Tim Downs Books in Order

If you want the Bug Man from the beginning: Shoofly Pie → Chop Shop → First the Dead
If you want Nick's later arc: Less than Dead → Ends of the Earth → Nick of Time
If you want a standalone suspense novel: Plague Maker → Head Game
If you want something outside crime fiction: Wonders Never Cease → Where the Wind Leads

Tim Downs grew up near Town and Country in St. Louis County, Missouri, and was born in 1954. Long before he wrote suspense novels, he was drawing cartoons and thinking visually. By the time he reached Indiana University, he had shifted away from painting and sculpture and toward graphic design and storytelling.

At Indiana University in Bloomington, he became Phi Beta Kappa and graduated in 1976 with a fine arts degree focused on graphic design. During his junior year he created Downstown for the campus paper. The strip kept growing after college, and from 1980 to 1986 it was syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. At its peak it appeared in more than a hundred newspapers.

Cartooning came first.

Writing stayed close behind. In 1979 Downs joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and later founded its Communication Center, a training ministry focused on speaking and communication. He also wrote nonfiction, including Finding Common Ground, which won a Gold Medallion Award, and marriage books such as Fight Fair and The Seven Conflicts, written with his wife, Joy.

His jump into crime fiction came from an unusual spark. After reading a science magazine article about forensic entomology, he saw the makings of a detective series that nobody else was writing. He even attended a forensic entomology seminar for investigators and coroners so the details would ring true. That research led to Dr. Nick Polchak, the odd, funny, insect-obsessed sleuth at the center of Shoofly Pie.

Readers who find Downs through the Bug Man novels usually stay for the mix of science, suspense, and character. Shoofly Pie and Chop Shop introduce Nick's strange skill set and his habit of stumbling into trouble. First the Dead drops him into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while Less than Dead, Ends of the Earth, and Nick of Time broaden the series into political secrets, environmental danger, and personal stakes. The books are tense, but they also have a dry sense of humor.

He likes smart premises, but he does not forget people.

That shows up in his standalones too. Plague Maker, a bioterror thriller, won a Christy Award and shows how comfortable he is with research-heavy suspense. Head Game leans harder into psychological fear. Then Wonders Never Cease takes a sharp turn into offbeat comedy and redemption, following a night nurse whose scam involving a comatose movie star gets far bigger than he planned. Downs also helped tell a real family's story in Where the Wind Leads, written with Dr. Vinh Chung.

Across those books, some patterns keep returning. Downs likes outsiders, people under pressure, and stories where conscience matters as much as plot. He often writes about strained relationships, hidden motives, and the way faith shows up in ordinary decisions instead of speeches. Even when the setup is unusual, a bug expert, a terror plot, a fake angel, the human problems stay recognizable.

He has long lived in Cary, North Carolina, with his wife, Joy, and their three grown children. Alongside the novels, he has continued working as a speaker and teacher. That mix of cartoonist, communicator, and novelist helps explain why his books can be tightly plotted and easy to read at the same time.