J.R. Ellis - Book Series In Order (2024)

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Publication Order of Yorkshire Murder Mysteries Books

J.R. Ellis is a published fiction author. He has also composed short stories, poetry, and a screenplay. He grew up in a working class area called Huddersfield.

Ellis spent the majority of his career in the classroom teaching English. He says that he has always had a fascination with mysteries and the paranormal. He also has an interest in conspiracy theories, mysteries, and crimes that are unexplained and unsolved.

J.R. has resided in Yorkshire for the majority of his lifetime, a wonderful place that he enjoys very much. Over the years, he has taken the time to explore the many landscapes of Yorkshire, as well as its language, history, and its communities.

He has a deep love for his native country and has such a passion for it that it became the setting of his Yorkshire series of murder mystery novels. The author says that the setting of his stories among the varied landscapes of the area are important to the tone of his books.

He retired after enjoying a long career teaching further education in the area of Leeds. He has made his own study of the popular Locked Room series from the 1930 to 1960 period with the stories of a variety of authors including Ellery Queen and Clayton Rawson.

He also admits he watched a lot of Jonathan Creek on the BBC when it was airing back in the day. He estimates that the puzzle element is crucial when it comes to composing or experiencing crime fiction and his novels always contain the double puzzles of not only who did it, but how it was done.

He says that he avoids writing about anything too gruesome or dark, even though he does write murder mysteries. Ellis says that he attempts to include in his stories some humor and some style of elegance as well as an interesting mystery!

J.R. Ellis is the creator and the author of the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series of fictional novels. The series started off with the first book in the series in 2017, where readers get to meet D.C.I. Jim Oldroyd, the main character, for the first time. The sequel came out the same year as the first and the third book was released in 2018.

The Body in the Dales is the first novel in the Yorkshire Mystery series. If you love stories that feature murder but are relatively light still, this might be the perfect book for you. Go online and get your own copy, or read on to find out a brief synopsis of what happens in this debut story from J.R. Ellis.

Things are suspicious right off of the bat when a man from the area is found dead. His body is discovered deep into a cave system, and everything about it is pointing to murder. The whole situation naturally results in the authorities being called in to check out the crime scene. It could have been spelunking, but that’s not the general consensus that people are arriving at.

Cue the call to the detective chief inspector and his detective sergeant. Jim Oldroyd has just gotten a new sergeant all of the way from the big city in London. He and Carter are going to have to get to know each other while on the job, because they have both been tasked with this investigation into the murder.

It’s a perplexing scene right away, and the two have no leads. Burnthwaite is a village in Yorkshire Dales where it seems like everyone there could be a suspect. When it comes to the dead body, the two of them have no idea how it got to the place that it did when it was found. Then it disappeared and came back later, but it’s also not clear how that got accomplished either.

The professional pair are going to have to build a rapport while solving this murder and putting their minds mutually to the task at hand. In order to get the answers that they need, they may have to track down a number of details through historical research and a further understanding of the caves that starts out as educational but may just end up informing a desperate exploration through them.

The detective inspector can sense that they are getting closer to finding the true killers. Will they be able to get ahead of the person or the people that killed this poor man, or will they be bested while on the job? One thing is for sure, and that the first case these two have will be a true trial by fire. Can this team get their man? Read the first murder mystery book in this series to find out!

The Quartet Murders is the second novel in the Yorkshire series. If you enjoyed the first book, then check out this sequel and the next case for D.C.I. Oldroyd.

The detective has worked a lot of cases in his day, which has resulted in seeing a lot of the aftermath and victims of violence. Even though he may have seen his share of corpses in the day, he’s never actually seen a murder in person. However, there’s always a first time for everything.

Hans Muller is a violinist that is known around the world. The last thing that anyone expects is for this famous musician to be shot in the middle of a concert. Hans is killed with plenty of witnesses, leaving one man to tackle a case that may be his most perplexing yet.

Not only is Hans dead, but the priceless violin is gone along with the guilty party. The culprit has clearly fled, and now the mystery begins. It is up to Oldroyd to dive into this case and find out the identity of the murderer. Why did someone want to kill this musician? Was it all about the violin, or was there something more?

As the detective goes into a world where collectors have wealth beyond imagining, he may find out more secrets than he ever expected to uncover. He’s trying to get the violin and find out who killed its owner. Can he track down the elusive killer? Read this book to find out!

Book Series In Order » Authors » J.R. Ellis

16 Responses to “J.R. Ellis”

1. Karen coulson: 1 year ago

   I love all your books, reading The Railway Murders at the moment. Love the fact they are set in my neck of the woods. Hope you will be writing some more?

