DCI Rachel King Books in Order
Part ofHelen H Durrant Books in OrderSee every DCI Rachel King novel by Helen H Durrant in order, with story summaries, series background, character notes and tips on the best entry point for new readers.
Last updated: January 12, 2026
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Publication Order
6 books
Lost Victim
by Helen H Durrant
2023
After three months off, Rachel King returns to find an elderly church volunteer laid out on the altar, mouth taped, hands bound with white ribbon and a single white rose between her fingers. Forensic evidence links the scene to a serial killer who died years earlier, raising the question of whether someone is imitating him or he was never truly gone.
Last Victim
by Helen H Durrant
2021
On the eve of returning from maternity leave, DCI Rachel King is called in when a two‑month‑old baby and his babysitter disappear. The child’s father is tied to a notorious drug gang, and a second kidnapping suggests retaliation that may implicate Rachel’s own partner, ex‑gang boss Jed McAteer.
Forgotten Victim
by Helen H Durrant
2020
Builders discover decomposed remains entombed deep inside a derelict Manchester cotton mill, the victim’s knees shattered by bullets. Rachel King and DS Elwyn Price must decide if this was gangland punishment or something more personal, while Rachel hides a pregnancy that could expose her ties to Jed McAteer.
Wrong Victim
by Helen H Durrant
2019
A man is found suffocated in his bed, covered in wedding confetti and missing a ring finger, yet the woman called to identify him swears he is a stranger. When a second victim dies the same way, Rachel King must untangle a property scam, people‑trafficking rumours and betrayal creeping disturbingly close to her own team.
Two Victims
by Helen H Durrant
2019
When a nurse is found shot dead on a building site and a second body turns up buried in the same ground, Rachel King suddenly has two victims and no clear link. Digging into Agnes Moore’s secret work with vulnerable local girls leads her toward a ruthless killer and back into Jed McAteer’s orbit.
Next Victim
by Helen H Durrant
2019
A blond young man is pulled from a Manchester canal, tortured and dumped by a disputed development site. The victim was a journalism student chasing a career‑making exposé, and his death connects to a woman who remembers a twin no one else admits existed and another blond man who has just gone missing.
Series background & context
The DCI Rachel King series shifts the action firmly into and around Manchester. Rachel runs a busy CID team while also raising two teenage daughters and a much younger son, juggling school runs, custody arrangements and crime‑scene briefings with very little breathing space.
Her personal life is as tangled as any case file. She is divorced but lives next door to her ex‑husband, which keeps domestic logistics simple and emotions messy. Long before the series opens, as a teenager, she fell hard for Jed McAteer, who went on to become a serious player in the city’s criminal world. Their paths cross again when she is a senior officer and he is a name that never quite stays out of her investigations.
Each book centres on a fresh major inquiry. A blond young journalist is pulled from a canal after claiming to be on the story of a lifetime. A nurse is found shot dead on a building site with a second body buried nearby. Ordinary people are murdered in ritualised ways, with missing fingers, confetti or strange staging that suggest a very personal motive.
As the arc continues, Rachel deals with decomposed remains hidden in an old cotton mill, tit‑for‑tat kidnappings connected to a powerful drug‑dealing trio and a murder that seems linked to a notorious serial killer who died years earlier. The titles all carry the word “Victim”, and the series often focuses as much on who the dead were – and how they were failed – as on the hunt for their killer.
Running alongside the investigations are long‑term threads about loyalty and compromise. Rachel is painfully aware that any link to Jed could destroy her career, yet she also knows him in a way that makes it hard to write him off as just another villain. At the same time she must manage a small team under pressure, deal with new bosses who do not always trust her judgement and cope with the relentless demands of single parenting.
The tone stays firmly in police‑procedural territory: interviews, CCTV trawls, team briefings and forensic updates drive the plot, but there is always space for small, telling family moments. Readers who enjoy crime series where the detective’s home life is tightly woven into the cases will find Rachel King’s world an easy one to sink into from book one.
Edited by
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