DI Heather Filson Books in Order

The DI Heather Filson books take Barry J Hutchison's wider crime world and shift the center of gravity from the Highlands to Glasgow. Heather is already a familiar presence to readers of the Logan novels, but these books give her room to carry a story on her own terms. That matters, because she is not Jack Logan in different clothes. She is sharper, pricklier, and less interested in making other people comfortable.

That edge suits the setting.

Where the Logan books often draw tension from remote communities and Highland isolation, the Filson novels feel more urban and more abrasive. Glasgow gives the stories a different pace, and Heather's cases push into gangland history, public anger, missing children, murdered police officers, and the kind of social fracture that can spread across a city. The One That Got Away begins with a missing teenage girl and quickly opens into older violence that still has teeth. This Little Piggy raises the stakes again with killings that turn the police themselves into targets.

Heather is a strong lead because she does not arrive polished. She is capable, stubborn, and often hard work. The books do not sand down those qualities, and that makes her more interesting. She also tends to get matched with personalities that rub against her in productive ways, whether that means official partners, criminal families, or a teenager obsessed with true crime.

These are still linked to the larger JD Kirk crime universe, so returning readers will catch extra context. But the Filson books are built to stand on their own. If Logan's branch of this world gives you Highland police procedure with a lot of banter, Heather's branch gives you a tougher Glasgow bite, with the same clear storytelling and character friction that makes the wider universe work.