Nicholas Rhea Books in Order

The first Constable book introduces Nick's 1960s Yorkshire beat and the unforgettable people on it. Escaping ponies, naked runners, and Greengrass's excuses set the tone beautifully.

Still new to the job, Nick draws awkward shifts and learns that a sleeping village is never really asleep. Night duty, farming life, and small emergencies keep him constantly on the prowl.

As Nick settles into Aidensfield, every corner of village life seems to produce a fresh case. Dogs, buses, old traditions, and missing people all demand his attention at once.

Nick moves across the moors dealing with odd insurance schemes, grieving neighbours, and missing sheep. The humour is gentle, but the problems are still real.

A village competition, a dirty-tricks campaign, and a mysteriously burning henhouse keep Nick on the move. Even the prettiest dale can hide hard feelings and foolish plans.

Nick's duties reach the coast, where holidaymakers and locals create a different sort of trouble. The sea air changes the scenery, not the need for sharp observation.

A nonfiction portrait of the North York Moors, exploring the landscape, communities, and local character of the area Nicholas Rhea knew so well. It is a natural companion for readers drawn to the setting behind Aidensfield.

The quiet lanes around Aidensfield are full of gossip, farmers, and incidents that are never quite what they seem. Nick keeps the peace while the village tests his patience again.

Nick deals with a thieving dog, hints of witchcraft, and a motorist determined never to make a right turn. Small problems multiply fast on the Aidensfield beat.

Modernisation reaches Nick's beat when his old police bike is replaced, but village life stays as tangled as ever. Lovers in the fog and a respectable shoplifter are only the beginning.

Nick gets a taste of CID work and quickly learns that going undercover is not quite as smooth as it sounds. One roof-top blunder turns a quiet watch into comic chaos.

Out on the heather, distance and weather make every call a little harder. Nick works remote corners of the moors where rumours travel faster than facts.

Bathing beauties, a postman who cannot read, and a thief with charm to spare all land on Nick's beat. It is a particularly lively stretch of village policing.

Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton is drawn into a dangerous operation involving a planted corpse, a real murder, and fears of political violence. The case grows darker every time he thinks he has the measure of it.

Pemberton must protect a notorious child killer newly released on parole while reopening the terrible crimes linked to her name. It is a bleak, gripping case full of buried truths.

The people around Aidensfield's green are mostly harmless, but not always easy. Nick must manage long-running feuds, strange newcomers, and the daily work of keeping a village civil.

A Heartbeat tie-in that brings back Aidensfield's mix of rural policing, neighbourly drama, and 1960s Yorkshire atmosphere. Nick is on hand for the latest calls, quarrels, and mishaps.

A richly illustrated guide to Yorkshire's countryside and its 1960s nostalgic appeal. It complements the world associated with Heartbeat by focusing on the scenery, villages, and atmosphere that made the setting memorable.

Woodland paths and quiet corners hide more than villagers expect. Nick investigates rural secrets, odd behaviour, and the sort of trouble that grows best out of sight.

A security job for a visiting American politician leads Pemberton into a ninety-year-old death and a family's hidden history. What looks routine becomes a stubborn and unsettling cold case.

Nick faces a busier, more demanding stretch of police work as routine calls threaten to spin out of control. The result is another steady blend of humour, pressure, and rural mystery.

A grand birthday party, an uninvited Greengrass, and a suspicious death pull Nick into one of his knottier investigations. Village politics and murder make an uneasy mix.

When anything goes wrong, Greengrass is usually near the middle of it. Nick and Sergeant Blaketon try once again to pin down Aidensfield's slipperiest rogue, with predictably chaotic results.

Pemberton returns to the one murder that has haunted his whole career. As he reopens the case, doubts about a fellow detective make the investigation far more personal.

Parish life gives Nick no shortage of small scandals, awkward calls, and quietly complicated cases. These are classic Aidensfield stories, warm, funny, and sharper than they first look.

Superstitious detective Montague Pluke senses trouble before a young woman's body is found in a Druids' Circle. Folklore, rumour, and instinct all crowd this eerie first case.

A dying man's confession at a car crash scene sends Pemberton after a murder no one has reported. When a body is found, the case begins to look chillingly familiar.

New arrivals and old grudges meet at the edges of Nick's patch. He must sort out petty crime, wounded pride, and the everyday confusion of village life before it worsens.

This Heartbeat-branded edition returns to Aidensfield as the proposed reservoir stirs up anxiety and unrest. Nick faces construction-site trouble, local tempers, and the latest round of village complications.

An earlier Peter N Walker crime novel later associated with the Nicholas Rhea name. It offers a compact, traditional British mystery for readers keen to explore Walker's work beyond his better-known Yorkshire series.

Plans for a new reservoir throw Aidensfield into uproar. As construction begins, Nick has to handle village resistance, youthful recklessness, and the ordinary drama that change always brings.

A stumble over a stile uncovers hidden treasure and sets off a run of new complications. With escaped criminals, village oddballs, and Greengrass in the mix, Nick has his hands full.

An earlier crime novel from Peter N Walker, later gathered with Nicholas Rhea books. The story centres on a serious case whose consequences push people beyond routine police work and into greater danger.

A holiday should offer a break from ordinary life, but this crime story takes a darker turn. Peter N Walker builds the tension around murder, uneasy circumstances, and the trouble waiting after the trip ends.

Preparing for a local festival, Pluke reads ominous signs everywhere, then finds an unidentified woman buried in a shallow grave. His odd beliefs may be the key to the case.

A death in Dovingsby sets this earlier Peter N Walker mystery in motion. It is a compact crime novel built around suspicion, investigation, and the secrets that surface when a community is shaken.

