Richard Houston Books in Order

Richard Houston took an indirect route into fiction. Before publishing mysteries, he spent years building things, first as a carpenter and roofer, then as a software engineer. That mix of practical work, technical problem-solving, and a long-held wish to write shows up in the grounded, hands-on heroes of his books.

For about two decades, Houston worked construction while putting himself through college. He studied mathematics and also minored in English, keeping one foot in a technical field and the other in the stories he hoped to write someday.

After college, he worked for roughly twenty-five years as a software engineer. His work included Space Shuttle projects with the Air Force at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and computer graphics systems at Johnson Space Center in Texas. He later started a software company that developed products for large American businesses.

Then he took early retirement and changed course again. In 2007, Houston moved to Warsaw, Missouri, and built a home near Truman Lake.

The lake gave him a setting, and eventually a title.

Houston had wanted to write a novel for years, but a health scare in 2011 gave that ambition more urgency. He has said that, after bypass surgery, he decided it was time to stop waiting. A view from his deck, a cave on his property, and a television program about Jesse James helped spark the idea for A View to Die For, his first Jacob Martin mystery, published in 2012.

That novel introduced Jake Martin, a divorced, former software engineer and handyman who keeps getting pulled into murder cases. Jake's golden retriever, Fred, is his steady companion and often the first one to notice that something is wrong. Houston based Fred on his own beloved golden retriever, and the dog became a lasting part of the series.

The Books To Die For novels move between Colorado and the Missouri Ozarks. A Book to Die For sends Jake into a suspicious death and a poaching ring near Denver. A Treasure to Die For pairs a lost Colorado mine with a coded copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Later books bring in old love letters, Civil War relics, cold cases, and small-town trouble.

The mysteries are built around an amateur sleuth rather than a professional investigator. Jake has a knack for repairs, a tendency to ask one question too many, and loyal help from Fred and his sharp-tongued neighbor Bonnie. The result is a cozy-leaning series with local history, dogs, friendships, and crimes that refuse to stay buried.