DI Frank Farrell Books in Order

The DI Frank Farrell books are Jackie Baldwin's darker Scottish crime series. Frank is a detective inspector in Dumfries and Galloway, but what makes him stand out is his past: before policing, he was a priest. That old life never stays neatly in the background. From the opening of Dead Man's Prayer, Frank is pulled into cases that hit close to home, forcing him to investigate people, places, and beliefs he thought he had left behind.

Dumfries matters in these books. This is rural southwest Scotland, not a postcard version of it. Villages remember everything. Church ties, family history, professional grudges, and old gossip all carry weight. Baldwin uses that small-community pressure well, so even a quiet road, an empty church, or a lonely stretch of coast can feel loaded.

Frank rarely gets the comfort of working a clean, impersonal case.

The investigations mix police procedure with personal fallout. In Dead Man's Prayer, the murder of Father Boyd and the disappearance of twin boys drag Frank back into his own past. In Perfect Dead, what looks like a suicide opens onto a strange artists' commune and the discovery of a dead child. In Avenge the Dead, Frank and DS Mhairi McLeod return to Dumfries to unravel a revenge campaign tied to a fatal fire and the local criminal bar. The crimes are different, but they share the same feeling: somebody is hiding something ugly behind a respectable front.

Mhairi McLeod gives the series an important counterweight. Frank can be guarded, intense, and stubborn. She helps keep the investigations moving and stops the books from becoming too inward-looking. The team dynamic is not flashy, but it feels grounded, which suits the tone.

This is crime fiction with shadows.

If you like police procedurals that care as much about guilt, memory, and moral mess as they do about clues, this series is a good fit. The violence is real, but the bigger hook is Frank himself, a man whose past choices keep shaping the way he sees the dead and the living. Across the books, Baldwin balances twisty cases with a strong sense of place, and that combination gives the series its pull.