DI Lockyer Books in Order

The DI Lockyer books are contemporary cold-case mysteries set in Wiltshire. Katherine Webb writes them under the name Kate Webb, and the change of label makes sense: these stories are police procedurals, but they keep her usual interest in old wounds, hidden motives, and the way a place can hold on to memory.

At the center is DI Matt Lockyer, a detective who has been pushed into the cold case unit after a decision that damaged his standing. He is smart and persistent, but he is also carrying plenty of his own history, especially the unsolved killing of his brother. Working beside him is DC Gemma Broad, sharper, younger, and often quicker to challenge assumptions. Their partnership gives the series its backbone.

Each book begins with a case that seems settled, forgotten, or impossible to solve. In Stay Buried, a prisoner says the man she was convicted of murdering is still alive. In Laying Out the Bones, flash floods uncover a skeleton linked to an old disappearance and an even older murder. Hollow Grave returns to a vanished archaeology student, while Vital Signs reopens a notorious family slaughter after the lone child witness remembers something new.

The past never stays quiet here.

What makes the series work is the mix of solid detective work and real emotional stakes. Lockyer and Broad interview old suspects, revisit half-lost timelines, and slowly unpick the stories families have told themselves for years. The books are twisty, but they are not just puzzle boxes. They are also about grief, shame, loyalty, and the damage left when people choose silence.

Wiltshire matters as much as the crimes do. Salisbury Plain, small towns, old houses, dig sites, and exposed stretches of countryside give the books a slightly lonely feel, as if history is always just under the soil. Even the newer cases seem haunted by older ones. These are modern crime novels, but they carry the same sense of place and buried memory that runs through Webb's historical fiction.

You can read each mystery on its own, because every case is solved within the book. Still, the series is better in order, because Lockyer's personal life, his working relationship with Gemma, and the ripple effects of earlier choices keep building in the background. If you like humane detective fiction with atmosphere, patient investigation, and secrets that refuse to stay buried, this is the Katherine Webb series to pick up first.