A standalone crime novel from Peter N Walker, later listed alongside Nicholas Rhea titles. Expect an old-school British mystery shaped by suspicion, hidden motives, and a plot that steadily tightens around its characters.

Aidensfield's farmers are more than enough to wear down any policeman. Runaway cows, wild schemes, and a phantom milk-bottle thief keep Nick racing between real crime and pure rural chaos.

Domestic secrets and village rumours keep bubbling up around Nick's beat. It is another collection where the comic and the suspicious sit side by side in country Yorkshire.

When Sergeant Blaketon nears retirement, Nick suddenly has larger shoes to fill. A marauding goat, a tiny skeleton, and Greengrass's driving school make that difficult enough.

Pluke hopes for a quiet holiday, only to discover a body on a country estate. A pressed snowdrop, a sign of death, hints that the murderer has already chosen more than one victim.

Roadside incidents, passing strangers, and local mischief give Nick a fresh set of problems to solve. The open highway brings outside trouble straight into Aidensfield's orbit.

Crossing from one corner of the district to another, Nick finds that every community has its own secrets and troublemakers. Another round of wry, affectionate village policing follows.

A wealthy woman known as the Princess is found shot on her estate, and Pemberton must decide whether it was accident or murder. Family secrets and inheritance questions cloud every lead.

An apparently harmless old man is executed in a Yorkshire village, and similar killings soon follow elsewhere. Pemberton faces a precise, patient killer who leaves almost nothing behind.

Nick starts thinking about promotion, but the riverbank and the village keep offering fresh distractions. Rural policing, local characters, and everyday trouble once more make up the casebook.

Market days bring gossip, scams, quarrels, and more work than a village constable could wish for. Nick has to keep order while the whole district seems determined to misbehave.

When a young criminal vanishes, his family refuses to help the police. Pemberton pushes into a world of fake officers, drugs, and leads that keep collapsing into nothing.

Pluke is drawn into another country mystery where old symbols, local memory, and a suspicious death refuse to stay separate. The tone is eerie, quirky, and unmistakably Yorkshire.

Nick's patch widens again as parkland, visitors, and village gossip bring a new run of small mysteries and practical headaches. The tone stays funny, humane, and firmly rooted in Yorkshire life.

Winter closes in on the North York Moors, but the weather does not stop police work. Snowdrifts, flood warnings, and a parade of eccentric villagers keep Nick busy from first page to last.

Matthew Taylor swaps butchery for insurance and discovers that rural clients bring much more than paperwork. His first rounds through Delverdale are warm, comic, and full of surprises.

A legendary object and dark local superstition lead Montague Pluke toward murder. Walker mixes folklore, eccentric detection, and genuine menace to good effect.

Nick follows fresh trails through village feuds, rural misunderstandings, and minor crimes that turn unexpectedly serious. It is another easygoing but sharp-eyed visit to Aidensfield.

Matthew continues his rounds through the moors, meeting difficult clients and one wonderfully accident-prone crockery salesman. Everyday insurance work keeps turning into rural farce.

Town patrol sergeant Dick Simpson finally gets the murder case he has wanted, but the victim's past soon puts Simpson's own son under suspicion. To protect his family, he faces a painful and dangerous choice.

More country policing for Nick means awkward neighbours, local gossip, and trouble that rarely stays small for long. These are warm, observant Yorkshire tales with a sturdy mystery spine.

Sent to a busy seaside resort, Constable Nick swaps his familiar village lanes for holiday crowds and coastal puzzles. A message in a bottle and a string of odd incidents soon make it anything but a quiet posting.

While hunting for a famous holy trough, Pluke finds the body of a suspected child killer and uncovers a grim pattern of deaths. Even he may be walking into the same trap.

Money worries, odd insurance requests, and the demands of a growing business push Matthew and Evelyn harder than ever. The result is another affectionate slice of Yorkshire life.

Laid up after a motorcycle accident, Matthew has to work from home while Evelyn takes over the rounds. Their clients remain as eccentric and unpredictable as ever.

Nick is once again on public display as the village bobby everyone turns to first. The book gathers more of Aidensfield's odd disputes, quiet mysteries, and slyly funny local characters.

On a cruise to the Arctic Circle, Pemberton only wants a holiday. Then a man is found stabbed in a locked cabin, and the killer has to be somewhere on board.

Ancient boundaries, village custom, and local resentment give Nick plenty to untangle on his Yorkshire beat. As always, small incidents hint at deeper trouble beneath the moorland calm.

A season of fairs sends Constable Nick into missing-person worries, old mysteries, and fresh village chaos. Rural tradition and police work collide in another lively Aidensfield collection.

Nicholas Rhea tells the story of Nicholas Postgate, the Catholic priest known as the Martyr of the Moors. Drawing on his Yorkshire setting, the book follows Postgate's long ministry and eventual execution in seventeenth-century York.

A body in the abbey crypt launches a murder case that draws in retired Constable Nick, monk-constables, and DCS Nabber Napier. The closed religious setting gives the mystery real bite.

With major crime quiet, Pluke begins reviewing deaths that were all ruled natural. His suspicion of a hidden killer turns uncomfortably close to home when his wife becomes part of the picture.

After Father Will hears a murder confession, he is trapped by the seal of confession and cannot speak. When a body is found, the abbey's silence becomes part of the danger.

Constable Nick looks back over a career full of village quarrels, moorland puzzles, and awkward local cases. It is a late return to Aidensfield, mixing reflection, humour, and one more round of rural police work.

A companion book about the television drama inspired by Nicholas Rhea's Constable stories. It looks back at the enduring appeal of its Yorkshire setting, familiar characters, and the journey from page to screen.