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Series · hardboiled mystery

Gulliver Dowd

by Reed Farrel Coleman

The Gulliver Dowd series by Reed Farrel Coleman has 4 known books (4 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Dirty Work (2013). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Love and Fear.

Books
4 known books (4 novellas)
Published
4
First published
2013
Status
completed
Shelved under
Mystery & Crime
Last checked

Start here: Dirty Work (2013) — then read straight through in publication order.

Book one

Cover of Dirty Work

Dirty Work (2013)

Reading order

The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.

  1. Dirty Work

    Novella

    Reed Farrel Coleman introduced private investigator Gulliver Dowd in Dirty Work, published January 1, 2013 at 136 pages, with Dowd hired by his own high-school girlfriend to find her runaway daughter -- who turns out to be his as well. Part of Orca Book Publishing's Rapid Reads line, it's a fast, complete case shaped by Dowd's own unresolved grief over his murdered twin sister.

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  2. Valentino Pier

    Novella

    Valentino Pier followed that September, growing to 144 pages as the second entry, continuing to pull Dowd's sister's unsolved NYPD murder gradually back into focus beneath the case's own plot -- the low-simmering thread that runs through all four Rapid Reads novellas.

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  3. The Boardwalk

    Novella

    After a roughly year-and-a-half gap, The Boardwalk arrived in February 2015, the third book at 160 pages, keeping Reed Farrel Coleman's compressed novella format tight and propulsive rather than sprawling.

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  4. Love and Fear

    Novella

    Coleman closed the series in March 2016 with "Love and Fear," the longest of the four novellas at 168 pages -- each entry in the series slightly longer than the last.

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About the Gulliver Dowd series

Gulliver Dowd is a licensed New York private investigator who happens to be a little person — a detail Reed Farrel Coleman treats neither as a gimmick nor as something to overcome, but as one more fact of a life already defined by grief. Dowd became a PI after his twin sister, an NYPD officer, was murdered, a loss that sits under every case he takes. The four novellas were published as part of Orca Book Publishing's Rapid Reads line, aimed at adult readers who want a complete, fast, plot-driven story rather than a 300-page novel, and Coleman uses the compressed length to keep each entry tight and propulsive rather than sprawling.

Dirty Work (2013) opens the series with Dowd hired by his own high-school girlfriend to find her runaway daughter, who turns out to be his as well — the kind of personal complication that recurs through the series as cases keep intersecting with Dowd's own unresolved history. Valentino Pier (2013), The Boardwalk (2015), and Love and Fear (2016) continue in the same vein, pulling Dowd's sister's unsolved murder gradually back into focus as a low-simmering thread beneath each case's own plot. The series never grew beyond these four entries, but within the constraints of the novella format it built a genuinely serialized arc, closer in spirit to Coleman's Moe Prager novels than to a disposable quick-read spinoff.

Frequently asked questions

How many Gulliver Dowd books are there?

Four novellas: Dirty Work (2013), Valentino Pier (2013), The Boardwalk (2015), and Love and Fear (2016).

Who is Gulliver Dowd?

A licensed NYC private investigator who is a little person, drawn into PI work after his police-officer twin sister was murdered -- a case that runs underneath all four books.

Are the Gulliver Dowd books novellas or full novels?

Novellas -- they were published as part of Orca Book Publishing's Rapid Reads line for adult readers who want a shorter, complete story, typically under 150 pages each.

What order should I read Gulliver Dowd in?

Publication order: Dirty Work, Valentino Pier, The Boardwalk, Love and Fear. Dowd's family history and his sister's murder investigation develop across the series.

Is the Gulliver Dowd series connected to Reed Farrel Coleman's other books?

Not directly in plot, but it shares his Brooklyn/NYC settings and hardboiled, character-driven voice, closest in tone to his Moe Prager novels.

Reading order last verified .