Detectives Donovan & Young Books in Order

Detectives Leo Donovan and Shan Young bring Cath Staincliffe's crime fiction into a new landscape, but not a softer one. These books leave Manchester behind for the Yorkshire Dales, where caves, moors, holiday cottages, grouse land, and remote lanes create a very different kind of tension. The series opens with The Fells and continues with Fire on the Fells.

The landscape is never just scenery.

Leo Donovan is the older, more seasoned detective. Shan Young is the rising star, newer to the partnership but quick, capable, and fully able to hold her own. What makes the series especially appealing is the way their relationship develops. They are not a mismatched pair built on constant sniping. There is respect between them, a shared sense of purpose, and a growing trust that matters when the work turns difficult.

In The Fells, the discovery of a skeleton deep in a cave reopens the disappearance of Vicky Mott, a young woman who vanished back in 1997. The case blends cold-case mystery with the fear that old assumptions about a serial killer may have been wrong all along. In Fire on the Fells, the death of teenager Tyler Prasad, shot while heading to an eco protest, pulls Donovan and Young into a knot of class friction, country-sports politics, and secrets hiding behind money and respectability.

The rural setting changes the feel of the investigations. In the city, people can disappear into crowds. In the Dales, everybody notices, remembers, gossips, and keeps score. Old loyalties run deep. So do grudges. The novels make good use of that closed-in feeling, where beauty and danger sit right next to each other. A view can be breathtaking, and the truth beneath it can still be rotten.

There is also a personal side to both detectives, though the books do not let that overwhelm the cases. Each is carrying private hurt, and that gives the partnership extra weight. They rely on each other not because they are interchangeable, but because they understand what the work asks of them. That emotional undercurrent helps the books feel warm without ever becoming soft.

These are strong police procedurals, but they also have the pull of place-driven mysteries. Caves, barns, estates, footpaths, and grand retreats all matter because they shape what people hide and how hard it is to uncover.

If you want crime novels that mix old secrets, sharp contemporary tensions, and a beautifully harsh setting, Donovan and Young are a good place to start. The Dales may look open and wide, but these books are very good at showing how trapped people can still become.