Books
David Raker books in order
Looking for Tim Weaver’s David Raker books in order? Look no further!
Tim Weaver is the bestselling author of the David Raker series.
Raker is a missing persons investigator who specialises in finding the lost – whether dead or alive. Based in London, his cases take him all over the country as we watch him go to any lengths to track down those in trouble. If you want to find out more before diving in, Tim Weaver tells you all you need to know about Raker in his piece for Dead Good.
Released in February 2026, Tim Weaver’s most recent David Raker book is The Lost Women.
This 14-part series has fast become a favourite of ours. The books are complex and full of clever twists and turns that will keep you guessing and turning those pages. These novels give you everything you could want from a thriller – and the quality of Weaver’s writing sets them apart from the rest.
Read on to discover the David Raker books in order.
Tim Weaver’s David Raker books in order:
Chasing the Dead by Tim Weaver
1. Chasing The Dead (2010)
Mary Towne’s son, Alex, went missing six years ago. Five years later he finally turned up – as a corpse in a car wreck. Missing persons investigator David Raker doesn’t want the work: it’s clearly a sad but hopeless case of mistaken identity brought to him by a woman unable to let go of her son. But haunted by a loss of his own, Raker reluctantly agrees. Big mistake.
For as he digs deeper, he discovers that Alex’s life was not the innocent one his mother believed. Buried in his past are secrets that were never meant to be found – and dark, dangerous men willing to kill to protect them.
Soon Raker will discover that there are things far worse than death…
The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver
2. The Dead Tracks (2011)
Seventeen-year-old Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. A straight-A student from a happy home, she studied hard and rarely got into trouble. Six months on, she’s never been found.
David Raker knows what it’s like to grieve. He knows the shadowy world of the lost too. So, when he’s hired by Megan’s parents to find out what happened, he recognizes their pain – but knows that the darkest secrets can be buried deep. And Megan’s secrets could cost him his life. Because as Raker investigates her disappearance, he realizes everything is a lie. People close to her are dead. Others are too terrified to talk. And soon the conspiracy of silence leads Raker towards a forest on the edge of the city. A place with a horrifying history – which was once the hunting ground for a brutal, twisted serial killer. A place known as the Dead Tracks…
Vanished by Tim Weaver
3. Vanished (2012)
For millions of Londoners, the morning of 17 December is just like any other. But not for Sam Wren. An hour after leaving home, he gets onto a tube train – and never gets off again. No eyewitnesses. No trace of him on security cameras. Six months later, he’s still missing.
Out of options and desperate for answers, Sam’s wife Julia hires David Raker to track him down. But in this case the secrets go deeper than anyone imagined. For, as Raker starts to suspect that even the police are lying to him, someone is watching. Someone who knows what happened on the tube that day. And, with Raker in his sights, he’ll do anything to keep Sam’s secrets to himself…
Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver
4. Never Coming Back (2013)
It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie’s house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner’s cooking, the TV’s on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily asks David Raker to find them. It’s clear someone doesn’t want the family found.
But as he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to uncover evidence of a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find Emily’s missing family, he might just have made himself the next target…
Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver
5. Fall From Grace (2014)
When Leonard Franks and his wife Ellie leave the clamour of London for a dream retirement on the seclusion of Dartmoor, everything seems perfect. But then the dream shatters. Late on a January afternoon, only two years into their new life, Leonard leaves the house to fetch firewood – and never returns. Nine months later, he’s still missing.
With the police investigation dead in the water, Ellie and her family turn to David Raker. Raker tracks down missing people for a living. He knows how they think. But nothing can prepare him for what he’s about to find. Because, behind Leonard Franks’s disappearance, lies a deadly secret, buried so deep it was never meant to be found. And, by the time Raker starts to uncover the truth, it’s not just him in danger – it’s everyone he’s ever cared about…
What Remains by Tim Weaver
6. What Remains (2015)
Missing persons investigator David Raker specializes in finding the lost. Whether dead or alive, he brings home the truth to the families left behind. But there’s one person he’s never been able to save.
