Detective Kat Ballantyne Books in Order

The Detective Kat Ballantyne books introduce DS Kat Ballantyne, a homicide detective in the English city of Middlehampton whose career is built on guilt. As a teenager she was meant to meet her best friend Liv for a night out. Liv went alone, and became the final victim of a serial murderer known as the Origami Killer, who left the overpowering smell of lavender and a folded paper heart at his crime scenes. The killer was never caught. Kat joined the police and now works under the shadow of that unsolved case.

Her personal life is complicated even before the murders begin again. Kat’s father is a wealthy property developer with business interests that overlap uncomfortably with those of her boss, DI Stuart “Carve Up” Carver, a man who would be happy to see her fail. She knows that any mistake she makes can be used against her from both directions.

In The Seventh Girl a young woman is found dead bearing the Origami Killer’s signature. Fifteen years after the original murders, the killings appear to have started again. For Kat the case is brutally personal. She throws herself into it, determined not to let another friend, sister or daughter die while she watches, and quickly realises that time and fear have buried vital truths in the city’s past.

The Unseen Sister picks up after a revelation that turns Kat’s own sense of identity upside down. A dog walker discovers a woman’s body among the standing stones called the Three Sisters, and at first the death looks like an accident. Then Kat notices an infinity symbol branded into the victim’s skin. When a second woman dies in similar circumstances, it becomes clear that a calculating killer is at work. Kat has to balance a chaotic private life with the demands of a case that may be more personal than it first appears.

In The Silent Wife Kat herself is under suspicion when £50,000 mysteriously appears in her bank account and she is accused of corruption. Banished to cold cases, she is desperate to clear her name. Then a close friend calls from a murder scene, confessing to strangling a gangster’s wife. Convinced that the confession is wrong and the forensic evidence too neat, Kat ignores orders and reopens the active investigation, racing to save her friend from a wrongful conviction and to discover who is trying to destroy her career.

The Lying Man takes Kat to a crime writing festival she hopes will be a relaxing break. Instead she walks into the locked room death of a famous novelist shortly before he is due on stage. Almost everyone present has a motive, from jealous rivals to resentful colleagues. As she unpicks literary feuds and hidden histories, Kat is forced to decide what justice really looks like when almost no one is telling the full truth.

In The Rebel Son the stakes turn sharply personal. A bomb threat at Middlehampton’s Powerhouse music venue leaves Kat terrified for her husband and son inside, while the apparent murder of a journalist investigating a controversial football club takeover points to a wider conspiracy involving money, power and foreign influence. With multiple agencies tugging the case in different directions, Kat has to protect her family and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Planned future cases, including The Perfect Girl, promise more of the same blend of tight plotting, psychological pressure and moral grey zones, as Kat keeps trying to bring killers to justice in a city where her own past and connections are never far from the surface.