wife five years earlier. Which may explain why he’s not doing particularly well, making bad choices both personal and professional, botching cases and getting beat up rather frequently.

As the series lurches on, the ongoing mystery of his wife’s vanishing act is resolved, but otherwise, Evan remains more or less unchanged–the world continues to dump a Job-worthy load of shit on him, and he remains a mopey, morose and tormented-by-personal-demons kinda guy who drinks too much, and is overly fond of telling us how he feels, as opposed to showing us, all rendered in overheated prose that just tries too damn hard.

For the past twenty-five years, author James Harper has lived in a 400-year-old cottage in the woods with his wife and their cat, a big bad hunter called Armstrong, who features in some of James’ novels.

NOVELS

• Bad to the Bones (2017) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Kentucky Vice (2017) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Sins Of The Father (2018) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• No Rest For The Wicked (2018) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Resurrection Blues (2018) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Hunting Dixie (2018) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• The Road To Deliverance (2019) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Sacrifice (2019) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Rough Justice (2020) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Touching Darkness (2020) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• A Long Time Coming (2020) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Legacy of Lies (2021)  | Buy this book |  Kindle it!
• Dig Two Graves (2021) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Atonement (2021) | Buy this book | Kindle it!

SHORT STORIES

• “Fallen Angel”
• “A Rock And A Hard Place”

COLLECTIONS

• The Evan Buckley Thrillers #1: Books 1-4 (2019) | Kindle it!
• The Evan Buckley Thrillers #2: Books 5-7 (2020) | Kindle it!
• The Evan Buckley Thrillers #3: Books 8-10 (2021) | Kindle it!

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

• James Harper Books
  The author’s official site, where you can download the Buckley short stories “Fallen Angel” and “A Rock And A Hard Place.”

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.