   Reply

   • William: 3 months ago

     Have you found any other series that uses this approach…? The unraveling of murder mystery in areas that have wonderful geography, history, people, culture, accents, …. and brings appreciation for the intricacies of ordinary people, day to day, as well as the history and economies of places like yorkshire, or Shetlands, Rural Scotland or down in Cornwall? One author you might be interested in is Ian Rutledge, the detective created by Charles Todd

     Reply

2. Greg Byrne: 1 year ago

   A rather unusual question, I know.
   But in the Whitby Murders book in particular, which age range is the Inspector
   range based , please?

   Reply

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3. dave pounds: 2 years ago

   Hello
   Just finished ‘The Body in the Dales’……Good Read
   Back in ’64, myself and 2 friends did Burk’s Fell Cave, we didn’t check the weather forecast…..we were teenagers, there is a bedding plain and the water was 2″ deep when we went in, the roof was maybe 14″, unbeknown to us, it had started to rain, when we returned, it was 10″ deep, and we had to come through it on our backs so our noses were above the water…………we came out of the cave with water gushing in……..if we had waited 5 minutes more, I wouldn’t be writing this account, and 2 of us never went caving again.
   Looking forward to your next book.
   dave

   Reply

4. Jackie: 2 years ago

   Hi – I just happened to be in the library and saw one of your books and picked it up. I have read them all but one which I am waiting on. I enjoy the challenging cases and love the characters. I hope there are more books to come.

   Reply

5. Susan lawn: 2 years ago

   I’m so pleased I stumbled across Mr Ellis’ books. The plots are intricate and enthralling and I particularly enjoy the descriptions of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside which brings back wonderful memories of visiting the Dales with my late husband. We both wished we could have spent more time there.
   I love the regulars who appear in his books, the police officers, his sister, daughter etc. I admit to having done little over the last two weeks except read one book after the other and can only hope Mr Ellis has more Oldroyd stories to tell.
   Thank you Mr Ellis for the pleasure your writing has given me.

   Reply

6. Janet: 2 years ago

   Hi Mr Ellis
   Have just finished reading all the Yorkshire Murder Mysteries and have thoroughly enjoyed them.
   The characters are great and the scenery descriptions makes your feel like you are driving over the moors with DI Oldroyd and his team
   Roll on the next book

   Reply

   • Dot john: 2 years ago

     I can’t wait till the next book of the Yorkshire murders comes out I have enjoyed every one of them and have got my sister to read them and she can’t wait either please keep them coming

     Reply

7. JR Ellis: 2 years ago

   Thank you Alice

   Reply

8. John Ellis: 2 years ago

   Yes Heather- more than one!

   Reply

9. Heather Andrews: 2 years ago

   Hi, Mr Ellis, I have enjoyed all of your Murder series, just finished Murder at St Anne’s. I do hope there’s another on the way…is there?

   Reply

10. Trevor: 3 years ago

    Just finished reading the Quarter murders. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Waiting for the rest in the series.

    Reply

    • JR Ell: 2 years ago

      Thank you Barry!

      Reply

      • William Porter: 3 months ago

        Mr. ELLIS, YOUR WRITING, PLOTTING, STORYTELLING, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ARE ALLJUST REALLY SOLID AND ENJOYABLE.

        IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE NO LONGER RESOPNDING HERE…BUT JUST FOUND QUARTET MURDERS QUITE ACCIDENTALLY AND AM HOOKED, ADDICTED ENTHRALLED. IM IN THE DALES NOW, AND HAVE THE THE ACTUAL ORDER OF BOOKS NOW AND WILL READ THEM IN ORDER.

        THIS IS AN AMAZING SERIES OF BOOKS THAT WILL KEEP ME UP TOO LATE FOR A LONG TIME.

        I PREFER AUDIBLE FOR THIS SERIES DUE TO THE NEED FOR DIALECT AND ACCENT IN THE PRESENTATION

        Reply

11. Barry Spinka: 3 years ago

    Mr. Ellis, I just want you to know that I’ve enjoyed everyone of your 5 books and have pre-ordered the 6th one. Your writing is some of the best mysteries I’ve ever read. My wife is enjoying them too and she doesn’t like mysteries!
    Again thank you and please keep writing them.
    One of your loyal readers.
    Barry Spinka

    Reply

12. Alice de Ville: 3 years ago

    Hi – I have just finished The Quartet Murders and I just wanted Mr. Ellis to know how much I enjoyed it. I am not a classical music person, but I really enjoyed learning about the violins etc from this book.
    There were a couple of other things I particularly liked about the book: firstly, this is the 4th crime/police book I have read in a row and it is the first one out of them all where the different ranks of officers in different departments aren’t really mean and snappy with each other! It was such a refreshing change to read about genuinely likeable police officers.
    The other thing I liked was the many strong female characters within the book, along with Oldroyd’s relationship with his daughter.
    I’ll definitely be reading more of his work.

    Reply

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