Hilary Bonner Books in Order
Explore Hilary Bonner's books in order, with concise summaries, series background, and easy suggestions for where to start reading.
Last updated: July 15, 2026
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Hilary Bonner books in publication order
22 books
Rene and Me
by Hilary Bonner
1989
Written with Gorden Kaye, this autobiography follows the actor's path from Yorkshire to fame as René Artois in 'Allo 'Allo!. Kaye also reflects on colleagues, career setbacks, and the personal life behind his comic persona.
Benny: The True Story
by Hilary Bonner
1992
Co-written with Dennis Kirkland, Benny: The True Story is a personal account of comedian Benny Hill. Kirkland recalls their long professional friendship, Hill's work, and the private man behind the television character.
Heartbeat
by Hilary Bonner
1994
A companion to the television series Heartbeat, this book offers behind-the-scenes material, cast interviews, and a complete episode guide. It also explores the programme's 1960s music, fashions, cars, and everyday style.
The Cruelty Of Morning
by Hilary Bonner
1995
In 1967, Jennifer Stone finds an unidentified woman's body in the sea, then a local girl vanishes. Twenty years later, Jennifer is a successful reporter and returns to uncover the secrets behind both unresolved crimes.
A Fancy To Kill For
by Hilary Bonner
1997
When journalist Joyce Carter is murdered near actor Richard Corrington's Devon home, the evidence points toward the celebrity. Policeman Todd Mallett suspects a wider and more sinister pattern, with other deaths demanding answers.
A Passion So Deadly
by Hilary Bonner
1998
DCI Rose Piper investigates the murders of two men employed by a Bristol escort agency. Her inquiry eventually intersects with a seemingly secure Somerset farming family, where conflict and grief are moving toward tragedy.
For Death Comes Softly
by Hilary Bonner
1999
After her marriage breaks down, DCI Rose Piper retreats to a remote island off the North Devon coast. Unexplained events soon put her in danger and draw her into the orbit of the island's charismatic owner.
A Deep Deceit
by Hilary Bonner
2001
Suzanne and Carl Peters appear to have built a peaceful life in St Ives, but their past is never far away. Poison-pen letters reopen old fears and expose the dangerous lie that has held their family together.
A Kind Of Wild Justice
by Hilary Bonner
2002
A DNA test finally confirms who murdered a Devon girl twenty years earlier, but double-jeopardy rules mean the man cannot be retried. DS Mike Fielding and journalist Joanna Bartlett seek another way to expose what happened.
A Moment Of Madness
by Hilary Bonner
2002
Rock star Scott Silver is murdered in his South Devon home, while the apparent attacker dies at his widow Angel's hands. Reporter John Kelly pursues the story and becomes dangerously drawn into Angel's orbit.
The Strange and Saucy World of Benny Hill
by Hilary Bonner
2002
Written with television producer Dennis Kirkland, this nonfiction portrait looks back on Benny Hill's life and career. It draws on Kirkland's long working friendship with the comedian and the making of his famous television show.
When the Dead Cry Out
by Hilary Bonner
2004
Twenty-seven years after Clara Marshall and her daughters vanished, skeletal remains revive the cold case. Detective Karen Meadows and reporter John Kelly revisit old suspicions, but finding Clara is only the start of the mystery.
No Reason to Die
by Hilary Bonner
2005
Former reporter John Kelly investigates a string of disturbing deaths at a tough Dartmoor army training base. Each death has an official explanation, but together they suggest a pattern that powerful people would rather leave unexplored.
The Cruellest Game
by Hilary Bonner
2013
Marion Anderson believes she has the perfect home, husband, and son, until tragedy shatters that picture. As her life unravels on Dartmoor, Marion discovers that the foundations of her family may have been built on lies.
Friends to Die for
by Hilary Bonner
2014
A close-knit group of Covent Garden friends becomes the target of a prankster whose tricks grow steadily more menacing. After someone dies, the Sunday Club must face the possibility that the threat comes from within.
Death Comes First
by Hilary Bonner
2015
After her husband dies in a yachting accident, Joyce Mildmay receives a letter he prepared in case of his death. Its warning about her father and the family business sends her searching for a dangerous truth.
Deadly Dance
by Hilary Bonner
2017
Fourteen-year-old Melanie Cooke is found dead in Bristol's red-light district after telling her mother she was visiting a friend. DI David Vogel investigates three unsettling men and a case whose darkest truth is carefully hidden.
Wheel of Fire
by Hilary Bonner
2019
The head of a major private bank dies in a catastrophic fire at his Somerset manor. DI David Vogel must untangle financial intrigue, arson, and violence as a country-house tragedy becomes one of his most baffling cases.
Dreams of Fear
by Hilary Bonner
2020
When a young mother is found hanged in her seaside home, it looks like suicide. DI David Vogel spots troubling evidence and follows a trail through nightmares, family tensions, and secrets that have been buried for decades.