Colm Healy was one of the Met’s best detectives – until the unsolved murders of a mother and her twin daughters consumed his career, his family and his life. For him, there can be no redemption without justice. Re-opening the case together, Raker soon learns the hard way how this puzzle breeds obsession. But the worst is yet to come.
Because, at the end of this trail of tragedy and darkness, an elusive killer watches, waits – and prepares to bury the truth forever…
Broken Heart by Tim Weaver
7. Broken Heart (2016)
A woman drives to a secluded beauty spot on the Somerset coast. CCTV watches her enter but doesn’t see her leaving – in fact, Lynda Korin is never seen again. How can someone just disappear?
Her sister calls missing persons investigator David Raker. For him, the mystery of where she went is only the start. The real question is why a woman with no reason to run would choose to leave her entire life behind. Was it her decision? Or did someone make it for her?
Raker is an expert at following the echoes of decades-old lies. But only Lynda Korin knows the most shocking secret of all – and she’s missing, presumed dead…
I Am Missing by Tim Weaver
8. I Am Missing (2017)
When a young man wakes up bruised and beaten, with no memory of who he is or where he came from, the press immediately dub him ‘The Lost Man’. Naming himself Richard Kite, he spends the next ten months desperately trying to find out who he is. But despite media appeals and the efforts of the police, no one knows him.
Richard’s last hope may be private investigator David Raker – a seasoned locator of missing people. But Raker has more questions than answers. Who is Richard Kite? Why does no one know him? And what links him to the body of a woman found beside a London railway line two years ago?
Could Richard be responsible for her death – or is he next?
You Were Gone by Tim Weaver
9. You Were Gone (2018)
Three days after Christmas, a woman walks into a police station. She has no phone and no ID, just a piece of paper with the name of investigator David Raker on it. She tells officers that Raker is her husband. When he turns up at the station, Raker is stunned. The woman looks exactly like his wife. She knows all about their marriage, their history, even private conversations the two of them had. There’s just one problem: Raker’s wife has been dead for eight years.
The woman tells the police that Raker had a breakdown. A respected doctor backs up her account. Items are missing that prove Raker’s side of the story – and, worst of all, he soon becomes the prime suspect in a disappearance. Could Raker have imagined their whole marriage? Is he delusional? Is this really the woman he loved and grieved for? Hunted by the police, Raker will have to find out the truth before it costs him everything – his memories, his sanity, his life…
No One Home by Tim Weaver
10. No One Home (2019)
At Halloween, the residents of Black Gale gather for a dinner party. As the only nine people living there, they’ve become close friends as well as neighbours. They eat, drink and laugh. They play games and take photographs. But those photographs will be the last record of any of them.
Because by the next morning, the whole village has vanished.
With no bodies, no evidence and no clues, the mystery of what happened at Black Gale remains unsolved two and a half years on. But then the families of the missing turn to investigator David Raker – and their obsession becomes his.
What secrets were the neighbours keeping from their families – and from each other? Were they really everything they seemed to be? And is Raker looking for nine missing people – or nine dead bodies?
The Blackbird by Tim Weaver
11. The Blackbird (2022)
Ten seconds before the crash, Cate and Aiden Gascoigne are recorded on CCTV. The couple are laughing – happy, untroubled. Then their car plunges into a ninety-foot ravine.
The impact should kill them. And if that doesn’t, the fire will. Within seconds, the vehicle is an inferno – with the Gascoignes trapped inside.
But when fire crews arrive at the scene, they find something impossible. The vehicle is empty. Cate and Aiden have vanished.
Now only missing persons investigator David Raker can solve the mystery…
The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver
12. The Last Goodbye (2023)
Tom Brenner and his nine-year-old son Leo visit Seven Peaks theme park and head straight for the ghost house. They don’t come out.
Forty years ago, when Rebekah Murphy was three, her mother walked out of their childhood home and never returned. Nearly four decades on, Fiona Murphy is still missing. But then, out of the blue, a letter arrives in the post for Rebekah. It says it’s from Fiona.
