Angelique De Xavier Books in Order

The Angelique de Xavia novels give Christopher Brookmyre a different kind of hero: a compact, ferociously capable Glasgow police officer whose job is counterterrorism. Angelique is the daughter of Ugandan Asian refugees and grew up never quite fitting the boxes other people wanted to put her in, whether that is race, religion, or what a Scottish cop is 'supposed' to look like.

In A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away she is part of the response when intelligence agencies learn that an international terrorist known as the Black Spirit is planning an attack on a British target. The book cuts between Angelique chasing leads and the mid‑life crisis of Raymond Ash, a burned‑out gamer and teacher who spots an old college friend he believed dead. Brookmyre uses the set‑up to contrast ordinary adult compromises with the seductive drama of extremist violence, then brings everyone together in a high‑stakes assault on a remote Highland installation.

The Sacred Art of Stealing opens after those events, with Angelique trying to rebuild her career while her superiors quietly distance themselves from her previous heroics. When a wildly theatrical bank robbery explodes in the middle of Glasgow, she ends up taken hostage by Zal Innez, a thief and former artist whose crimes feel closer to performance pieces. The uneasy connection between cop and criminal, and the question of where justice sits when institutions are corrupt, drive both the heist plot and the off‑beat romance that grows between them.

The trilogy concludes with A Snowball in Hell, which jumps forward several years. Angelique is now working on an elite anti‑terror squad when Simon Darcourt, the Black Spirit she once thought dead, resurfaces with a new speciality: kidnapping celebrities and broadcasting their torment to a fascinated audience. At the same time someone targets Angelique’s own family, forcing her to work with Zal again and to face how far she is willing to go, and what she is prepared to sacrifice, to stop a man who has made cruelty into entertainment.

Across the three books the tone is big and kinetic—terror plots, shoot‑outs, elaborate cons and bitter jokes about media culture—but Angelique herself stays grounded. She deals with casual racism in the force, arguments over football loyalties, loneliness and the doubts that follow from being constantly told she should be grateful for the opportunities she has had.

Readers who like fast, intricate thrillers with a streak of black humour will find the de Xavia novels a self‑contained arc. Starting with A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away and reading straight through lets you watch Angelique’s skills, loyalties and beliefs tested in increasingly personal ways.