Simon Mason’s Ray Wilkins crime novels are my latest addiction. I wait impatiently for each one. What are the triple pillars of any great story? Character, Plot and Language. In the twin heroes of his novels (both called Wilkins and so unalike: they somehow create together one immortal police detective) he has created characters for the ages. His plots race thrillingly around an Oxford you never knew existed. His language though … without exhibiting a trace of “writerly” self-consciousness, he is capable of phrase-making and description of the very highest quality. Those three perfect pillars support truly memorable crime novels, as great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades. – Stephen Fry
My favourite UK series – M W Craven
A terrific, character-driven read that makes you guess - and guess again * Saga Magazine *
Simon Mason’s wry sense of humour leavens the madness and mayhem, while Ryan’s relationship with his four-year-old son is the emotional core of the novel. If only all procedurals could be this good. * The Times *
Excellent * Peterborough Telegraph *
A hugely entertaining mystery * Irish Independent *
A Voice in The Night makes another excellent and entertaining addition to the three previous books in the series. * Promoting Crime Fiction *
Simon Mason does for the British police procedural what Mick Herron has done for spy stories with Slow Horses. Mason’s Oxford-set Wilkins & Wilkins books - A Voice in the Night is the fourth - are deliciously dry. His mismatched detectives, trailer park boy DI Ryan Wilkins and posh DI Ray Wilkins - who share a surname and little else - are probably the most original contribution to crime writing in a decade. Inspector Morse this ain’t. Can they keep from killing each other long enough to catch baddies? Enjoy them in book form before the series justly gets gobbled up by TV. 10⁄10 * Daily Express *
Simon Mason’s unlikely partners, DI Ryan Wilkins and DI Ray Wilkins, continue their eccentric but effective investigations in Oxford … Ryan’s entrancing young son brings out the best in him and adds both warmth and emotional depth to the story, and a new superintendent, who wants to be addressed as ‘sir’, even though she’s a female, adds an extra dimension. Mason writes wonderfully about both the dreaming spires of Oxford and the places near them where the homeless sleep. * Literary Review *
DI Ryan Wilkins is both comic and tragic, set off brilliantly by posh partner-in-crime, Ray. However, it’s the keenly observed human frailties and descriptions that remain with you * Daily Express (Books of the Year 2025) *

Simon Mason has pursued parallel careers as a publisher and an author, whose YA crime novels Running Girl, Kid Got Shot and Hey, Sherlock! feature the sixteen-year-old slacker genius Garvie Smith. A former Managing Director of David Fickling Books, where he worked with many wonderful writers, including Philip Pullman, he has also taught at Oxford Brookes University and has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.

Lost and Never Found is the third book in the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries. The first book, A Killing in November, received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. The Second book, The Broken Afternoon, was a Times Audio Book of the Week and a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month.

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