Missing persons investigator David Raker is hired by Rebekah to find out if the letter is actually from her mum – and, if it isn’t, why someone would pretend to be her. As he starts to connect the dots from Fiona to the Brenners, he begins to realise he can’t trust anyone – even the people closest to him…
The Missing Family by Tim Weaver
13. The Missing Family (2024)
On a beautiful summer’s day, at a remote lake in the middle of Dartmoor, three members of the Fowler family take a dinghy out onto the water, leaving mother Sarah at the shore. Less than sixty seconds later, she checks to see where they are. The boat is drifting in the middle of the lake. It’s empty.
At the Skyline Casino in London, the security team have just made a headline-grabbing arrest: they’ve spotted and detained a man suspected of murdering a high roller. After locking him in one of their holding cells, the team station themselves outside and wait for the police. But when the cops arrive, they find something impossible. The killer is no longer inside the cell.
David Raker is an expert at solving missing persons puzzles – but these mysteries are unlike anything he’s ever seen.
As he digs into the Fowler’s, his long-time ally – ex-detective, Colm Healy – tries to get to the bottom of what happened at the casino. But the men are in danger. Because, buried in the shadows of both cases, is a deadly secret that was never meant to come out…
The Lost Women by Tim Weaver
14. The Lost Women (February 2026)
Before he was a missing persons investigator, David Raker was a journalist – and there’s one story that still haunts him: The Lost Women. Eighteen years ago, on the Cornish coast, three women were filming a documentary about a missing student… until they vanished too. With no bodies and no leads, the disappearances remain unsolved.
Today, Raker is hired to crack an impossible mystery. Following a car accident, Preston Stewart has surgery on his face. The operation is a success. But when the dressings are removed, Preston’s wife realises something is very wrong. The man under the bandages is not her husband.
Raker and his ally, former detective Colm Healy, begin digging into Preston’s disappearance – and discover a horrifying connection to the lost women. But there’s something even worse. They only have 48 hours to solve both cases – or everything that matters to them and everyone they love is in danger…
Plus…
The Shadow at the Door by Tim Weaver
The Shadow at the Door, a collection of four connected stories
It’s a night just like any other in the Conister home – but then Paul heads upstairs and never comes back. When his wife Maggie goes to see where he is, she can’t find him. His phone and wallet are by the bed. The windows are locked from the inside. Paul has vanished.
Missing persons investigator David Raker is an expert in locating the lost. So when he’s hired by Maggie, he knows that in every disappearance – however impossible it seems – there’s an answer. What he doesn’t know yet is that his search for Paul Conister will become linked to three other mysteries…
A night patrolman on the London Underground makes a deadly discovery. A cold case is reopened – but the key witness appears to no longer exist. And thousands of miles away, a random shooting may not be random at all.
David Raker is key to unlocking the truth…
There you have it – all Tim Weaver’s David Raker books in order! How many have you read? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
I have read all of Tim Weaver’s books, including his latest, “No One Home.” An exceptional author, you are immediately drawn in by his characterisation and involved plots. I feel that I know David Raker, that he is real and the friendship he has with Colm Healy has become symbiotic and full of compassion. As an academic who has spent their life concerned with facts I couldn’t have come across a better author of fiction. I eagerly await Tim’s next novel.
I’ve only read you were gone but im starting to read vanished
I have read all of Tim Weaver’s David Raker books so far and I am looking forward to the next due on 16 May 2019. Weaver by name, weaver by nature – his novels draw you in and take you on a journey, visiting places and meeting people, getting a better understanding of both. To have someone close go missing has to be the worst experience to not know what has happened, to spend your life waiting to hear news, with nothing but your imagination driving your fears. Tim Weaver’s focus from the investigator’s view has given another dimension to the mystery of the missing. Genuinely easy and interesting to read.
I read You were gone and thought it was fantastic! Now want to read all of his previous work!
I have just discovered Tim Weaver! Absolutely brilliant- read you were gone in one sitting- couldn’t put it down! Need to read the rest – excellent author.