Angie Smith (CXVI) Books in Order

Angie Smith is an English crime and thriller writer whose route into fiction came after a long working life outside publishing. Born in Doncaster, she studied at the University of Huddersfield, earning a First Class Honours degree in Education and Training.

She then spent years working in adult education, training, and performance management. Smith also travelled widely and took part in knowledge-transfer work, including presenting at an international social-work conference in Durban.

Writing was not her first career plan.

In 2013, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a demanding period of treatment, she found that her old wish to write had returned with real force. She has said that an early novel was a practice book that will stay unpublished, but it helped her find a way into the work that followed.

Her first published thriller, The Beginning of the End, launched the CXVI Trilogy in 2015. It introduces Detective Superintendent Greg Woods and the difficult, secretive Maria Barnes, then sends them into a case where murder investigations, covert operations, and political pressure keep colliding. Secrets Broken and Desperate Measures continue that story, with the stakes growing beyond a single police inquiry.

These are books built for readers who like investigations that refuse to stay straightforward. Smith mixes police work with intelligence-service intrigue, missing people, dangerous deals, and characters who cannot always say what they know. Greg is the persistent, worn-down figure at the center of the trilogy, while Maria brings uncertainty and risk to every stage of the case.

She has also written beyond the CXVI world. The Spy Who Chipped The China Teacup follows Taylor Hudson from danger in Africa into a British intelligence and arms-dealing plot. Sex Lies and Swimming Naked, the opening Foundling novel, shifts to Jonathan Miller, whose decision to help a supposed detective brings violent consequences close to home.

Smith has said that travel often feeds her ideas, and she prefers settings she has experienced firsthand. That interest shows in the international reach of her thrillers, even when the emotional pressure remains personal.

She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and youngest son, as well as dogs and a horse. Her horse has been a steady part of her life, alongside the writing that gave her a new focus after illness.

For readers, the simplest entry point is The Beginning of the End. It starts the central trilogy and introduces the questions that drive Smith's connected thriller world.