Anglesey Murders Books in Order

The Anglesey Murders books move Conrad Jones's crime writing from Liverpool to North Wales, and the change in setting matters straight away. These are police procedurals built around DI Alan Williams and his team, especially DS Kim Davies, as they investigate violent crimes on Anglesey and nearby parts of the coast. The island is beautiful, but Jones never lets it feel safe for long.

That contrast is one of the big pleasures of the series. Trearddur Bay, Holyhead, headlands, beaches, small communities, and weather-beaten roads all give the books atmosphere, but the cases are as harsh as anything in his city thrillers. Bodies wash ashore. Old murders echo into the present. Drug routes run through the port. Historical abuse, cult activity, family secrets, and organised crime sit behind the postcard scenery.

Unholy Island sets the tone perfectly. What looks at first like a sea recovery turns into a much darker case with links to older murders. A Visit from the Devil adds ritual violence and pressure on an already stretched team. Nearly Dead and What Happened to Rachel? show how the series can shift between cold cases, missing persons, and contemporary fears such as exploitation and lockdown strain. Good, Bad and Pure Evil, Unravelling, and Circus of Nightmares keep proving that Alan Williams is working in a world where old damage never stays buried for long.

Williams is a good fit for this kind of setting. He is not flashy. He feels like a working detective trying to do the job properly while crime keeps breaking out in different directions at once. Around him, Jones builds a team dynamic that carries from book to book. That continuity helps, because the crimes are often messy and emotionally heavy.

The series also borrows some of the darkness from Jones's horror-leaning work. These are not supernatural novels, but some cases brush up against cult behavior, ritual thinking, or the kind of evil that feels bigger than one offender. That gives the books a sharper edge than a standard procedural.

Anglesey is not just a backdrop here.

If you want crime fiction that combines island atmosphere with modern brutality, this series does it well. The books can be tense, graphic, and deeply bleak, but they are also very readable. Alan Williams and his team make good company, and the setting gives the series its own identity within the wider Conrad Jones catalogue.