Bev Saunders Thriller Books in Order

The Bev Saunders books sit in a slightly different corner of Marnie Riches's work. They are still gritty crime thrillers, but they trade police stations for private investigation, and they have a more scrappy, darkly funny energy. If the Jackie Cooke books are about official procedure and the Georgina McKenzie novels go international, the Bev Saunders stories feel closer to the ground. They are about what people hide in plain sight, especially behind money, status and nice front doors.

Bev is a private investigator who comes into the job after her life has gone badly off course. A failed marriage has knocked her sideways, her old career is gone, and she is trying to rebuild by doing investigative work for women who have been lied to, pushed around or cornered. That setup gives the series its shape. Bev is not solving grand puzzles for sport. She is usually helping people whose problems are personal, ugly and urgent.

She is nosy, brave and a bit reckless, which is a useful mix in this world.

The first book, Tightrope, introduces Bev in Hale, Cheshire, a place of polished surfaces, big houses and expensive image management. It is a smart setting because Riches uses that shiny, comfortable world to show how power protects itself. Bev starts out digging into a controlling politician on behalf of a woman who wants out of her marriage, but the deeper she goes, the more dangerous the job becomes. There is also a simple, effective hook at the heart of the series, Bev spends a lot of time uncovering other people's secrets while trying hard to keep her own buried.

In Backlash, the work gets even messier. Bev goes undercover as a cleaner to investigate Anthony Anthony, known as 2Tone, after suspicious neighbours want answers about his money and behaviour. On paper, that sounds like a smaller case. In practice, it opens onto violence, criminal business and real physical danger. Riches likes to start with something domestic or local and then show how much rot is hiding underneath.

Doc, Bev's tech-savvy sidekick, helps give the books a different rhythm from a standard lone-investigator story. Bev can bluff, improvise and push at doors that should stay shut, while Doc helps her make sense of the digital trail. Together they give the series some wit as well as momentum.

The tone here is gritty, but it is not humourless. Bev has bite, and the books know that crime can be absurd as well as frightening. That dark humour helps keep the series lively, even when the subject matter is rough. Riches is also very interested in the way women fight back, not always neatly, and not always safely.

If you want crime fiction with undercover jobs, dodgy public figures, North West atmosphere and a heroine who survives on nerve and stubbornness, the Bev Saunders books are a good fit. Start with Tightrope and you will quickly get the measure of Bev, the kind of people she takes on, and the trouble she is willing to walk into for a client.