Tim Weaver (born 13 July 1977) is an English writer primarily known for his

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

s featuring

missing persons A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, o ...

investigator David Raker.

Career

Journalism

Prior to publication of his first book, Weaver was a

video game journalist Video game journalism (also called games journalism or video game criticism) is a specialized branch of journalism that covers various aspects of video games, including game reviews, industry news, and player culture, typically following a core ...

. He was a writer for

Future plc Future plc is a British publishing company. It was started in 1985 by Chris Anderson (entrepreneur), Chris Anderson. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History 1985–2012 The company was ...

magazines ''

Super Play ''Super Play'' was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996. Overview ''Super Play'' covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were nev ...

'', ''

Total! ''Total!'' was a video game magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future plc. It was published monthly for 58 issues, beginning in December 1991 (cover-dated January 1992), with the last issue bearing the cover-date October 1996. A "1993 ...

'', ''

N64 Magazine ''NGC Magazine'' (''N64 Magazine'' until October 2001 (issue 59)) was a British magazine specialising in Nintendo video game consoles and software. It was first printed in 1997 and ran until 2006. It was the successor to ''Super Play'', a maga ...

'', ''Video Gamer'', and ''

Xbox World ''Xbox World'' was a British Xbox and Xbox 360 magazine published by Future plc. History ''Xbox World 360'' began life as Xbox World, with issue one released in early 2003, over a year after the Xbox's release. Published by Computec Media, th ...

''. He also appeared as co-host of YouTube show GTA V O'Clock.

Novels

Weaver's debut

''Chasing the Dead'' was released in February of 2010. The story introduced the character of David Raker. Raker is a former journalist, who gave up his career in newspapers to care for his wife after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The book begins twelve months after her death, centering on the mysterious reappearance of a man thought to have died in a car crash. His fourth book, ''Never Coming Back'', is the first in the series to move entirely away from London, and is set in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

and

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. On 28 August 2013, it was announced that ''Never Coming Back'' had been selected for the

Richard and Judy Richard and Judy is a term used to refer to British television presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who are married. They co-hosted the ITV programme '' This Morning'' from 1988 to 2001 and later presented the chat show ''Richard & ...

Autumn 2013 Book Club. On 18 November 2013, it was shortlisted for Crime & Thriller of the Year in the

Specsavers Specsavers Optical Group Limited is a Guernsey-based multinational optical retail chain, which operates mainly in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Nordic countries. The chain offers optometry and optician services for ey ...

National Book Awards, and on 16 December 2013,

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

included it in their 'Best of 2013' list, naming it Best British Crime Thriller. On his decision to have David Raker specialise in missing persons cases, Weaver has said: "I just became very interested in the idea of a person going missing in an age where we have CCTV on every street, 24-hour rolling news channels, and constant access to cameras through our phones. It seemed like an intriguing starting point for a book. It sounds trite, but I was also struck by the human cost. Can you imagine how many stories must go untold when a person vanishes?" In October 2013, Weaver contributed a short story entitled ''Disconnection'' to #YouDunnit, a joint venture between Penguin and

. The major themes of the story – including the victim, crime scene location, and central character – were

crowdsourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

on Twitter. Weaver's tenth book, ''No One Home'', was again selected for the

Book Club on 20 February 2020 and on 15 April 2021, Weaver released his first standalone novel, ''Missing Pieces''.

Podcast

In September 2015, Weaver wrote and presented an eight-part

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

series called ''Missing'', looking into how and why people disappear. It was selected by

as one of the best podcasts of 2015. In August 2016, Weaver recorded three further episodes.

Personal life

Weaver attended

Norton Hill School Norton Hill School is a state school with academy status in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, England. It is part of the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership academy group. It was formerly the Midsomer Norton Grammar School. The school had 1,827 stud ...

Midsomer Norton Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, Somerset, Bath, north-east of Wells, Somerset, Wells, north-west of Frome, west of Trowbridge and south-east of Bristol. It has ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. He also describes himself as a "massive, ''massive'' football fan," and supports

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Bath City F.C. Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional Football club (association football), football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset County Football Association, Somerset FA and currently competes in the N ...

Bibliography

David Raker novels

* 2010 – ''Chasing the Dead'' * 2011 – ''The Dead Tracks'' * 2012 – ''Vanished'' * 2013 – ''Never Coming Back'' * 2014 – ''Fall From Grace'' * 2015 – ''What Remains'' * 2016 – ''Broken Heart'' * 2017 – ''I Am Missing'' * 2018 – ''You Were Gone'' * 2019 – ''No One Home'' * 2021 – ''The Shadow at the Door'' * 2022 – ''The Blackbird'' * 2023 – ''The Last Goodbye'' * 2024 – ''The Missing Family''

Standalone novels

* 2021 – ''Missing Pieces''

Short stories

* 2013 – ''Disconnection''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Tim 1977 births 21st-century English writers English thriller writers Living people Video game critics Writers from Bath, Somerset