Bob Kelty Books in Order

Rob McInroy's Bob Kelty books are historical crime novels set deep in Perthshire, beginning in 1935 and moving toward war. The series starts with Bob as a young policeman and gradually opens out into the larger story of Bob and Annie Kelty. These are mysteries, but they are just as interested in class, memory, place, and the cost of getting justice half right.

Cuddies Strip kicks things off with a fictionalized version of real crimes that shocked Perth. When Marjory Fenwick and Danny Kerrigan are attacked on a lovers' lane on the outskirts of the city, Bob works the case with Inspector Conoboy. The book cares about the investigation, of course, but it also keeps its eye on the victim, the public mood, and the way a police force can help and fail at the same time.

That mix of crime story and social history is the key to the whole series.

Place matters a lot here. Perth, Crieff, country roads, modest homes, public gatherings, and small local landmarks are not just scenery, they drive the mood of the books. McInroy writes Perthshire as somewhere beautiful, watchful, and full of long memory. You get the feel of working lives, local speech, music, gossip, and the way big political events arrive in ordinary rooms.

In Barossa Street, Bob is pulled into another investigation when he and a friend discover a murdered recluse, Hugh Smithson, and the friend quickly comes under suspicion. Set in January 1936, with King George V dying and the abdication crisis on the horizon, the book asks what happens when the system wants the easy answer. It also brings prejudice directly into the plot, especially the way 1930s attitudes can distort both policing and justice.

By Moot, the canvas is wider. In July 1939, thousands of Rover Scouts arrive at Monzie Castle for an international gathering that feels like a last hopeful pause before the Second World War. Bob finds a body in a burnt-out tent, the authorities seem strangely unwilling to act, and the story turns toward conspiracy and espionage. Annie is part of the wider Kelty world by this stage, and the series feels less like isolated cases and more like a life unfolding through history.

So what should you expect overall? Grounded mysteries, careful historical detail, and a main character who keeps stumbling into the places where private grief meets public failure. The books reward reading in order, because Bob's life changes, the social world darkens, and the emotional stakes grow from book to book.