DS Ian Peterson Books in Order

The DS Ian Peterson books grew out of the Geraldine Steel series, where Ian first appears as her reliable sergeant. Readers wanted to see more of him, and Cold Sacrifice moves him into the spotlight as he takes on his first major investigation without Geraldine at his side.

In that opening story, Ian has to prove himself in a case that begins with the stabbing of a man’s wife and spirals into the hunt for a serial killer targeting women on the margins. The familiar support role is gone. Instead, we see him handling media scrutiny, managing a small team and living with the consequences of every decision.

In Race to Death Ian is drawn into a high profile inquiry when a man falls to his death at the York Races. The follow up, Blood Axe, has him chasing a murderer who seems to be striking at random across the historic city using a brutal weapon and leaving almost no forensic trace. Both books lean into the tension between public spectacle, political pressure and the quiet grind of police work.

Across the trilogy, we see more of Ian’s personal life: a marriage under strain, ambitions that do not always line up with family needs, and his awareness that he will never quite escape Geraldine’s shadow. He is methodical rather than impulsive, often doubting himself yet driven to do the right thing even when that sets him against superiors.

These books share the same grounded approach to procedure and character as the Geraldine Steel novels, but with a slightly different flavour, focusing more on Ian’s internal conflicts and the politics within regional policing. They can be read as standalones, although readers who meet Ian first in Geraldine’s early cases will pick up extra nuances in how he has grown into his own lead role.