Brade and Jenkins Books in Order

The Brade and Jenkins books are David Craig novels set around Cardiff Bay, and the setting is half the point. These stories arrive at a moment when the old docklands are being remade, money is moving in, reputations are being polished, and plenty of people see a chance to get rich before the dust settles. Into that atmosphere James places policemen Dave Brade and Glyndwr Jenkins, who have to work cases in a city that is changing faster than its institutions can comfortably manage.

That mix of old criminal habits and new development money gives the series its particular charge. The waterfront is no longer just a backdrop. It is a source of pressure. Regeneration promises respectability, but it also creates openings for fraud, intimidation, opportunism, and murder. Local villains want a cut. Outsiders want a foothold. The police have to make sense of a place that is trying to reinvent itself while carrying all its older loyalties and grudges with it.

Brade and Jenkins make a good pair for this world. They are not drawn as glamorous heroes. They are working detectives in a city where everybody seems to be angling for position. James is interested in what policing looks like when social change, property deals, underworld ambition, and everyday cynicism are all rubbing against one another. The investigations matter, but so does the wider question of who gets to control the story of Cardiff Bay as it becomes something new.

That gives the books a strong local feel. You can sense the pull between the old docks, the newer waterfront polish, and the people trying to survive or profit in between. Even when the plots turn violent, the series stays attentive to talk, class, and small shifts in power. James never forgets that crime grows out of a place, not just out of individual wickedness.

The tone is tough, funny in a dry way, and alert to absurdity. The Tattooed Detective, Torch, and Bay City all work in that space where murder investigation, urban change, and criminal enterprise keep feeding one another. Readers who like Welsh settings, strong sense of place, and crime fiction that notices economics as well as bodies on the floor will find a lot to enjoy here.

If you want to begin, start with The Tattooed Detective. It quickly shows you the world these books live in, a Cardiff Bay where glamour, rot, and ambition are all visible at once.