Bill Rogers Books in Order
Browse Bill Rogers books in order, from DCI Tom Caton to the NCA novels, with short summaries, series background, and help choosing where to start.
Last updated: July 3, 2026
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Publication Order
20 books
The Cleansing
by Bill Rogers
2009
As Christmas approaches, a killer dressed as a clown stalks Manchester, blaming the city's transformation for old wrongs. Caton and profiler Kate Webb hunt him across the city before the reckoning claims more lives.
The Head Case
by Bill Rogers
2009
When a senior government education adviser is murdered, Caton finds more than a mugging gone wrong. MI5, Special Branch, and uncomfortable secrets in high places keep pushing the investigation in dangerous directions.
A Fatal Intervention
by Bill Rogers
2010
Barrister Rob Thornton is arrested on a rape charge that suddenly collapses when the accuser disappears. Then threatening messages and linked deaths begin to mount, pulling him into a dangerous search beneath Manchester itself.
Bluebell Hollow
by Bill Rogers
2010
While reeling from troubling news from his past, Caton is sent to a body unearthed at the Cutacre mine. Suspects multiply, pressure grows, and the case forces him toward an impossible personal choice.
The Tigers's Cave
by Bill Rogers
2010
After a lorry of Chinese migrants arrives in Hull, bodies are found near the M62 and two young people are missing. Caton follows the trail from Manchester's Chinatown to China in a race against time.
A Trace of Blood
by Bill Rogers
2011
After Naimh Caton's aunt dies in a hit and run, a search into family roots becomes something much more dangerous. Relatives in England and Ireland are being murdered one by one, and Tom may be on the same list.
Breakfast at Katsouris
by Bill Rogers
2011
A slim collection of short crime stories and novellas, including a chilling Tom Caton case. It is a good stop between the full-length novels if you want something quick, varied, and still unmistakably Rogers.
The Cave
by Bill Rogers
2011
On an adventure trip in the Pennine Hills, six teenagers are trapped underground after a collapse. As they wait for rescue, the stories they share force them to face fear, prejudice, and the truth about themselves.
The Frozen Contract
by Bill Rogers
2012
The death of football star Sunday Okowu-Bello pulls Caton into a knot of gambling cartels, security firms, extremists, and rival syndicates. When a second body turns up in the Ship Canal, it is clear the killing has only begun.
A Venetian Moon
by Bill Rogers
2013
Caton's honeymoon in Venice is interrupted when a corpse rises from a watery grave. What looks like a disturbing holiday discovery follows him back to Manchester and into mafia business, shifting loyalties, and danger.
Backwash
by Bill Rogers
2013
A young man's body in East Manchester draws Caton into the darker side of the internet. With his wedding to Kate Webb only days away, the case threatens both his future and the people closest to him.
Angel Meadow
by Bill Rogers
2014
A woman is found shot in Angel Meadow, once one of Victorian Manchester's harshest slums. Caton's investigation reaches back to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, into a past powerful people would rather leave buried.
Caton's Manchester
by Bill Rogers
2014
This companion volume turns the Tom Caton novels into eight walks around Manchester. It mixes real city sights and history with extracts and locations from the crime books, making it part guidebook, part series extra.
The Falcon Tattoo
by Bill Rogers
2016
An attacker is abducting women and leaving a falcon tattoo on their skin, with almost no evidence behind. Joanne Stuart leads the hunt as the assaults come faster and the pressure on her starts to build.
The Pick, The Spade and The Crow
by Bill Rogers
2016
A body found in woodland closes a ten-year missing persons case, but opens something far worse. Newly promoted Joanne Stuart uncovers links to other disappearances, strange symbols, and a killer with a taste for ritual.
The Tangled Lock
by Bill Rogers
2017
A serial killer is stalking vulnerable women in Manchester, leaving a lock of hair in each victim's throat. Joanne Stuart is under pressure from police, press, and her own private life as the killer edges closer.
The Blow Out
by Bill Rogers
2018
A drug lord dies from a murder set in motion hours before his final breath, and then a gang leader's daughter is kidnapped. Joanne Stuart faces a baffling, fast-moving case that only gets darker when another body appears.
The Girl and the Shadowman
by Bill Rogers
2019
In a blazing summer, teenager Chrissie vanishes after going in search of the boy she has fallen for. Back in charge of a major investigation, Caton must cut through false leads and social media noise before time runs out.
The Opportunist
by Bill Rogers
2021
During lockdown in Manchester, a string of older women's deaths looks sadly ordinary at first. Caton suspects a killer is hiding murder inside the chaos of the pandemic, and the case soon edges uncomfortably close to home.
The End Game
by Bill Rogers
2023
Three young Manchester games entrepreneurs find themselves trapped in a deadly contest of arson, kidnap, and escalating punishments. Caton must identify an enemy who hides in plain sight before the rules turn fatal.
Where should I start?
If you want the first Caton case: The Cleansing → The Head Case → The Tigers's Cave
If you want the Joanne Stuart spin-off: The Pick, The Spade and The Crow → The Falcon Tattoo → The Tangled Lock → The Blow Out
If you want later Caton with a modern feel: The Girl and the Shadowman → The Opportunist → The End Game
If you want something different: The Cave → Breakfast at Katsouris → Caton's Manchester
Author bio
Bill Rogers was born, raised, and educated in London. Crime fiction was close to home long before he wrote any of it. Four generations of his family served with the Metropolitan Police, and that world stayed with him from an early age.
His great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and sister all wore the uniform, and his grandfather served with the Flying Squad.
Writing came later. In 1966 Rogers moved north to get married, and he has lived in Greater Manchester ever since. That long relationship with the city matters, because Manchester is not just a backdrop in his novels. Its streets, districts, old industries, new developments, and buried histories keep turning up in the stories as living parts of the plot.
Before he became a novelist, Rogers spent most of his working life in education. He worked for years in schools and then with Manchester City Council's schools inspectorate. In that role he also worked alongside Greater Manchester Police and helped develop school liaison work, along with projects around drug awareness, muggings, knife carrying, racist incidents, and young people at risk of gang involvement. That experience gave him a close view of how institutions work under pressure, and you can feel it in the books.
His fiction career began with The Cleansing in 2009, the first DCI Tom Caton novel. It introduced a senior Manchester detective, a city-wide investigation, and the grounded procedural style that would become Rogers's trademark. The book was shortlisted for the Long Barn Books Debut Novel Award and later won the ePublishing Consortium Writers Award.
Rogers stayed with Caton for a long run of novels, including The Head Case, A Trace of Blood, Backwash, Angel Meadow, The Girl and the Shadowman, The Opportunist, and The End Game. Readers who warm to these books usually like the same things: clear police procedure, strong local atmosphere, and cases that open into wider questions about family, politics, organised crime, or the online world.
Manchester is never just scenery in a Bill Rogers novel.
He later widened that fictional world with the Joanne Stuart led National Crime Agency books, starting with The Pick, The Spade and The Crow and followed by The Falcon Tattoo, The Tangled Lock, and The Blow Out. These books lean a little more toward behavioural profiling and serial predators, but they keep the same interest in teamwork, pressure, and place. He has also written The Cave, a survival and coming of age novel for younger and adult readers, plus Breakfast at Katsouris and Caton's Manchester.
Rogers has said he has read for as long as he can remember, and his tastes range across crime fiction, classics, and mainstream novels. That mix shows in the way his books balance plot with setting and social detail. He still lives near Manchester, and that long view of the city remains one of the biggest pleasures in his work.
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