Chris Collett books in order

A MUGGING.

A MISSING WOMAN.

THEN A MURDER.

Stefan Greaves wakes up from a coma. He was brutally mugged while investigating a complaint about a local hospital.

The woman who visited the law firm where Stefan worked had feared something very sinister was going on in the hospital’s postnatal ward. Now she has disappeared.

Rookie policeman, Mick Fraser interviews Stefan. Mick’s new partner Denny Sutton is a cynical man with secrets of his own. They try to track down the missing woman.

Then a body is found on the riverbank.

HOW ARE THESE CRIMES LINKED AND WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON IN THE POLICE STATION?

Discover a new detective in a tough city.

DI Tom Mariner thinks he’s seen it all, but now he faces an investigation which will push him to the limit.

Journalist Eddie Barham is found dead in his home. A syringe in his arm and a note by his side reading, ‘No More.’

Open and shut case of suicide? Not for DI Mariner. Hours before, he saw Barham picking up a prostitute in a bar. And then Mariner discovers Barham's younger brother, Jamie, hiding in a cupboard under the stairs.

Jamie must have witnessed his brother's death, but his severe autism makes communication almost impossible. Mariner is determined to connect with Jamie and get to the truth. Is the journalist’s death related to his investigation of a local crime kingpin?

What other dark secrets does Jamie hold the key to and can Mariner keep his relationship professional with Barham’s attractive sister, Anna?

NB: This book is also known as The Worm in the Bud.

Two teenagers go missing on the same day. Just a coincidence?

They are from very different backgrounds: Yasmin is the talented, grammar-school-educated daughter of devout Muslim professionals. Ricky disappears after storming out of his council house after an argument with his mum’s latest boyfriend.

DI Mariner knows Ricky's mother from his days in uniform. He is furious when his superiors take him off Ricky’s case and reassign him to the more politically sensitive investigation. The press — and his bosses — are convinced that Yasmin's disappearance is a racially motivated abduction. Her family have been the target of a far right group.

But Mariner soon discovers that Yasmin is far from the innocent victim her parents think she is. Can he get to the bottom of a perplexing case where no one is what they seem?

NB: This book is also known as Blood of the Innocents.

Just when DI Tom Mariner seems to be settling down with his new girlfriend . . . everything kicks off.

First, a badly decomposed body of a young woman is found in a Birmingham sewer. The police can’t identify her and dub her “Madeleine.”

Then an important politician and his wife are shot on an isolated road. “Vengeance is mine” is scrawled in blood at the scene.

And finally, a bomb explosion in the busy city kills five people, causing chaos and panic.

Can Detective Mariner and his team get to the bottom of crimes that will come very close to home for him and his team?

Mariner will need to bend the rules and risk everything to get to the truth. And in a thrilling conclusion, his own life will be threatened.

NB: This book is also known as Written in Blood.

Six-week-old baby Jessica is abducted from a local nursery. And Detective Tom Mariner realises he’s not going to get the time-off he was hoping for.

The police get a good description of the woman who took Jessica, but the appeal to the public doesn’t generate a single lead.

Then the kidnapper calls demanding money for Jessica’s safe return . . . and a terrible discovery is made in the woods.

Can Mariner get to bottom of a complex case which involves much more than child abduction?

NB: This book is also known as Blood Money.

Lucy Jarrett is terrified. Someone is watching her every move, following her home from work and making threatening phone calls. But her husband doesn’t believe her and no one else is listening.

Lucy’s married life is proving anything but blissful. Her musician husband is perpetually away on tour and doesn’t want to start a family.

Lucy finally calls on Detective Tom Mariner for help, and he takes her fears seriously because of the recent murder of another young woman by her ex-partner.

DI Mariner himself is already on the hunt for a sadistic killer. Nina Silvero, wife of an ex-police officer, was duped into sipping sulphuric acid disguised as celebratory wine.

Grappling with Nina’s apparently motiveless killing, Mariner delegates Lucy’s case to Millie Khatoon. Is someone out for revenge against the police?

Can DI Tom Mariner track down the stalker and catch the killer before anyone else dies?

NB: This book is also known as Stalked by Shadows.

Detective Inspector Tom Mariner goes to the beautiful Welsh countryside to recover. But he finds himself caught up in a murder investigation . . . and he’s the prime suspect.

Grieving the death of his former lover, all Mariner wants is some peace and quiet. But his walking holiday is ruined by the discovery of a body in the woods.

The remote stone farmhouses of this beautiful valley hide many buried secrets.

As more bodies are discovered, can Mariner clear his name and avoid becoming the next victim?

NB: This book is also known as Blood and Stone.

18-year-old Grace Clifton vanishes on her way home from work. Amazingly, not a single witness comes forward. But Detective Tom Mariner suspects that she ran away from her overbearing, rich father.

A PACKAGE ARRIVES AT THE POLICE STATION. IT CONTAINS GRACE’S CLOTHES, NEATLY FOLDED AND CLEANED.

Then another woman disappears. And a disturbing pattern begins to emerge.

WHO IS TAKING THEM?

Detective Mariner must track down a suspected serial killer in his toughest, and strangest, case yet, with a conclusion that will have you gasping.

NB: This book is also known as Dead of Night.

One missing bridegroom. Two burned bodies.

A twisted motive that will shock you to the core.

When a frail old man dies in a house fire, Detective Tom Mariner races to the scene. The victim, Soltan Ahmed, was Mariner’s neighbour.

Who set the fire that took his life?

The race is on to uncover the truth, and that’s not Mariner’s only headache right now. He must also search for a bridegroom who vanished just weeks before his wedding.

A case of cold feet? Or something more sinister?

Then comes a find that changes everything.

The charred body of a Jane Doe.

Hidden in a back room of the house where Ahmed lived.

Who was she and how did she get there?

NB: This book is also known as A Good Death.

Secrets, lies, bodies. Nothing stays buried forever . . .

It starts on an abandoned campsite in Norfolk.

Developers unearth a human skeleton. The remains of an eighteen-year-old girl.

Robina Scanlon — a blast from the past that shocks Detective Tom Mariner to his core.

First love. Last breath.

In the sweltering summer of 1976, the teenage Mariner fell for Robina instantly.

He thought she was the one who got away. Now he realizes she never even left.

She was murdered back at the campsite where they met, all those years ago.

Mariner drives to Norfolk, his head so full of ghosts he can barely think straight.

What happened to his holiday romance?

The mystery of her death becomes a dangerous obsession. Distracting him from a perplexing murder case on his home turf of Birmingham.

As midnight approaches, someone out there will do anything to keep the past buried . . .