[10] His first two novels—The Condemned (2008) and The Girl in the Woods (2009)—were released in hardcover and trade paperback by Delirium Books, under the name David Jack Bell.

"[13] In 2013, Cemetery Girl was a finalist for the Kentucky Literary Award[14] and won le Prix Polar International de Cognac.

[15][16] The novel also received the most write-in votes when The New York Times asked readers what book should have won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

[17] Since Cemetery Girl, Penguin Random House has published thirteen more of Bell's adult suspense novels with their New American Library and Berkley imprints, including Try Not To Breathe,[18] which is forthcoming in June 2023.

Bell's novels have been translated into numerous languages and included on The New York Times,[1] USA Today,[21] IndieBound,[22] Amazon,[23] Publishers Weekly,[24] and Parnassus Books[25] bestseller lists, as well as being featured as one of Target's Emerging Authors.

[27] Bell co-edited two anthologies of short fiction with Molly McCaffrey: Commutability: Stories about the Journey from Here to There (2010) and Stuck in the Middle: Writing That Holds You in Suspense (2016), featuring work by a group of diverse writers including Sarah Domet, Kelcey Ervick, Ed Gorman, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Thomas F. Monteleone, Faye Moskowitz, Norman Prentiss, James Reiss, and Sandra Scofield with cover art by award-winning painter C. David Jones.