DS Peter Gayle Books in Order

An elderly man dies unexpectedly and his family immediately blame the live in carer who has been looking after him. When DS Pete Gayle discovers another suspicious death linked to the same woman, now missing, he has to decide whether he is tracking a calculating killer, a frightened fugitive or someone trapped in a cruel setup.

A burglary in an affluent suburb leaves two people dead, a car missing and nothing else apparently touched. At first glance it looks like a straightforward robbery gone wrong, but when another death surfaces, DS Pete Gayle must uncover the hidden link that ties the victims together before the killer strikes again.

Rumours of homemade guns on Exeter’s streets become real when a courier is caught mid delivery and traced back to a shadowy supplier known only by a nickname. Working with the National Crime Agency, DS Pete Gayle has to find the invisible gunsmith before more weapons and bodies appear across the country.

Already stretched by a child snatching investigation, DS Pete Gayle is called to Exwick cemetery, where a shallow grave among the trees contains nothing but a set of bones. With no name, no clothes and no obvious leads, he must piece together who the dead man was and why someone buried him there in secret.

A university student vanishes in broad daylight just yards from campus, days before classmates scatter for the Christmas break. As DS Pete Gayle digs into her life, he uncovers risky choices she hid from her family and must decide whether she ran, was taken, or was targeted for how she earned extra money.

A young man is kicked and beaten to death by a street mob while his mother watches helplessly. Faced with rumours that quickly fall apart and a wall of silence around the attackers, DS Pete Gayle has to cut through a wave of distraction crimes to find out why the victim was really targeted.

A young woman is found at a seafront bus stop calmly holding a bloody knife and insisting she is finally safe. DS Pete Gayle must uncover who she is, what she has escaped, and whether she is a victim or a murderer.

This companion novel to Nowhere to Run tells the same kidnapping case from the victim’s side. After a young girl is snatched outside her school, she struggles to survive while her family falls apart and the police hunt kidnappers far closer than they realise.

A woman is brutally killed just a few feet from her sleeping family in a grand house where none of them seem to belong. DS Pete Gayle must work out who these people are, why they were there and what secret was worth such a savage murder.

A vicious sexual assault in Exeter quickly links to an earlier case, and then more women come forward with the same story. With DNA, fingerprints and grainy CCTV that all lead nowhere, DS Pete Gayle’s team must sift through conflicting evidence to catch a serial rapist before he strikes again.

A woman who fled domestic abuse is found horrifically tortured outside a women’s refuge in Exeter. Still grieving his son and under pressure at work, DS Pete Gayle must work out who targeted the shelter and stop a sadistic killer before more residents die.

After a brutal murder, a suspect is already behind bars when a new witness insists he could not have done it. Caught between loyalty to his colleagues and the risk of freeing a killer, DS Pete Gayle must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for justice.

A desperate young woman begs DS Pete Gayle to find her missing father just as he is juggling a career making trial and a threat against his own son from two violent brothers. With pressure mounting on every side, Pete is drawn into a case that could break both his family and his career.

A walker discovers a woman’s naked body posed in woodland outside the city, killed in a frenzy and left with no clear clues. DS Pete Gayle and his team must first uncover who she was, then decide whether they are facing a single obsessed killer or the start of something far worse.

Returning to Exeter CID after the unsolved disappearance of his own son, DS Pete Gayle expects a gentle first day, until schoolgirl Rosie Whitlock is abducted. When another child’s body is found and clues touch his family tragedy, Pete must race a killer while confronting what really happened to his boy.

A taxi driver is found murdered in a remote corner of Exeter, a family man with no obvious enemies and a cab smeared with dozens of unidentified fingerprints. When another driver is killed, DS Pete Gayle must untangle the passenger trail before a hidden serial killer claims more victims.

When a body is pulled from a house fire on a quiet Exeter street, it looks at first like an accident. As unsettling details emerge, DS Pete Gayle begins to suspect a serial killer is using the flames as cover, even while his boss watches and his wife still longs for news of their missing son.