DS Royston Chase Books in Order

The DS Royston Chase books move Tony J Forder's crime fiction from Peterborough to rural Wiltshire, but they keep the same interest in pressure, procedure, and damaged institutions. These are police novels with bleak crimes, stubborn investigators, and a strong sense that the neat official story is usually not the true one.

Royston Chase is a useful contrast to Jimmy Bliss. He is married, family-minded, and less openly combustible, but he has his own edge. Forder has described him as a detective whose brain injury sometimes strips away his social filter, which means Chase can be blunter than people expect and less willing to play polite games when a case is being mishandled. That trait suits the series, because the books keep placing him in situations where tact and obedience would be the safer route.

He is paired with DC Claire Laney, who is bold, sharp, and happy to push back. Their partnership is one of the pleasures of the series. They do not feel like a polished dream team from page one. Instead, they test each other, learn each other, and gradually become the kind of duo that can keep a case alive when bosses would rather shut it down. Alison May, first as a PCSO and later in a trainee detective role, adds another strong thread to the team.

The first book, The Huntsmen, starts with a fatal crash involving an ex-Chief Constable and an unidentified young woman. What looks like a case to tidy away quickly turns into a much bigger story about missing children, old power, and people protecting their own. The Predators follows with a body found on snowy downs, then widens into a case involving witnesses, abductions, and a far more tangled operation than anyone first assumes.

Wiltshire matters here. The countryside gives the series a different texture from the busier urban feel of DI Bliss. There are downs, villages, lonely roads, and wide stretches of land where secrets can stay hidden for a long time. But do not mistake that quieter landscape for gentler stories. The crimes are harsh, and the books are interested in what happens when respectable surfaces cover very ugly behavior.

Across the series, the ongoing tension comes from outsiders pushing against systems that would rather protect themselves. Chase and Laney are often up against rank, reputation, and political convenience as much as they are up against individual suspects. That gives the books a steady undercurrent of frustration and menace, but Forder balances it with humane touches, team banter, and a clear sympathy for victims.

If you like your police fiction dark, grounded, and a little combative, DS Royston Chase is a good fit.