Cry Darkness
by Hilary Bonner
2021
Astrophysicist Dr Sandy Jones ignores a worried call from an old Princeton friend, then learns she has died in a laboratory explosion. Seeking answers, Sandy uncovers research into consciousness and a conspiracy that may put her life at risk.
The Danger Within
by Hilary Bonner
2021
A man is stabbed to death in his North Devon home, with his traumatized wife beside the body. DCI David Vogel initially suspects a violent marriage, but the dead man's secrets lead the inquiry somewhere far more complicated.
The Deadliest Legacy
by Hilary Bonner
2023
A sudden death at an Appledore book festival is followed by a series of alarming incidents. DCI David Vogel must protect bestselling novelist Delia Day and uncover who is turning a literary celebration into a potentially deadly event.
Where to start with Hilary Bonner
For Devon-set crime and old secrets: The Cruelty of Morning → A Fancy To Kill For → A Passion So Deadly.
For cold cases and investigative suspense: When the Dead Cry Out → No Reason to Die.
For domestic psychological thrillers: The Cruellest Game → Friends to Die for → Death Comes First.
For DI David Vogel's first cases: Deadly Dance → Wheel of Fire → Dreams of Fear → The Danger Within.
To continue with Vogel: The Deadliest Legacy.
Hilary Bonner sub-series and character series
DI David Vogel books in order
Explore this series
Deadly Dance
by Hilary Bonner
2017DI David Vogel, Book 1
Wheel of Fire
by Hilary Bonner
2019DI David Vogel, Book 2
Dreams of Fear
by Hilary Bonner
2020DI David Vogel, Book 3
The Danger Within
by Hilary Bonner
2021DI David Vogel, Book 4
The Deadliest Legacy
by Hilary Bonner
2023DI David Vogel, Book 5
DI David Vogel books in chronological order
Hilary Bonner collections, short stories, and related book types
Standalone Hilary Bonner books

The Cruelty Of Morning
by Hilary Bonner
1995
A Fancy To Kill For
by Hilary Bonner
1997
A Passion So Deadly
by Hilary Bonner
1998
For Death Comes Softly
by Hilary Bonner
1999
A Deep Deceit
by Hilary Bonner
2001
A Kind Of Wild Justice
by Hilary Bonner
2002
A Moment Of Madness
by Hilary Bonner
2002
When the Dead Cry Out
by Hilary Bonner
2004
No Reason to Die
by Hilary Bonner
2005
The Cruellest Game
by Hilary Bonner
2013
Friends to Die for
by Hilary Bonner
2014
Death Comes First
by Hilary Bonner
2015
Cry Darkness
by Hilary Bonner
2021
Author bio
Hilary Bonner was born in Bideford, North Devon, in 1949 and grew up close to the coast. Her father was a butcher who also ran a tea shop, and the West Country landscapes of her early life would later become a familiar part of her crime fiction.
She wanted to be a journalist from an early age. As a teenager, she read newspapers keenly, drawn to reporting that took readers into lives and events they might not otherwise see.
At seventeen, Bonner won a place on the Daily Mirror training scheme. She began working in Fleet Street at twenty, learning the trade in an era when a reporter could begin the day without knowing where the next assignment would lead.
Show business became her main beat. Over the years she was show business editor at the Daily Mirror, the Sun, and the Mail on Sunday, and also worked as an assistant editor. It was a busy, people-filled world, and it gave her a close view of public image, private pressure, ambition, and deception.
In 1993, Bonner left Fleet Street to write full time. Her first novel, The Cruelty of Morning, arrived in 1995. It follows a reporter returning to a haunting unsolved disappearance, and it set the pattern for much of her later work: crime stories with emotional stakes, complicated families, and secrets that have lasted far too long.
The West Country is more than a backdrop in Bonner's books. Devon, Somerset, Bristol, and the coast give her stories a lived-in sense of place, whether she is writing about a cold case in When the Dead Cry Out, a family under strain in The Cruellest Game, or a group of London friends in Friends to Die For.
Real events often sit somewhere behind the fiction.
When the Dead Cry Out grew from Bonner's experience of living next door to a man later convicted of murdering his wife and children. In No Reason to Die, a journalist investigates a troubling series of deaths connected with an army training base. Bonner's years as a reporter show in the way her characters keep asking who benefits when the truth stays hidden.
She has also written nonfiction and worked on books with television figures, including René and Me with Gorden Kaye and books about Benny Hill. Alongside the standalones, her later novels include the DI David Vogel police procedurals, beginning with Deadly Dance.
Bonner has served as chair of the Crime Writers' Association. She lives between the West Country and London with her wife, actor Amanda Barrie, and continues to draw on the places and human knots she knows well.
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