Dark Skies Books in Order

Dark Skies introduces Detective Alex Harper, a police officer trying to recover from a case that went badly wrong. Disgraced and demoted, she is reassigned to a small town in the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia, Wales. The quieter surroundings offer a chance to rebuild her working life, but a murder soon brings her professional duties and troubled past back into contact.

Alex has a reason to value the darkness that gives the series its name. As an amateur astronomer, she finds peace beneath the night sky of the Snowdonia Dark Skies reserve. That private interest connects her to the setting in a way that goes beyond policing. The mountains and clear skies promise room to recover, making the arrival of violence in that landscape especially unsettling.

A quiet place can still hold difficult secrets.

In the opening novel, Dark Skies, the head of the Glanogwen Observatory, Elowen Price, is found murdered after a night illuminated by the Perseids meteor shower. Alex must investigate what happened while confronting the pressures that already damaged her confidence and reputation. Her work asks her to look closely at the community where she hoped to find a steadier life. The observatory and the surrounding landscape link her personal source of comfort to a case she cannot set aside.

The continuing series places that recurring detective in further investigations. The announced second book, Cover of Darkness, concerns a body found on the moors of Exmoor and a case involving local folklore. This moves the investigation into another landscape where a place's stories may affect how people understand what has happened. The connection between the books is Alex herself: her police work, the unresolved burden she carries, and the need to establish the truth when an apparently peaceful setting conceals violence.

The tone is murder mystery with a troubled investigator and a strong sense of place. The countryside provides both atmosphere and practical context, while Alex's damaged career gives each new challenge a personal dimension. Readers have a detective whose future depends on doing her job, even when an investigation brings uncomfortable questions close to home. Starting with Dark Skies gives the clearest introduction to that situation before moving into the later cases. As the series develops, its appeal lies in the combination of an outward search for evidence and an inward struggle to rebuild trust in one's own judgment. Alex must do both while working among people whose familiar surroundings may hide more than they reveal.