Richard Prosch Books in Order
Explore Richard Prosch books in order, with concise summaries, series guides, recurring-character background, and clear suggestions for where to start.
Last updated: July 14, 2026
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Richard Prosch books in publication order
15 books
On Solid Ground: The Jo Harper Collection
by Richard Prosch
2015
This collection follows thirteen-year-old Deputy Constable Jo Harper through new dangers in 1911 Willowby, Wyoming. With friends, enemies, and strangers crossing her path, Jo must keep solving mysteries without losing her footing.
Season of Ice
by Richard Prosch
2016
Seventeen crime stories range from a 1965 blackout to Depression-era Nebraska, Manhattan streets, and rural South Carolina. Criminals, bystanders, cops, and old secrets collide in tales where justice is often brutal.
Answer Death
by Richard Prosch
2017
Ex-state cop Dan Spalding wants only to run his vintage record shop in peace. When a stolen valuable LP leads to a murder connected to a notorious entertainer, Dan becomes the next person in danger.
Spalding's Groove
by Richard Prosch
2017
Former state cop Dan Spalding runs a vintage record store in Ozark City, until a washed-up television star brings in suspicious vinyl. The collection launches Dan into gangs, hidden secrets, and the sort of trouble that is bad for business.
Two for Midnight
by Richard Prosch
2017
In the early twentieth century, Phil Dunlap sees profit in selling phonograph records to friends and family. But an encounter with the wrong customer turns his small business plan into a dangerous brush with the past.
Back Mask
by Richard Prosch
2018
Dan Spalding tries to protect old friend Digger Strickland when buried secrets point toward Darian Cole, an evangelist running for the Senate. A backwards message on an old record opens a path to a long-hidden evil.
Flip Side
by Richard Prosch
2018
Dan takes what looks like an easy private-security job for a college professor and his girlfriend. Instead, he steps into a case where love, betrayal, vengeance, and criminal favors turn a simple assignment deadly.
The Scalper
by Richard Prosch
2018
This Western story collection brings together outlaws, gunmen, young inventors, artists, and lawmen across the old frontier. The title story, a Spur Award winner, sits beside tales of grudges, oddball trouble, and wide-open country.
Stage Fright
by Richard Prosch
2019
Runaway performer Apple May wants out of an Ozark City club, and Dan agrees to help. But escaping mob boss Adrian Mitchell proves far more dangerous than either of them expects, especially when powerful people refuse to let her go.
Tough Job in Driftwood: Western Short Stories
by Richard Prosch
2019
A collection of Western tales set among Nebraska and Wyoming ranges, where wrecked wagons, dangerous jobs, gambling, and old memories lead to trouble. Lawmen, gunfighters, and strangers face hard choices with action and dry humor.
Dead Beat
by Richard Prosch
2020
Without Marti Stahl, the Ozarks feel lonelier than ever to Dan Spalding. When a battered, drowned woman appears to match Marti's description, Dan pursues justice through a small-town crime boss and his hired guns.
Deep Cuts
by Richard Prosch
2020
A day of violence leaves Dan Spalding facing a ruthless warning: criminals will target everyone around him. With friends under attack and old losses weighing on him, Dan moves against Reese Hogan's powerful criminal empire.
Needle Drop
by Richard Prosch
2020
Dan witnesses a young woman plunge from Stu Heinrichs's yacht, then finds himself trapped in a case involving murder and public outrage. To expose the truth, he risks his life, the people he loves, and his hard-won future.
Pony Boys
by Richard Prosch
2022
In 1879 Nebraska, young Augustus John rides with Doc Middleton's Pony Boys, a loose band of horse thieves. As vigilantes and lawmen close in, Gus must decide whether loyalty to the gang is worth its mounting cost.
The Dagger Before Me
by Richard Prosch
2024
In Tatendra, leader Celestyne and mechanician Devron Koert face Mage-King Govannon as magic and engineered armor collide. With the realm's twin moons nearing disaster, their uneasy alliance may be its only defense.
Where to start with Richard Prosch
For an Ozarks crime series: Answer Death → Flip Side → Back Mask → Stage Fright.
For a quick Dan Spalding introduction: Spalding's Groove → Answer Death.
