Nicholas Rhea

Under this name, he famously wrote the “Constable” series of novels, which inspired the television series “Heartbeat”. Peter served as a police consultant for the series. He drew on his experiences as a local bobby for a tiny Yorkshire village during the 1960s to chronicle Constable Nick’s career, from his first appearance in Aidensfield in “Constable on the Hill” (first published in the year 1979).

The best place to start is the Constable Nick Mystery series, the earliest of Nicholas Rhea's multi-book series: it opens with Constable on the Hill (1979) and runs to 38 books across 1979–2016, ending with Constable on Trial (2016). Nicholas Rhea's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Nicholas Rhea has 71 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1979 and 2020. 61 of them belong to 6 named series — the largest being the Constable Nick Mystery series with 38 books — and 10 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Nicholas Rhea's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Constable Nick Mystery (1979–2016, 38 books), Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton (1991–2008, 9 books) and Montague Pluke (1996–2014, 7 books), plus 3 more.

This guide splits Nicholas Rhea's 71 books into 6 named series and 10 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Constable Nick Mystery (38 books, 1979–2016); Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton (9 books, 1991–2008); Montague Pluke (7 books, 1996–2014); Assured (4 books, 2004–2007); Maddleskirk Abbey (2 books, 2013–2015), plus 1 further series.