Why do I always discover exciting new series with the third volume?

I received a copy of the newly-released In Constant Fear a few weeks ago, and was instantly intrigued. Sure, mostly it was that eye-catching reddish-purple cover, which stands out at thirty paces. But I also found the description promising, about a “ragged band of survivors” who’ve escaped from “the hellish reality of the City,” and are eking out a secretive existence in an abandoned town. The cover quote from the Hollywood Reporter, “The Hunger Games for adults,” didn’t hurt either.

But right there at the top were the words The Detainee Trilogy, Book Three. Meaning I somehow missed the first two books. How’d I manage that? A quick trip to BarnesandNoble.com confirms that, yes indeed, there were two previous volumes: The Detainee (March 2014) and Into the Fire (March 2015). All three were released by Jo Fletcher Books here in the US. Apparently I’m not as hip to the publishing scene as I like to think I’m am.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take much to catch up. The Detainee was released in paperback on February 3, 2015; it is 352 pages, priced at $9.99, or $7.99 for the digital version. Here’s the description:

In his debut novel, The Detainee, Liney has created a dystopian world in which the state has gone bust and can no longer support its weakest members.

The Island is a place of hopelessness. The Island is death. And it is to this place that all the elderly and infirm are shipped, the scapegoats for the collapse of society. There’s no escape, not from the punishment satellites that deliver instant judgment for any crime — including escape attempts — and not from the demons that come on foggy nights, when the satellites are all but blind. But when one of the Island’s inhabitants, the aging “Big Guy” Clancy, finds a network of tunnels beneath the waste, there is suddenly hope — for love, for escape, and for the chance to fight back.

Into the Fire was published in hardcover last March; the paperback edition is due on February 9, 2016. It is 368 pages, priced at $9.99, or $7.99 for the digital version.

Having escaped the Island — a wasteland that housed those no longer able to contribute to society — Clancy thought his fight was over. But they have returned to the mainland to find that it is not the haven they anticipated. With the punishment satellites that kept them on the Island gone, hell has been unleashed. Clancy is about to discover that his work is far from over. The fires of hell don’t burn much hotter than this.

In Constant Fear was published on December 22, 2015. It is 352 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover, or $11.99 for the digital edition. That fine purple cover was designed by Ghost.

Over a year has passed since “Big Guy” Clancy and the ragged band of survivors managed to escape from the hellish reality of the City. Pursued by the ruthless leader of Infinity — the corporation behind the systematic extermination of thousands of “lower class” citizens — they’ve been on the run ever since, constantly looking over their shoulders.

Despite this, they have forged a new life working the land on an abandoned smallholding on the other side of the mountains. Hidden there, they are as close to happy as they can be.

But peace is short-lived. Strange things start to happen in the valley: too many unlucky coincidences convince them that another power is rising against them, and there are many questions to be answered: what is the shadow maker? And who-or what-has begun to howl in the night?

All three books are still in print, so you can start wherever you like. Me, I’m going to shell out for the paperback edition of the first volume. I’m a sucker for these adult dystopian series.

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