Where to Start With Reid Winslow’s Standalone Thrillers (And Why They Connect)
If you’re discovering Reid Winslow for the first time, you have an ideal problem: two standalone thrillers that share a world, not a dependency.
Winslow explains that The Dead Bell and Risk Management are standalone thrillers set in the same place: Lake County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, with “some interlacing characters.”
Here’s what readers most want to know: What are these books about, and where should I start?
The Dead Bell (start here if you want a classic detective-driven thriller)
Winslow’s first novel follows Tom Edison, a detective in the Major Crimes Division of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, investigating the “brutal homicide of a dowager in Lake Forest.”
As the case unfolds, Tom’s “difficult childhood and trauma” surface, alongside a relationship with a witness, Nora Summers.
Risk Management (start here if you want a PI story with personal history and sharper edge)
Set “several years later,” Tom is retired, and Larry Welk (an ancillary character in The Dead Bell) becomes the lead. Larry runs an investigative firm in Chicago and is a disbarred attorney from Amarillo, Texas.
A call pulls him into a case involving a woman shot “eight times,” while his Texas past unravels. The story also introduces Bertie Thurmond, a risk-averse Illinois state auditor who believes game theory can reduce risk, clashing with Larry’s “shot from a cannon” approach.
Simple reading order advice: Start with The Dead Bell to meet the world, then read Risk Management to see that world widen.
Which do you reach for first: a detective investigating a brutal homicide, or a disbarred attorney-turned-investigator with a messy past?