DI Ridpath Books in Order

The DI Ridpath books centre on Thomas Ridpath, a Manchester detective inspector whose career has not gone the way anyone expected. Once a rising star in CID who helped catch a notorious serial killer, he is now living with a serious illness and working as a liaison with the coroner’s office.

That split role gives the series its edge. Ridpath spends as much time in inquest rooms and mortuaries as he does at the station, pulling on small irregularities in post mortems or paperwork until whole cases start to move. It also leaves him caught between agencies that do not always want the same answers.

In Where The Truth Lies he has to revisit the old case that made his name when a new set of murders copy the work of the so-called Beast of Manchester. Where The Dead Fall throws him into the aftermath of a shocking motorway incident that nobody else seems to have seen clearly, raising questions about what the police might be hiding. Where the Silence Calls adds burned bodies, cryptic graffiti and memories of youth football in the 1990s to Ridpath’s workload.

Later books keep the focus on crimes that expose the city’s fault lines. Where the Innocent Die begins with a death in an immigration removal centre that others are eager to label suicide. When the Past Kills sees someone taking revenge on everyone linked to that old serial killer investigation. In When the Evil Waits Ridpath returns to work just as a child killer begins to hunt along the River Mersey.

When the Guilty Cry links a set of embalmed hands to long buried abuse in a former children’s home. When the Night Ends opens with a death in police custody that sets Manchester on edge, forcing Ridpath to unpick missing CCTV footage, conflicting statements and the loyalties of his own colleagues.

Across the novels, Ridpath is stubborn, often tired and sometimes difficult, but he tries hard to hold on to a sense of justice while balancing his health, his family and the demands of the job. Side characters at the coroner’s office and within Greater Manchester Police recur, so you see alliances and grudges shift as the series goes on.

The result is a set of procedurals that are fast paced without feeling flashy. If you like crime fiction that deals with real world issues alongside knotty investigations, this series uses Manchester’s streets, estates and institutions as a vivid backdrop for one detective’s long fight to keep doing the right thing.