My Crime Books - Reading Order
All of my crime books are linked, so you’ll find characters who appear in multiple series.
Each series is designed for the books within it to be read in order. You can read the series themselves in any order you want, but you might want to read them in the order in which they take place.
Dorset Crime Series
The Dorset Crime series takes place after the first six Zoe Finch books, when DCI Lesley Clarke is transferred to Dorset. Howevre most people read this series first - it's a fan favourite. I’ve made sure there are no major spoilers in the series.
The prequel novella, The Ballard Down Murder, takes place before these books begin. It focuses on DS Dennis Frampton and Lesley doesn’t appear until late in the book. You can read this at any point while reading the rest of the series – you don’t have to read it first. However I’d recommend reading The Corfe Castle Murders first then reading the novella.
Note: Zoe appears in these books as part of a storyline that’s separate from the main series storyline in the Zoe Finch books. So if you read these first, it won’t spoil those books.
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The Corfe Castle Murders
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The Ballard Down Murder (novella)
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The Clifftop Murders
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The Island Murders
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The Riverside Murder (novella)
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The Monument Murders
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The Millionaire Murders
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The Fossil Beach Murders
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The Blue Pool Murders
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The Lochside Murder (novella)
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The Lighthouse Murders
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The Ghost Village Murders
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The Lyme Regis Murder (novella)
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The Poole Harbour Murders
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The Chesil Beach Murders
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The Beach Hut Murders
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The Gold Hill Murders
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The Kingston Lacy Murders
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...and more to come...
You can buy all the Dorset Crime books from my Amazon store in ebook, audiobook and paperback.
Detective Zoe Finch Series
The big question in this series is: when do you read the prequel novella? I recommend reading it after Deadly Wishes, meaning you get to know Zoe and her colleagues first. This is the order in which I wrote the books. (It doesn’t matter too much though, if you want to read Deadly Origins first or at any point in the series, it won’t spoil the other books.)
Note: Lesley appears a lot in these books and you learn in detail about the events that led to her being sent to Dorset. If you’ve already read the Dorset Crime books it won’t spoil those, but will give you some background.
Here’s my recommended reading order:
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Deadly Wishes
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Deadly Origins (novella)
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Deadly Choices
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Deadly Desires
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Deadly Terror
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Deadly Reprisal
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Deadly Fallout
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Deadly Christmas
You can buy all the Zoe Finch books from my Amazon store in ebook, audiobook and paperback.
Cumbria Crime Series
DI Zoe Finch moves to Cumbria and finds herself heading up a new team, with new villains and new challenges. Carl has moved with her (and Yoda the cat) – will Zoe find herself getting embroiled in a Professional Standards case?
I recommend reading the DI Zoe Finch books in Birmingham (up to Book 6) before starting this series. The Castle is worth reading first as it introduces the new characters.
Note: This series is complete. I co-wrote it with Joel Hames who is now writing a spinoff series, the Whaley & Gaskill series.
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The Castle (novella)
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The Harbour
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The Karaoke Bar (novella)
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The Mine
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The Raid (novella)
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The Cairn
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The Business (novella)
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The Barn
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The Liar’s Inn (novella)
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The Lake
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The House (novella)
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The Wood
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The Pool (novella)
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The Port
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The Marsh
You can buy all the Cumbria Crime books from my Amazon store in ebook, audiobook and paperback.
The Jurassic Coast Mysteries
Lyme Regis. One of Dorset’s most beautiful towns, location of literary masterpieces including Persuasion and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. And now, the Lyme Regis women’s swimming club.
In the opening book of this series, Annie Abbott and her friends Figgy, Rosamund and Helen find themselves at the centre of more murder mysteries than is really healthy for a small group of women. It’s a good job that Annie’s daughter Tina is a Detective Constable in Dorset major crimes investigation team.
Featuring characters from my Dorset Crime series with a summery or festive twist.
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The Swimming Club
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The Empty Easel
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The Shattered Bauble
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The Frozen Carriage
McBride & Tanner Series
The McBride & Tanner series is a spin-off featuring Dr Petra McBride, who appears in both the Zoe Finch and Dorset Crime books. It also brings back DS Mo Uddin, who was Zoe’s sidekick in the Zoe Finch books, and introduces a new character, DI Jade Tanner.
The books take place around Loch Lomond and Glasgow and make up a compelete series of four books.
Note: It’s best to read these after the Dorset Crime series and Zoe’s ‘Deadly’ books, especially the Deadly books because of Mo moving to Scotland. But, as always, I wrote them in a way that means there are no major spoilers if you do read this series first.
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Blood and Money
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Death and Poetry
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Power and Treachery
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Secrets and History
You can buy all the McBride & Tanner books from my Amazon store in ebook, audiobook and paperback.
Roscoe & McBride Series
While I was writing the McBride & Tanner series, Petra kept swanning off to glamorous locations between books, then coming back to Scotland. I decided to follow her on her travels and write some stories for her set in European cities. She teams up with Susannah Roscoe, an Interpol agent, for a series of twisty crimes with psychological themes.
You don’t have to read these in order - there’s a series arc about personal relationships but no ongoing mystery through the series. So if you prefer, pick your favourite city.
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Veil of Blood (novella, set in Madrid)
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Veil of Secrets (set in Paris)
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Veil of Echoes (Prague)
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…and more to come, featuring cities such as Barcelona, Rome and London.
You can buy all the Roscoe & McBride books from my Amazon store in ebook, audiobook and paperback.
London Cosy Mystery Series
Featuring amateur sleuth Diana Bakewell, her sidekick Zaf Williams (from the Zoe Finch series) and Gus the cat. Diana is a tour guide who repeatedly finds herself in the middle of murder cases. Can Diana solve the cases the police can’t? (Of course she can, it’s a cosy mystery.)
It doesn’t really matter when you read these but I’d advise reading the Zoe Finch series of ‘Deadly’ books first as Zaf moves from Birmingham to London at the end of those.
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Death at Westminster
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Death in the West End
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Death at Tower Bridge
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Death on the Thames
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Death at St Paul's Cathedral
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Death at Abbey Road
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Murderous Mystery Tours story anthology - including Mystery at the National Gallery, The Ecclestone Square Mystery, Gus the Theatre Cat and Larry the Downing Street Cat Goes Missing.
You can buy all the London books from my Amazon store in ebook, audiobook and paperback.
What Next?
I'm still writing more Dorset Crime books - there will be 18 in all - and I'm working on more Jurassic Coast mysteries and more international crime thrillers for Petra and Susannah.
In addition, Joel Hames is writing a spinoff series from the Cumbria Crime series, featuring familiar characters. The series is called the Whaley and Gaskill series and the first book is The Boatyard.
Once you've finished reading all of the existing series, you can either go back in time to my earlier books, or you can read all of the stories and novellas in the series.
My earlier books are not crime - they're psycholoigcal thrillers or dystopian political fiction. They are:
The Village series:
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Thicker Than Water
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Sea of Lies
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One of Us
The Division Bell Series:
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A House Divided
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Divide and Rule
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Divided We Stand
Standalone:
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Unborn