For young-reader historical mysteries: Waiting for a Comet → Racing a Dog Star → Roping a Planet.
For Nebraska frontier history: Pony Boys → Cast a Wide Loop.
For crime short stories: Season of Ice → Two for Midnight.
Richard Prosch sub-series and character series
Curse of the Niobrara books in order
Explore this seriesDan Spalding Thriller books in order
Explore this series
Answer Death
by Richard Prosch
2017Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 1
Spalding's Groove
by Richard Prosch
2017Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 2
Back Mask
by Richard Prosch
2018Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 4
Flip Side
by Richard Prosch
2018Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 3
Stage Fright
by Richard Prosch
2019Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 5
Dead Beat
by Richard Prosch
2020Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 6
Deep Cuts
by Richard Prosch
2020Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 7
Needle Drop
by Richard Prosch
2020Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 8
Dan Spalding Thriller books in chronological order

Answer Death
by Richard Prosch
2017Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 1
Spalding's Groove
by Richard Prosch
2017Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 2
Flip Side
by Richard Prosch
2018Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 3
Back Mask
by Richard Prosch
2018Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 4
Stage Fright
by Richard Prosch
2019Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 5
Dead Beat
by Richard Prosch
2020Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 6
Deep Cuts
by Richard Prosch
2020Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 7
Needle Drop
by Richard Prosch
2020Dan Spalding Thriller, Book 8
Jo Harper books in order
Explore this seriesReign of Hex & Steel books in order
Explore this seriesRichard Prosch collections, short stories, and related book types
Author bio
Richard Prosch was born in Denver in 1966, but much of the landscape that shapes his fiction comes from northeast Nebraska. He grew up in Bloomfield, where farm work, open country, old stories, and long drives through the range gave him plenty of time to make up tales of his own.
A fifth-grade teacher helped turn that habit into a goal. After Prosch handed in a vampire story, Mrs. Neuharth responded with enthusiasm and told him he could become a writer someday. That early encouragement stuck.
Before publishing fiction, Prosch worked in several creative jobs. He has been an artist, teacher, writer, and web developer, and has lived and worked in Wyoming, South Carolina, and Missouri. With his wife, Gina, he also created the comic strip Comics and Emma Davenport, which ran in Comics Buyers Guide and led to a series of comic books. The two later worked on projects connected to television, syndicated media, and cartoon licensing.
His fiction moves comfortably between the old West, present-day crime, young-reader adventures, and fantasy. The settings matter. Nebraska's plains, Wyoming's range country, and the tourist-town energy of the Ozarks are not just backdrops, they help shape the people making difficult choices inside each story.
Prosch's Western work often follows lawmen, drifters, outlaws, and people trying to make a living where the rules are unsettled. His short story The Scalper won a Spur Award from Western Writers of America in 2016. Later books such as Pony Boys return to Nebraska history, using the real-world story of Doc Middleton and Kid Wade as the starting point for a tale about horse thieves, vigilantes, loyalty, and consequences.
He also writes a very different kind of crime story in the Dan Spalding books. Beginning with Answer Death, the series follows a former state cop who runs a vintage record store in Ozark City, Missouri. Dan would prefer to focus on old vinyl, but trouble keeps arriving at the shop. The books mix local crime, long memories, friendship, and the stubborn impulse to step in when somebody needs help.
Then there is Jo Harper, a young deputy constable in 1910 Wyoming. Created with Gina Prosch, the Jo stories pair period details, humor, danger, and a kid detective who is much more interested in solving a mystery than being told to stay out of it. They are a lighter entry point into Prosch's work, though the stakes still feel real.
He doesn't seem interested in staying in one lane.
That range also includes the sword-and-sorcery series Reign of Hex & Steel, written with Robert E. Vardeman, where magic and machinery collide. Across genres, Prosch tends to return to people under pressure: a kid trying to do the right thing, a lawman with too little backup, an outlaw facing a changing world, or an ordinary person forced to decide whether to walk away.
Prosch lives near Jefferson City, Missouri, with Gina and their son, Wyatt. Away from the desk, he has a well-documented fondness for old paperbacks, comics, action figures, antique shops, and vintage records, especially jazz. Those interests show up in the texture of his stories, often when readers least expect them.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.





















Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts